Ever wonder if you are loved? Are there times you feel as though no one cares? Are you looking for confirmation God loves you? Do you trust Jesus at His word? Have you read what He was praying to the Father on your behalf?
There are times we experience doubts. The doubts creep in when things are not going our way. They come when people we trust turn their backs on us. Doubts are sown by Satan, especially when he knows we disobey in the smallest of ways.
It is during the times of doubt that we need to read Jesus’ words again. It is when we are being mistreated or persecuted, we need to hold fast, trusting Jesus. Jesus has told us the truth of the matter. He has told us how much God loves us.
How do we access the love of God? In today’s passage, Jesus tells us God’s love is shown, proven, and accessed through unity in the body of Christ. In other words, it is through our interaction with other Christians. It comes through our unified belief in Jesus. It comes through the family of God.
God can, and sometimes does, display His love for people in one-on-one action. But that is not His normal modus operandi. God works through others, in community to express Himself. As I have heard and repeated myself, “You cannot be a lone ranger Christian.” We must be in a community of Christians. We need the support that comes through that community.
When in a well-functioning community of Christ that is unified, God expresses the same love for us that He has for Jesus. Yes, the very same love. God loves each of us in the same way He loves Jesus. He loves us far deeper than any love we can experience on this earth.
I pray we all seek to be in community with other Christians. I pray we trust Jesus at His word. I pray each one of us knows and experiences the love of God in our lives. Be part of a Christian community. Experience God’s love. Know that God loves you. God loves you the same as He loves Jesus.
John 17:22-23I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Marty Pressey 