✝️Do You Really Believe God Loves You?

Good morning, my brothers! I needed to share this morning about what God is teaching me in the midst of a tough season. I hope the truths that I’m learning change your perspective as they have mine! Let’s go!

This week: 4-minute, 57-second read

Living From the Absolute Truth of God’s Love

What would be different in your life if you truly believed - deep in your bones - that God loves you?

Not as a theological concept. Not as a verse you memorized as a kid, along with your multiplication tables.

But as the unchanging, defining reality from which you live every single day.

And what if you didn’t just know that God loves you, but understood that He loves you just as you are? And lived from this truth 24/7?

Do I Actually Believe God Loves Me?

I’m asking you these questions because I’m asking them of myself.

At my deepest core, do I actually believe that God loves me more than I could ever fathom? That because love is His very nature, He can never act toward me in any way that is not loving and for my eternal best, even when His ways confuse me, confront me, or lead me through difficulty?

If I truly believed that, how would it change the way I live?

Would I delight in His word more and spend time with Him every day because I wanted to seek Him with my whole heart, mind, soul, and strength?

Would joy flow more freely in and through me, regardless of the circumstance I’m facing?

Would anxiety and stress lose their grip on me?

Would I spend more time seeking the Lord in big decisions, rather than relying on my own “wisdom” and gut feel?

Would I obey His leading and His word more quickly, even if I didn’t fully understand?

Would I experience consequences of my sin as learning experiences instead of playing the victim card and curling up in the fetal position?

Would I wait more expectantly and patiently for God to work when He seems quiet?

These are not abstract questions for me right now. I’m writing from the middle of the struggle.

Struggle Reveals What We Trust

I’m struggling financially right now, both personally and professionally. That reality has weighed heavily on my family for a few months. Professionally, I’m one of two managing partners in a good company that is undercapitalized. We’ve moved too quickly.

We didn’t act maliciously, but we did act unwisely. We violated a simple biblical principle Jesus Himself laid out: count the cost before you build.

And it’s costing me a lot of money at this point, but even more impactful, it is causing great anxiety, unease, and stress in my inner man.

And in the middle of wrestling with the consequences, I keep coming back to one question:

Do I really believe that God loves me? That in this tough season, He still has me and my eternal best in mind?

And I have to confess to thousands of my closest brothers: I don’t think I do. Completely.

Because if I did, my inner world would look different. Way different. And so would yours.

God Is Love. Not Just Loving.

Let’s focus on the truth of His love for a second, as the Holy Spirit teaches even as I type.

John makes it unmistakably clear: “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love” (1 John 4:16). Not God has love. God is love. It is who He is, His very nature.

John 3:16, the verse most of us memorized as kids, says God “so loved” the world. That word “so” matters. It describes not only the depth of God’s love but also the manner of it. God loved with action. He loved with sacrifice. He loved decisively, personally, and at great cost to Himself.

God so loved you and me, He willingly died for us so that we might have life.

Love Is Defined by the Cross

And Scripture defines love in terms we cannot soften: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). Love is not defined by comfort or outcomes. Love is defined by the cross.

His love manifests itself sacrificially, without expectation. From His love, He only has our absolute eternal best in mind. Because He loves us so much, He is always with us. He never leaves.

He loves us and wants us to love Him confidently back. He desires a deep, intimate relationship with us. He’s given us His word to know Him and the Holy Spirit in us so we might grow in Him.

His Love is Complete

If I truly believed God loves me completely:

I would stop striving to write my own story.

I would wait longer to hear from Him before acting.

I would listen longer.

I would obey sooner.

I would trust Him when the path makes no sense and when the cost feels too high.

I would believe—without reservation—that His ways are always best for me.

I would know that His Word is not restrictive, but life-giving.

That His strength is sufficient for what He calls me to do.

That His silence is not absence, but often preparation.

Instead, like Paul in Romans 7, I often find myself doing what I don’t want to do and avoiding what I know is right. Not because I don’t love God, but because I don’t love Him completely and don’t trust Him confidently.

Love Comes First. Obedience Follows.

God’s love is not something you earn after obedience. It is the foundation that makes obedience possible. When you believe you are fully loved, you stop performing. You stop hiding. You stop grasping for control. You begin to trust.

Living from God’s love changes how you handle failure. It changes how you lead your family. It changes how you make decisions at work. It changes how you suffer. It changes how you wait.

One Question That Changes Everything

So I’m asking myself—and I’m asking you—this one question today:

What would change in your life if you truly lived as though God loves you, completely and unchangingly, right now?

Not tomorrow. Not after things improve. Right now.

Join me and ask the Holy Spirit to change you, so that we might live from His love and love Him fully in return.

In response to God’s indescribable love for you and me, let us live by the greatest commandment and watch what God does as we walk in confident trust, complete surrender.

-Will