How Do You Know Jesus Loves You

I prayed for a young woman last week she said she used to read her Bible and study God’s word and she’d pray. She said she just doesn’t do it anymore…she asked me to pray for her.

I prayed, and as I prayed, I sensed an overwhelming love for her, a love that Jesus has for her and I told her, “God loves you so much.”

She looked at me and said, “How do you know? How do you know God loves you?”

I looked at her with all the love and compassion I could give and said, “He died for you…he loves you so much he gave his life for you. That’s how I know.”

How do you know Jesus loves you?

I can only tell you what he’s done for me…

When I was growing up I felt unloved, abandoned, afraid of everything…I grew up with lots of insecurities and fear. Relationships were strained and difficult. I didn’t know why…I just figured I wasn’t worth much and my broken home must have been because of me. I was just a child…we were poor and didn’t think about counselors in those days…we all just got through it the best we could…

I asked Jesus to come into my heart at an early age but I didn’t really understand what all that meant…I mean, I knew that something had happened in my heart…I knew I wanted this love Jesus was offering…but I didn’t fully understand, until I was much older and had gone through many trials…

We all have questions and doubts and fears…things unknown that we are not certain of, people hurt us…we hurt people…but when I began to surrender my life, my will, my emotions, my strength, to the one who held all the answers…when I humbled myself and truly fell in love with Jesus…I began to hear the Holy Spirit say, “Jesus loves you.”

How? How can he love me? I’m a, nobody, with nothing to offer anyone…I don’t’ have a college degree…I don’t have money…or prestige…I’m a, nobody, but I learned that…

“Jesus died for me, and He makes me, a, somebody, in Him…and you have everything to offer because of Him…”

It’s so simple…

It’s not a bunch of rules and regulations with Jesus…

He doesn’t put chains and yokes on you…

He breaks chains and says, His yoke is easy and His burden is light…

How do I know Jesus loves me?

His Spirit lives inside of me…He takes all my fears and doubts away…He said my grace is sufficient for you…He says, I give you peace…come walk with me.

When I’m sick he heals me and holds me in the midst of every trial and because he has helped me over and over again…I trust in Him…I trust Him with my life and the life of my children…no matter what!

Throughout my life he has proven that He loves me. When I couldn’t love myself, when I couldn’t love others, when all I wanted to do was run and hide, even thoughts of taking my life…He put people in my life that showed me I could survive and thrive…

When death came to loved ones…He carried me…and dried my tears…he comforted me and walked me all the way through it…even to this day.

When people talked about me behind my back and laughed at me and thought I’d never amount to anything…Jesus loved me through it all…He said, for every heartache I give you joy…for every failure I’ll raise you up…for all the stones thrown I’ll build you a home…keep your eyes on me.

I found in His book of love…the story of His life and I fell in love with him…because He loved me first…He is my first love…and nothing or no one can ever take that away from me.

Oh how he loves me…Oh how he loves you…if you will open your heart and have faith in Him…he will walk on water to show you just how very much he loves you…He’ll take you all the way to Calvary, show you his wounds, how he was persecuted, humiliated, and hung on a cross, to show you just how much he loves you…He did all that for you and me.

I didn’t have a daddy growing up…but I have a Papa who has been my daddy, my savior, my best friend…he’s never lied to me…he’s never cheated on me…never abandoned me, never beaten me, he’s given me a home and family that is more than I could ever imagine…he has blessed me and given me favor…he gives me hope and life…How do I know He loves me…

I know…because He said so; in his word and he showed me by forgiving me and setting my feet on a solid foundation…For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son, that whoever (you/me) believes in Him will never perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (He will do the same for you too if you will ask him!)

He loves you so very much!!!

I learned a little song when I was just a girl…that says…

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones to him belong, they are weak but He is strong…Yes, Jesus love me…Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me…the Bible tells me so…

And I am telling you today…Jesus loves you!!!

~Marla Shaw O’Neill May 17, 2018

Proverbs 3:3-5 King James Version (KJV) Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

1 John 4:16 King James Version (KJV) And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:19 King James Version (KJV) We love him, because he first loved us.

1 Corinthians 13:2 The Message (MSG) If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

Isaiah 49:13-26 The Message (MSG)

Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead!
Mountains, send up cheers!
God has comforted his people.
He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people.

But Zion said, “I don’t get it. God has left me.
My Master has forgotten I even exist.”

“Can a mother forget the infant at her breast,
walk away from the baby she bore?
But even if mothers forget,
I’d never forget you—never.
Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.
The walls you’re rebuilding are never out of my sight.
Your builders are faster than your wreckers.
The demolition crews are gone for good.
Look up, look around, look well!
See them all gathering, coming to you?
As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—
“you’re going to put them on like so much jewelry,
you’re going to use them to dress up like a bride.

“And your ruined land?
Your devastated, decimated land?
Filled with more people than you know what to do with!
And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory.
The children born in your exile will be saying,
‘It’s getting too crowded here. I need more room.’
And you’ll say to yourself,
‘Where on earth did these children come from?
I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless.
So who reared these children?
How did these children get here?’”

The Master, God, says:

“Look! I signal to the nations,
I raise my flag to summon the people.
Here they’ll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms,
men carrying your little girls on their shoulders.
Kings will be your babysitters,
princesses will be your nursemaids.
They’ll offer to do all your drudge work—
scrub your floors, do your laundry.
You’ll know then that I am God.
No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.”

Can plunder be retrieved from a giant,
prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant?
But God says, “Even if a giant grips the plunder
and a tyrant holds my people prisoner,
I’m the one who’s on your side,
defending your cause, rescuing your children.
And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves,
killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction.
Then everyone will know that I, God,
have saved you—I, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

1 John 4:10 The Message (MSG) God Is Love

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

Psalm 42:8; Eph. 5:2; Psalm 94:18; 1John 4:11; John 14:21; Gal. 5:22-23; John 13:34; 1 Jn 4:9; Psalm 86:5; Eph. 2:4-5; Prov. 3:11-12; Rev. 3:19 and on and on and on…