This Is How God Feels About You
By Rick Warren
“Long before he laid down the earth’s foundations, [God] had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love” (Ephesians 1:4 The Message).
When my three children were small, I used to sneak into each of their rooms at night and sit down by the side of their bed and just watch them sleep. I got so much joy from it! I’d watch their chests rise and fall. I found so much pleasure in watching them sleep peacefully because I was their father. They were created simply out of my love.
That’s the way your heavenly Father feels toward you. God looks at you, and he loves you simply because he made you.
The Bible says, “Long before he laid down the earth’s foundations, [God] had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love” (Ephesians 1:4 The Message). Before God even created the universe, he thought of you. The Bible says that the entire universe was created so God love us. We are the focus of his love, unlike the rest of creation—unlike animals or angels or stars or anything else. We were created to be loved by God.
If you ever grasp the profound truth I just shared with you and let it sink into your soul, you will never again have a problem with insecurity or low self-esteem. Because when you realize that God created the entire universe just so he could create the conditions for human beings to exist so he could create you and love you, it will take away all those feelings of insecurity. God created you in order to love you.
In Hosea 6:6, God says, “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me” (Hosea 6:6 TLB). That’s the first purpose of life. The most important thing you can know is that God created you to love you. And the most important thing you can do in life is to know and love him back. That’s the number one purpose in life.
The tragedy is that most people go through their entire life missing the purpose of it. They know all kinds of things—stock quotes, sports scores, who’s on the cover of People magazine—but they don’t know God.
You may know about God, but do you know him personally? Do you have a friendship, a love relationship with God? If not, that’s the first step you need to take today.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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