Did you ever play “He loves me, He loves me not” with daisy petals as a child or teenager? “He loves me”….”He loves me not”….”He loves me”…..”He loves me not”. As you worked your way around the flower picking off each petal and letting it fall to the ground, supposedly whichever was the last phrase on the last petal told you if that boy you liked, loved you back.

We often find ourselves picking through the circumstances and things that happen in our life, like little children plucking daisy petals, attempting to figure out whether or not God loves us.

When everything is going well, you feel loved.  When hard things come your way, you begin to wonder if maybe He doesn’t love you as much as He loves others, or has stopped loving you.  This can be especially so when you have grown up with a parent or controlling figure who withholds love unless you measure up to their expectations.  When you feel like you’re doing well and measuring up, you feel loved.  But when you fail or get it wrong, or know you’re not making it, you wonder again if you are even loveable.  We can go through our days something like this…..

“He loves me”….”He loves me not”….”He loves me”…..”He loves me not”

If you, like myself, have found yourself least certain of His love in those critical moments when you need Him most, there is hope for you.

Where?

At the one event in human history that forever secured your place in the Father’s heart – the cross where Jesus allowed sin and shame to be consumed in His own body so that you could freely embrace a relationship with His Father.  If that is not true love, then what is?  Jesus died for YOU!  The Father loved you so much, He was willing to pay the highest price that could ever be paid….His only Son….His absolute best and perfect sacrifice…..this was no cheap thing.  That settles it once and for all.  There you will discover that what He always wanted was not the fearful subservience of slaves, or the exemplary performance of puppets, but the loving affection of, and fellowship with, sons and daughters.

In Him you will find…

• A Father who loves you more than anyone on this planet ever has or ever will
• A growing confidence in His affection for you through whatever circumstances you face
• A vibrant relationship with Him that will free you from the torment of shame and rejection, while it transforms you to live as His child in the earth

His love is:

• unconditional
• unmerited
• undeserved
• unlimited (measureless)

That’s the best part……all we have to do is receive it!  Freely given….and freely received.

Learning to receive His love and trust Him fully is not something any of us can resolve in an instant; it’s something we’ll grow to discover for the whole of our lives…as we get to know His nature, and who we are in Him.  God knows how difficult it is for us to accept His love, and He teaches us with more patience than we’ve ever known.  Through every circumstance and in the most surprising ways, he makes His love known to us in ways we can understand.

It’s time to toss your daisies aside and discover that it is not the fear of losing God’s love that will keep us on His path, but THE SIMPLE JOY OF LIVING IN IT EVERY DAY.

“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)