How Do I Know God Loves Me?

We crave for love, so much so that we look for it even in the worse of people who only hurt us and fail us constantly. Somewhere at the back of our minds, a voice tells us we can find that love in God, that He has loved us ever since, and that He is the One who has really loves us most. But we doubt this voice. We feel it isn’t real, nor is the love of God which we cannot see. How can we know He loves us when we cannot even see Him?

Below are some of the things that made me realize how much I am loved, and how real God’s love really is:

1. He created me with awareness and the ability to love and be loved.

I am not a stone that does not know the things happening around it. I am not a shell that gets tossed about by the waves, unaware of whatever shore it lands upon, without consciousness of all the beauty surrounding it.

I am aware and alive. I hear the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore and it soothes my soul. I see the sunset and I marvel at God’s fingers painting that beautiful scenery everyday. I smell the flowers and I feel at peace. I walk upon the sand and their warmth comforts me.

When I hold a baby upon my arms, I feel an ability to love and to give. I feel that I can make other people happy, and their happiness makes me glad in return.

2. He witnesses my life, my life isn’t meaningless

We look for partners in life not only so that someone might love us and take care of us. We look for them because we want them to witness the life we’re living.

How important is it to have a witness to one’s life? For many, it’s the very difference between a life well lived and a meaningless one.

We all want somebody to see how far we’ve already reached, how far we’ve already grown. It’s not enough for us to be able to achieve something. We want our achievements to be remembered, to be seen, to be the cause of inspiration of another person’s life.

With God, I know that Someone’s always watching. Even if men do not understand, even if they don’t see the good that I do, Someone always does.

3. He gives me respect and allows me to be myself

God respects me and allows me to be me. He loves me enough to allow me even to make mistakes. He knows that I could learn from them, and that even the hurts I would experience in life would make me a better person.

Sometimes we think that if we really love a person, we should always interfere in what they do so that they won’t make any mistakes. But by not letting them decide on their own and own the consequences of their actions, we are also not allowing them to grow. We’re also not expressing our belief in them, that they can rise up after they fall, that they can later on have the wisdom to choose what’s right.

4. He communicates with me, I know I’m not alone

To be able to have someone to communicate with is to not be alone. It is to know that someone else understands what you’re saying, and that someone can respond according to His own awareness and understanding. It is not commanding an inanimate object to move according to your will. It’s being part of an intelligent and conscious exchange between two consciousness that is aware of each other.

Nobody falls in love with a puppet. A puppet merely says what you wanted him to say and moves where you wanted him to go. We want someone who has a mind of his own, someone who is just like us.

"God is an ocean, a fire, a living fountain...That is the essence of prayer:this contact with a living God, a God who reacts, not like a simple inanimate being but like a living person, with a thrill of joy, with the gift of Himself.-Where The Spirit Breathes"

5. He gives me something to look forward to, my life is far from boredom

The person who is in love is far away from boredom. To her, every moment is meaningful, and every next moment is something to look forward to.

She does not know what her beloved would do next. Will he invite her out to dinner? Will he give her a bouquet of flowers? Will they watch a movie together?

It’s the same with God. We know God loves us because He forms a relationship with us. In that relationship, He gives the gift of Himself. He pours out from a heart of love such surprises we could never have dreamed of!

6. He enlightens my mind and gives me wisdom

Life is a continuous discovery of the mysterious. And when we have a relationship with God, He allows us to discover a part of Him. He reveals Himself and gives us spiritual wisdom we could never learn elsewhere.

This wisdom enlightens our mind and satisfies our thirst for spiritual food. We continuously learn new things that benefit us and other people. We are delighted with what we learn and such things can never be stolen away from us.

7. He heals my wounds and help me love myself more

Only God knows me. Only He can understand my innermost wounds and fears. With His guidance, I am healed, and I am able to love myself more.

Other people have their own wounds that may cause them to avoid me when I hurt. They have desires which I cannot satisfy, expectations that I may fail to meet. With God, I am loved even if I fail, even if I can’t always be strong enough or beautiful enough. In truth, it is His love that makes me beautiful in time.

8. He receives with gladness everything I offer Him

Other people may not need what I can offer them. Others may be too proud to accept help from someone like me. But God, even in all His greatness and glory receives with gladness every little offering that comes from me.

He knows what I can do. He knows the love with which I’ve made the gift I’m offering Him. And He receives the same with love and gladness, He honors me by receiving and appreciating all that I do for Him.

9. He directs my path and leads me back whenever I go astray

If I were the only one who’s trying to maintain my relationship with God, I’d be in great trouble. I know my limits and imperfections. I know how often I change my mind and lose heart.

But God is so good. He cares for His sheep, and He will not allow any to be lost or stolen away. Whenever I start to lose my way, He is there to remind me of His love. He pursues me. He lets me know how much I matter. He leaves the 99 sheep behind just so He can find me and take me gently upon His arms.

10. He saved me and gave me eternal life and lasting joy

Is there a greater act of love than to lay down one’s life for His beloved? There is no greater love, and this is just what God has done.

He could have just offered me the world and I would have been overwhelmed. He could have given me the entire galaxy, or a constellation of stars, but He did not stop there. I receive joy of the most precious kind, one that lasts unto eternity, one that comes from the offering Jesus made upon the cross – the offering of His own Self!

God's love is like a mother's love.  To a mother, each child is loved, each one important, each deserving to be saved and protected from all harm.  Even if a mother has ten children, it is not enough to save only seven,or even nine.  She has to save them all.  She cannot rest until she has saved them all!

Indeed, nothing can separate us from the love of God. His love for us does not only manifest with the material things He provides for us, nor in the relationships we have with the people we love. His love is greater and far surpasses all our needs and expectations.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38:39

MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”-Mark 15:34

Forsaken. Rejected.  Abandoned.  To be given up entirely:  forgotten, deserted, and without hope.  Is there a far lonelier cry than this?

Whosoever cries out in this anguish has lost everything, and has been declined of every kind of help or assistance one has ever sought.  To him, no door is open, even from a distant dream.  To him, no friend is present, and all that have remained serve only to mock him in his hurts.

This is the cry of those dying in the streets, their worm-infested bodies decaying even before their breath has gone.  This is the cry of the abandoned mother, not knowing how to feed the child she is yet to bear.  This is the cry of the old man alone in his room, afraid of his death and yet even more terrified of dying alone.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.-Psalm 22:1-2

This is the kind of darkness that covers all light from one’s soul, the kind of grief that burrows deeply and sharply upon the heart, rendering it unable to move, unable even to ask for healing.

All that it knows is this pain, this darkness.  And in the darkest of all hours, it cries out to the only One who could possibly hear it, yet seems unwilling to, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

To be forsaken even by God. To be unable to understand why such an evil has to happen, has to be allowed to happen by the One Good God who can do all things.  Why hasn’t He stopped this from happening?  Why has He allowed me to be hurt like this?  And where is He now when I need Him most of all?

But there is no answer.  There is no sermon.  There is no comfort.  All that follows is silence.

What must a soul do?  In all its pain, a soul cries out even louder.  It hurls all its frustrations towards heaven.  It narrates a long list of all the good deeds it has done, of all the noble acts that have been unrewarded.  In frustration, the soul asks why such a punishment is given in return?  The soul asks for justice and for mercy, but there is none.  All that follows is silence.

Hanging upon the cross, Jesus uttered the same words, and asked the same question:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In that very hour, it’s as though all the powers of heaven were absent and never even existed.  In that hour, all that existed were darkness, grief and pain.  Where was the Hand of the Father who Provides and Protects?  Where was the Hand that stopped the storm and raised even the dead back into life?  Every trace of God’s goodness is missing.  There was no sign of Him at all!  There was no nod from heaven.  No miracle that turns water into wine.  No angel to cheer him on.  Could it be that the Father has forgotten?  Could it be that He changed His plans and left Him?  What of His promises?  How could it all come true now?  If there is no justice now, how can there be justice in the future?  If there is no sign of life right at this moment, how can there even be an eternity?

Haven’t we felt the same thing in our loneliness?  With our faith we declare that we believe in God’s goodness, that we believe in heaven.  Yet when difficult times come, heaven quickly loses its meaning for us.  It does not only become distant, it becomes absurd, something that cannot co-exist with the darkness we’re currently going through.

Think of Joseph The Dreamer.  He received a vision from God, he knew God has a special plan for him.  But what happened?  He was sold as a slave, and after that, he even went to prison!  How can God’s plan for him come true now?

This is the darkness where the soul cannot even trace his own faith, where even his spiritual eyes are shut closed.  What do you do when you cannot even see the face of faith?

To this, Mother Teresa has an answer. BLIND FAITH. I used to think all faith is blind, but no faith is ever as blind as this, when one is passing through the darkest night of one’s soul.

“Pray for me – for within me everything is icy cold. – It is only that blind faith that carries me through for in reality to me all is darkness.”-Mother Teresa

Jesus had BLIND FAITH.  For even if forsaken, Jesus never stopped with those words of anguish.  In total surrender, His last words had been: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”

How can you entrust yourself to the One who has forsaken you?

I used to be unable to understand this until I felt the same darkness from within me.  Having lost all hope and faith that things are going to be better, having lost even the love of the One God who alone can uphold you, what more could you possibly do?

NOTHING.

There was nothing more that we could do.  We couldn’t force God to come to our aid and do as we wish.  But we also couldn’t do anything for ourselves.  Any rebellious behavior would only destroy us more, would only bring more hurt and pain, not only for us but for those we also love.  We also couldn’t count on anybody else, for all have rejected us and deserted us.

Considering all these, there is really no other alternative for us but to entrust everything upon GOD!

Why?  Because despite and in spite everything that has ever happened, He is still the One hope we’ve got.  He’s still the only One who could possibly hear us.   If we have nobody else to bet on, why not bet on God?  Why not risk on God?  He is after all our last recourse.  He is in the end, the Only One we have.

“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.   “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” – John 6:66-68

By the way, in God’s perfect time, Joseph became the Governor of all Egypt, saving the entire nation as well as His family from famine.  And Jesus?  He rose again to a new life free from all death, pain and suffering, a life He purchased for us all during His darkest hours when He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

-Psalm 22:3-5

The Infinite Love and Mercy of God

We have a God who understands how it’s like to be hurt.

People with questions.  The Bible is absolutely full of them.  A crook on a cross. A wildman in a cemetery. A five-time divorcee.  A despondent cripple. A grieving sister. A father at the end of his rope.

Why are these portraits in the Bible? So we can look back with amazement at what Jesus did? No... these aren’t just Sunday school stories.  They are historic moments in which a real God met real pain so we could answer the question, “Does God care when I hurt?”

– Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones

God cares for our hurts.  The God who hears each heartbeat also hears the cry of every broken heart.  He is not a God who is faraway and watching over the clouds, untouched by our miseries or unaware of our limitations.  He knows our frailty.  He knows our frustrations, and He has shared in our deepest griefs.

"In sinking to the depths he rose to the heights. Now he has radically fulfilled the commandment of love, he has completed the offering of himself, and in this way he is now the revelation of the true God, the God who is love. Now we know who God is. Now we know what true kingship is. Jesus prays Psalm 22, which begins with the words: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Ps 22:2). He takes to himself the whole suffering people of Israel, all of suffering humanity, the drama of God's darkness, and he makes God present in the very place where he seems definitively vanquished and absent. The Cross of Jesus is a cosmic event. The world is darkened, when the Son of God is given up to death. The earth trembles. And on the Cross, the Church of the Gentiles is born. The Roman centurion understands this, and acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God. From the Cross he triumphs ­ ever anew." – Pope Benedict XVI

We have been so used to hearing the Christmas story and the Passion of Jesus that we no longer see the meaning and reality of everything that has happened.  Such stories were not written to amuse us, but to help us understand how the Unseen God has left His place of glory to dwell in the darkness and poverty where we are.

Jesus felt real pain and distress.  He felt how it was to be criticized.  He knew how it felt to be convicted by those to whom He did nothing wrong.  The very people he helped and healed were the same ones who asked for His death.  The very friends He chose were the ones who betrayed him and denied Him during the time He needed their presence the most.  He suffered injustice, abandonment and mockery.  He saw His very own mother weeping with a broken heart as she watched her Son in the hands of those who knew no mercy.

No one can ever lead another into the light unless He is first able to come down into the darkness where such a one is lost.  He came down right where we’re hurting and understands every suffering we’re going through.

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows...

-Isaiah 53

God sometimes allows pain to bring us back to Himself.

So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love. I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young... Then once again she will call me her husband...Hosea 2:14-16

We look after many kinds of lovers in our lives.  Lovers that only disappoint us and shame us and leave us empty after using us.  It is not God’s will that these objects of our love cause us pain, but sometimes, God allows us to be hurt so we’d know we’re looking after the wrong kinds of affections to fill our emptiness.

I will show love to those who were called "Unloved," ... -Hosea 2:23

There is no limit to His mercy.

God is just, that is true.  But it is because He is just that He is also merciful.  He knows our weaknesses.  He knows how forgetful we are.  He knows how easily we are tempted and swayed into the wrong direction.

The Laws He gave were not meant to burden us.  They were meant to protect us, because God loves us so.

In times when we’re not able to do the right thing, God does not wait behind our backs so He could quickly condemn us.  He is the same Jesus who bestowed His mercy upon a thief while hanging at the cross.  He is the same Jesus who condemned not the woman caught in adultery but said, “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may cast the first stone at her.”

Tell them that no soul that has called
upon My mercy has been disappointed
or brought to shame.

I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy.

Jesus: My mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world. Who can
measure the extent of my goodness? For you I descended from heaven to earth;
for you I allowed myself to be nailed to the cross; for you I let my Sacred Heart be
pierced with a lance, thus opening wide the source of mercy for you. Come, then,
with trust to draw graces from this fountain. I never reject a contrite heart. Your
misery has disappeared in the depths of My mercy. Do not argue with Me about
your wretchedness. You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all your
troubles and griefs. I shall heap upon you the treasures of My grace.

-Jesus to Sister Faustina, Diary of Divine Mercy

It is not because I have been preserved from mortal sin that I fly to God with loving confidence.  I know I should still have this confidence even if my conscience were burdened with every possible crime.  I should fling myself into the arms of my Savior, heartbroken with sorrow.  I know how he loved the prodigal son, I have heard his words to St. Mary Magdalene, to the woman taken in adultery, and to the woman of Samaria.  No, no one could frighten me, for I know what to think about his love and his mercy.  I know that a host of sins would vanish in the twinkling of an eye like a drop of water flung into a furnace. – St. Therese of Lisieux

Its not whether God can forgive our gravest sins, it’s whether we'd even want to ask for His forgiveness.-Joyce, itakeoffthemask.com

Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out...

-Matthew 12:18-20

O my divine Master, must it be only your justice which has its victims? Hasn’t your merciful love need of them too? It is everywhere rejected and ignored. Those on whom you long to lavish it seek a wretched, fleeting happiness in other creatures instead of flinging themselves into your arms and welcoming the flames of your divine love.  Must your rejected love stay shut up in your Heart? It seems to me that if you found souls offering themselves as sacrificial victims of your love, you would consume them speedily and would rejoice to unloose those torrents of infinite tenderness you hold within yourself. – St. Therese of Lisieux

He has not rejected my prayer; nor withheld his love from me.-Psalm 66

We can search for hope in the strongest of places, and in the best of people,and they shall fall one by one. Only God suffices. Only God.-Joyce, itakeoffthemask.com

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...

-Isaiah 49:15-16

Why does Jesus say “I thirst”? What does it mean? Something so hard to explain in words –  ... “I thirst” is something much deeper than just Jesus saying “I love you.” Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you – you can’t begin to know who He wants to be for you. Or who He wants you to be for Him. – Mother Teresa