How Do You Know God's Love?

[DuchessAimee]

I got into a discussion about how we know and find God's love. Their stance was we find it via the Body of Christ. My stance is we find God's love via the Bible, prayer, and the Body, not just the Body of Christ alone.

He then argued that I think I can't find God's love via people because I am expecting perfection from people.

I then argued that people are imperfect, so I'm ALWAYS going to turn to scripture first, people second.


So, church family, which is it? Am I right to look to scripture first? I've seen people twist God's love, why would I rely on humans?


Please give scripture and wisdom.

 

[Lynx]

If people do what is in accord with the Bible, you trust them. If they do what is not in accord with the Bible, you don't trust them.

(That's why we're supposed to read our Bible. Protip for anyone who might be reading this post.)

For myself, I know God's love through the rain. Once upon a time for four years I rode a bicycle to work. And for FOUR YEARS the rain organized itself around my work schedule. This is in east Tennessee where the mountains make their own weather. I cannot count the number of times the rain would start just as I got to work, or stop while I was going to work.

Mind you, at the time I was not even in church. I had no thought of doing anything for God. All I really knew about God was when I was a kid the sunday school teacher told me God loved me and took care of me. So I asked Him to and He did.

This is how I know love. When I see one doing something for another with no expectation of recompense.

 

[Grace-Like-Rain]

I got into a discussion about how we know and find God's love. Their stance was we find it via the Body of Christ. My stance is we find God's love via the Bible, prayer, and the Body, not just the Body of Christ alone.

He then argued that I think I can't find God's love via people because I am expecting perfection from people.

I then argued that people are imperfect, so I'm ALWAYS going to turn to scripture first, people second.

So, church family, which is it? Am I right to look to scripture first? I've seen people twist God's love, why would I rely on humans?

Please give scripture and wisdom.

I think both are true. And different people feel God's love in different ways. Some feel his love more in other people. Some feel it more in scripture. Some feel it more through prayer. Of course, you said FIND, and KNOW, not "feel", and I realize there is a difference. So I'm not sure if you mean "how do we come to saving knowledge of God's love for us" or "how do we feel the love of God ourselves"? I'm kind of answering with the latter - how do we feel God's presence and love.

You asked for scripture. I see people in the Bible finding God's love most often through prayer. David especially seemed to have trouble at times feeling God's presence or finding his love until he submersed himself in prayer. Take this Psalm for instance (below). Notice how it starts off with him crying out for God not to be deaf to him, not to be silent. He obviously is not feeling God's love at this point. Though he knows in his MIND that it is there, or else he wouldn't be praying to him. But he isn't feeling it. Through prayer - through his meditation on the power of God and on all that God has done, he starts to rejoice. He starts to feel the power of God, and feel his love once again.

Psalm 28 (ESV)

28 To you, O Lord, I call;
my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you be silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
[SUP]2 [/SUP]Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.[SUP][a][/SUP]

[SUP]3 [/SUP]Do not drag me off with the wicked,
with the workers of evil,
who speak peace with their neighbors
while evil is in their hearts.
[SUP]4 [/SUP]Give to them according to their work
and according to the evil of their deeds;
give to them according to the work of their hands;
render them their due reward.
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and build them up no more.

[SUP]6 [/SUP]Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
[SUP]7 [/SUP]The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.

[SUP]8 [/SUP]The Lord is the strength of his people;[SUP][b][/SUP]
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
[SUP]9 [/SUP]Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.



And again... "will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" starts this psalm. But after praying for a bit, he says that he has trusted in God's steadfast love (his brain knew it was there even when he couldn't feel it) and he ends in joy and worship.

Psalm 13 ESV

1How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

[JustViv]

I was having this thoughts last night as I read John 3. I was thinking about the time when I first became a Christian and I happened to read a book then, that, if you ask of something from God, He will answer you. It was 1997 and I was in college, year 2 then. I then, prayed to ask God to tell me that He truly loved me.

I take the bus to college and will have to walk quite a fair bit before I reach college - about 30 minutes walk from the bus station. When I got down from the bus, I saw the John 3:16 signboard. Then, my college-mate who I met (can't remember exactly how we met but definitely not on the same bus), she said she has to make a phone call. Cell phones weren't really around then. So, we walked up to the public phone by the side of the road to make a call. I stood in another booth while she makes the call in one of the booths. I saw a John 3:16 sticker! As we walked to college that day, I keep seeing John 3:16 like almost everywhere! However, the next day, it was gone.

So, last night, I was drawn to John 3:16-21 and as I keep re-reading this piece of passage, I started to see that, God not only sent His son to die for us because of His love and includes:-
a. He never condemned us but to save us (v. 17)
b. The believers are never condemned in His Word (v. 18)
c. Only those whom are evil love the darkness but the believers are living in the light (v. 19) for they are afraid their evil doings will be exposed in the light (v. 20)
d. Those who live in the light have no worries to be seen in the light as they are living righteously in God's sight (v. 21)

Then, I began to ponder into these verses; why do we condemn others when God never condemn our wrong doings? Amazing, ain't it?

 

[Lynx]

For some reason I'm reminded of an old 4Him song.

"When your words are His words
And your ways His ways
When your hands are the hands He can use
When your heart's desire is just to be
A heart He reaches through
That's when Jesus looks a lot like you
That's when Jesus
Looks a lot like you"