It’s a little crazy to think about.

The almighty, eternal creator of the universe is in Love.

With you.

You know how relationships start. One person meets another. Maybe there’s a little spark of chemistry, some coffee so they can talk, dinner so they can spend time in each other’s company…

And if everything clicks, they fall into Like.

But not LOVE. Not even close!

No, no, NO. There’s a PROCESS to falling in Love. Feelings to consider, along with whatever baggage is being dragged along, and whether you’re even attracted to the other person.

You simply don’t fast-track Love. Anybody with any sense at all knows that.

Except God.

God doesn’t follow those rules. Nope. He jumps straight to Love. Before it even makes any sense at all.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans:

While we were still sinners. Before it even made any sense at all.

And did you catch that other part? God showed his love for us by what He DID for us!

That’s God saying, “I LOVE you” with capital letters.

So how do we respond to a God who is crazy enough to love us even when we were as far away from Him as we could get?

As in any relationship, we can choose. Choose to accept His love, reject His love, or ignore His love.

But HOW do we accept His love for us? Even if we want to but are afraid to admit it. How?

One way is to use logic. You could argue that, according to John 3:16 “God so loved the world…”, and since I am PART of the world, therefore, God loves me.

Sure. That’s one way to do it. But it certainly feels hollow, doesn’t it?

Why?

Because there’s no emotion, no feeling, and not heart strings being strummed. Right?

Our emotions matter. We may not LIKE being emotional, but it’s certainly part OF us. Just like our logical understanding of things. And both need to be addressed.

And both are, in scripture.

Romans Chapter 5, verses 1-8 is all worth reading in its entirety. But let’s simply look at verse 5:

God has given us an EXPERIENCE of his love. An emotional connection through the Holy Spirit.

His love is something that has been poured out. Something felt in our hearts. Something known in our souls.

And the emotional experience combined with the logical argument is why we can trust and accept God’s love in our lives.

Or can we?

Can we actually believe that God loves ME? After we’ve been so hurt by other people’s sinful actions that we feel we can no longer trust anyone, be loved by anyone, or depend on anyone ever again?

Past pain can prevent us from feeling loved at all.

Because it impacts how we think about ourselves. How we talk to ourselves and treat ourselves.

Past pain can put a gate in the way. A locked, barred, iron gate.

And even if we can sense that Love is being shared towards us, we may not always be able to accept it.

Because how we think about ourselves dictates everything in our lives.

Often the reason that makes it so hard to believe we are loved by God is because of other people’s failures in our lives: Broken homes, abusive childhoods or relationships, parental failures, the list goes on—it can be easy to believe we were NEVER loved.

Never ABLE to be loved. Or WORTH being loved.

I won’t argue with the FEELINGS. But this is simply misguided THINKING.

It’s sometimes easier to believe whatever failures exist were our fault. Because if something is wrong with US, then WE should be able change it, to fix it, to make it better.

But that isn’t the case, and it isn’t even what is necessary.

There isn’t a formula, or a recipe, or a procedure to being loved by God.

Because there is absolutely nothing wrong with you in the eyes of the Lord.

Jesus Christ died for you. His sacrifice demonstrates just how much you are loved. You have ALWAYS been loved by God—no matter what has happened in your life—and you WILL always be loved by God.

You are defined by God and nothing else.

You are accepted by God, without doing or becoming anything else.

And you are loved by God.

Today, simply thank God for his love. And ask him to help you learn to recognize his love in your life.

That’s worship.