Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. How young are we when we first learn this song? My granddaughter is not yet two and these are already familiar words. For most of us we need more than the words of a song to convince us.
Every once in awhile I admit that I think, “Jesus, if You really love me why do I have to do this hard thing?” “If You really love that brother or sister in Christ, why do they have to go through this difficult time?” “If You love me why don’t you answer that prayer?”
When these questions come I have learned to do what I heard John Piper call “preaching to the heart.” I do know that God loves me because the Bible tells me so! I do know that He takes those hard things and those difficult times and He uses them to refine me and teach me so that I may be more like Him and more useful to other people. These are things He allows in my life so that I will grow and mature in my faith for His glory and my good.
So, I tell that to my heart. I remind myself of all I know to be true about my Savior and Lord. He is good, He removes my sins and does not deal with me as my iniquities deserve (Psalm 103). He shows His love for me in the way He disciplines me according to Psalm 94:12 which says, “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law.” God’s discipline of us is to be understood as blessing because if we respond to Him in repentance He will forgive us and we’ll be better off for it.
Look at these words from Micah 7:18, ” Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”
He not only pardons our sin but even through that time of sin His love for us is steadfast! It never changes. “The remnant of His inheritance” is His people, those who have believed that Jesus’ death on the cross was payment for their sin. God promises these blessings of His love and forgiveness to those who trust in Him.
My point today, because I think we all raise these questions sometimes, is that God’s love IS steadfast for those who are His. He never leaves us nor forsakes us – even in our times of sin, trial, trouble, or hardship.
Do you trust the Word of God that says that He loves you? This is not a new love, Psalm 25:6, “Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.” You have been a recipient of God’s love and mercy since before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Preach that truth to your heart anytime you wonder why God is allowing some difficult circumstance in your life.
I do trust that God loves me, even in the hardest of times. In fact, I find that I have learned to trust in His love even more during the hard times. When my mom died… when my sons used drugs… when we had to ask them both to leave our home… when I dealt as an adult with remembered abuse from childhood, memories that had been stuffed away for years that finally surfaced… I could go on, but you get the picture. God has never left my side, never forsaken me, and never let one second of my life be in vain or wasted. The hard times have built the ministry that my husband and I share today.
May God bless you all your days,
Cheri
Thanks for your thoughtful meditation, and for referencing Anna Warner’s hymn, “Jesus Loves Me.” (Today is the 185th anniversary of her birth.) And you rightly imply that the “for the Bible tells me so” part of the song is as important as the “Jesus loves me” part. How do we know? How do we know in those dark days when perhaps we don’t feel loved? The Bible tells us so. God bless.