Bible Reading: Daniel 10:10-11, 19 Don’t be afraid. … for you are deeply loved by God. Daniel 10: 19
WHEN YOU DIG down into your heart, you find that your deepest human need is to be loved and to sense you belong to someone.
You might know in your head that you’re loved. After all, the Bible makes God’s love for you stunningly clear. And someone very near to you-a parent, boyfriend or girlfriend, or close friend-has probably said those little magic words, “I love you.” But hearing about love isn’t enough. Do you feel loved? See, only when your understanding of love hits your brain and your heart do you feel you really belong.
John 1:12 refers to God’s love by declaring that when you received Christ you became God’s child. Knowing that fact isn’t enough, though. You need to wrap yourself in its truth and experience it. Try on these truths too:
- The God who created the universe desires a close, family relationship with you. If you have trusted Christ, you are his child.
- The God who has existed for all eternity wants to call you his son or daughter-and he invites you to call him “Father, dear Father” (Romans 8:15).
- God didn’t make you to meet his needs in any way. He loves you without a hidden list of things he needs fulfilled by you.
- Your becoming a Christian didn’t barge in on God and force him to do something he didn’t want to do.
- God loves you because he chooses to.
- God welcomes you into his arms as a dearly loved child simply because he wants you as his child.
- God knows all about your weaknesses, your faithlessness, and your past, present, and future sins-and he still wants you as his child.
- These things sound too good to be true, but because God is God, they are true!
You might be growing up around people who say they love you or who show their love by things they do. But that love might not convince you that you really are lovable, that you are wanted, that you belong.
God, with his unchanging love, wants to grip both heart and mind so you feel loved. You can personalize Daniel 10:19 by saying: “God loves me deeply. I don’t have to be afraid or insecure. I’m lovable.”
REFLECT: What does it mean to you that God Loves you deeply and eternally? Do you sense God’s care for you in surrounding you with his unchanging love?
PRAY: Take time to thank God for what he has shown about himself to you.
