How can I know God loves me? When it comes to children and spiritual truth, I’m never sure who is the teacher and who is the student. 

Such was the case during a conversation I had with my oldest granddaughter, Lauren, when she was around four years old. 

“Gigi!” she said as she bounced into my house one Friday morning. (If you’ve spent any time lately around preschool girls, you know that every statement ends in an exclamation point, and that they run, skip, bounce, or hop everywhere. Walking is never an option.) 

“I drew you a picture so you’d remember me while I’m in New-Ork.” She waved the masterpiece in her hand. “See, it’s you and me on a mountain. And I wrote my name on the bottom so you’d merember who drawed it.” 

“You know something?” I said, scooping her up and twirling her around in a happy circle. “I think about you every day. Every. Single. Day. You know why?” 

She thought a moment, then said matter-of-factly, “Because you love me?” 

“Yup. Because I love you. And you know what? There’s someone else who thinks about you every single day. Can you guess who?” 

She thought a little longer, following the trajectory of my thoughts. 

“God?”

 “Yup.” Her blue eyes lit up with the success of nailing the correct answer. 
“He thinks about you every single day . . . Do you know why?” 

The pause was longer this time, but then, “. . . because he loves me?” 

“Yes!” I said, “He loves you so much he never stops thinking about you.” 

This heartache . . . if God loves me, then he can heal my heart and restore my joy. 

When Jesus said we must become as little children to see the kingdom of God, I think he had in mind simple conversations like this one. If we, like little Lauren, accepted without conditions the fact that God loves us and never stops thinking about us, it would eliminate much of the angst we feel every day. 

This circumstance I’m experiencing . . . if God loves me, then I can trust him to use it for good in my life. 

This hard path I’m walking on . . . if God loves me, then he won’t abandon me to face it alone. 

What are you going through right now? Would it look different if you viewed it through the certainty of God’s love?

Try it and see. Then trust, pray, and rest. 

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). 

Does Your Prayer Life Need Refreshing?

We know Bible reading and prayer are vital parts of our faith, but what happens when our prayer lives become stagnant and our quiet times grow stale? We need something more than just familiar verses and the command to pray. In Refresh Your Prayers, Uncommon Devotions to Unlock Power and Praise, Lori Hatcher shares relevant, five-minute devotions that spotlight unusual prayer verses in the Bible.

Each devotion ends with a Power Point (a spiritual truth to empower your faith) and a Praise Prompt (a short prayer designed to magnify God and make your faith soar). The Live It Out section challenges you to apply what you’ve learned right now for immediate change.

If you’re tired of your all-too-quiet quiet time, Refresh Your Prayers is the answer.

The UNcommon Book on Prayer – Unusual Devotions to Unlock Power and Praise

Available now at Amazon.com.

Have you subscribed to Refresh?

If you’d like to receive a weekly 5-minute devotion to help you rediscover the excitement of God’s Word, CLICK HERE.