Some years ago I wrote a reflection on God’s Love.I feel as though the renewal of hope depends on us knowing that God loves us, and that he really does care about what happens in our lives. I republish this short reflection in hopes it blesses and encourages you.

In a Lenten meditation entitled “God gives us love as we need it” Henri Nouwen speaks of God’s love and says, “There are two realities to which you must cling. First, God has promised that you will receive the love you have been searching for. And second, God is faithful to that promise.”
These are good reminders. Firstly, because God has spoken again and again concerning his love for us and his desire for us to receive that love. He states this throughout scripture. John 3:16 comes to mind as one example, “For God so loved the world …” The thing is, and we need to bear this in mind, there are no conditions to his love, he loves us period! While we assent to the fact of his love and have a mental (intellectual) belief about it, our experience of being able to receive and feel that love is often another matter entirely.

Secondly, in being reminded that God is faithful to what he’s promised, I am reminded that we so often struggle to believe that God really means what he says. Depending on life’s experiences it does seem as if a promise is not something that’s very dependable. This is where we do need to come to know who God truly is, his consistent character, and even though we’ve experienced broken promise after broken promise in our lives, that certainty of who God is helps us trust him for what he has promised.

There are two things needful when we struggle to believe God loves us, and to receive and feel it:
1) Get to know God for who he truly is
2) Get healed of the wounds of the broken promises of life

Neilsen, Mark. ed. 2003. Renewed for life. Daily meditations from the works of Henri J. Nouwen. USA: Creative Communications for the Parish. From Wednesday, Week 2 and quoting from Nouwen’s “The inner voice of love.”
(17 March 2004)