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How Do I Know That God Loves Me Individually And Specifically?

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How do I know that God loves me, not generally but individually and specifically? The Apostle Paul helps us to answer this question in Romans 5:5.

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How Do I Know That God Loves Me Individually And Specifically?

Romans 5:5

I recently had a conversation with a person and was asked about God’s love.  This person, who is a believer, asked: How do I know that God loves me?  If there is a question to be asked, this is it.  Because the Love of God fuels a believer to keep going forward.

 For example, 2 Corinth 5:14-15, Paul said that the love of Christ controls—-In the Greek, this word means to compress together, to hold something tight….So Paul is being held tight by Christ’s love.

But what aspect of Christ love is gripping Paul because Christ love was demonstrated in many ways on the earth, we seen it through His healing of the blind, raising the dead, feeding the multitude in many ways Christ love was displayed, so what aspect has griped Paul? That God, Christ would dye for me……to get a better understanding of the awe factor of God’s love, I want to show this short video

We are just a tiny little speck, I am talking about earth and in this earth, there are these people, that this big God’s, that he is willing to put his Spirit.

This is why the psalmist said in Psalm 8:3-4 that what is man that you would think of him? The Psalmist said:

 “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained…What is man that you take thought of him?”

The psalmist gets it, he sees the magnitude of God just deciding to take notice of us and He not only takes notices but He loves

And what is Love….Yes love is an action word, a verb but it is also an affection of the heart, the seat of our most inner emotion……and the scriptures state that God love us, which means that God has affection for me backed by action?

And if you want to know why I am bringing this up, yes because it was brought to me in a very thought provoking way, which I will address but I am bringing it up to arm you for the battle…..

WHAT BATTLE? The battle of this life…….the battle of a difficult marriage, the battle of a tested ministry, the battle of sickness, turmoil in your family, on your job.

It was the love of God through Christ that pushed Paul to endure, so we must reflect on this love, study this love in your scriptures and most importantly know this love in your heart.

Back I want to get back to the question that I was asked by this person: How do I know that God loves me?……..the question that this person was asking was not as basic ask it might seem, they were not asking How do I know that God loves me in a general since? That were not asking about the John 3:16 love, in a general since, but

How do I know that God loves me specifically? Individually How do I know that he loves me, Jerome Wade, How do you know that he love you Esmeralda Wade, Phil, John, Grace?

 In an objective since, yes, I know that God loves me because he sent his son to die for but can we bring that love closer to home?  I believe that Paul helps us to answer this question in Romans 5:5.

In this Chapter Paul is describing the results of justification——-He describes how a person is made right or stands righteous or uncondemned before God. And so he shows that justification is a gift from God by way of his grace in sending his Son, to bear our sins and therefore have Peace with God.

And next Paul shows that we enter into this grace or we access this grace through faith in Jesus. And now as a result of having our sins removed and are debt paid, Paul said that we exult (boast) in hope of the glory of God (verse 2).

Some of you may say, why is he boasting in hope, hope is not a guaranteed thing……when I hope for something it may or may not come; there is no boasting in that.

What you must understand is that hope in the bible is not used the way that we use it today.  When you see hope it your bible, it is a guaranteed thing that will come to pass, there is no uncertainty.  So the Apostle Paul is confident and rejoices in the hope of the Glory of God.

And why is he so excited by it?  Because this hope was once lost. Romans 3:23 said that

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. 

So what this means is that our sins have separated us from God who is the most Glorious……is there anything more glorious more valuable than God?  Our sins have separated us from this glory, this person.  And as a result we were head to eternal separation from this God/glory.

But now, through Christ, the glory that was lost is now regained and the prize is that we know get God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Peter 3:18 said that

“Christ died for sins once, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God”

God is the prize!!!!!!!! God is the gift!!!!!!!The hope is to be with Him for eternity, to see Him as he really is, to enjoy him forever.

See if God is not in heaven, then heaven is not heaven, even if heaven is free from sin, disease, stress worry, no mosquitoes or roaches, even if there is an endless supply of your favorite food, if God is not there, then heaven is not heaven.

So our hope is not just to avoid our flesh from being burnt by hells flames but our hope is in the Glory of God, being where He is and this hope was secured through Jesus Christ.

And next in the text Verse 3-4 the Apostle Paul by way of the Holy Spirit anticipates the various trials that believers face and he shows how tribulations push us closer to our hope, which is God, being where He is

And now we really get to the part to help us answer our question of How do I know that God loves me specifically?

Verse 5-“Hope does not disappoint”—–So Paul is now showing why that in the midst of a trial, the believer can endure it and not lose their hope or be ashamed of their hope….and Paul is even so bold to say that a believer can rejoice in their trial………I am just a messenger here, I do not always rejoice in my trial, I hope to get there.

And how does this rejoicing in our trial through hope, which is also the answer to our question: How do I know that God loves me specifically, come about?——–The Holy Spirit or possession of the Holy Spirit.

See the Holy Spirit does several things to show the individual that they are individually and specifically love by God:

1. The Spirit provides an internal witness of Gods love for the individual.
2. The Spirit confirms our adoption as children of God who are therefore loved of God
3. The Spirit provides an external witness that we are Children of God and therefore loved of God.

1. Internal Testimony or Witness

Verse 5 said that “God’s love is poured out in our hearts”

God’s love for us, not our love for God, “We love him because he first loved us”(1 John 4:19). And what is love? Paul described it in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 as Jesus dying for all.  And Jesus said in John 3:16—For God so loved the world that he gave

1 John 4:9-10-You can’t define God’s love without mentioning the send of His Son, Jesus.

Brothers and Sisters, if you have never come to some understanding of the large gap of separation between you and God because of your sins, then this love that we are talking about will make no sense to you.

Let me give you this example—-Flower on Pluto

Imagine that you have a garden and you go to one the plants in your garden and you cut it in have and leave part of the plant in the ground and the other part you take with you and you fly to Pluto and you drop that plant off on Pluto……What would happen to plant………It would die because it is so far from it source, root.  That is a picture of us, because of sin, which we are born into, we are so far from God, we are spiritually dead.

This is why life was so unfulfilling before Christ, you were so far from your root that you were going to any source looking for satisfaction:

So some people we run to drugs, alcohol, others ran to multiple partners, others ran to work and trying to find satisfaction in success.  And some ran to their spouse for satisfaction and they could not find it there so they went to another spouse when the problem is not our spouse, the spouse just can’t provide the satisfaction that only God can.  And some try to find their ultimate satisfaction in their children, it may last for a while, but even that will leave you long because it not the source, God.

But God, as opposed to letting us stay in this unfulfilled state, interjects Himself into creation and come to us so that we might know Him and find our satisfaction in Him.

“The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light” Mathew 4:15

Now in Verse 5, Paul said that the Holy Spirit takes God’s love and dumps it on our heart. He takes the general and object truth of Jesus Death and resurrection and He bring it close to home so that the believer can know it and experience it more personally. And so in midst of the trial, the believer does not lose their hope because they have come to know the Love of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.

This why Paul and the many martyrs endured, they encounter the Love of God and it controlled them.

So the Holy Spirit confirms it in our heart that we are loved of God and we in turn love God

2.The Spirit confirms our adoption into God’s Family-Romans 8:14-16

Led by the Spirit, Sons of God——So the People that are led by and possession God’s Spirit are the Children of God.  We further confirm that we are children of God possessed by His Spirit when we cry out Abba, Father, meaning daddy.  To know God as a Father. Because when we know God as Father, we are saying several things: We are saying that God is personal, knowable not some force in the world but like a father He is knowable.  And like a Father, we look to Him for protection, guidance, to provide, to be an example to model our life after.

And the Spirit confirms our adopted state to our spirit.

If we are children of God, we know that we are therefore, individually loved of God.

3. External Testimony of the Holy Spirit

Ezk 36:27- States that God will give us His Holy Spirit and cause us to walk in his statues. Titus 3:5-6 speaks to the Holy Spirits role in washing and regenerating us, cleansing us from our filth.

Personal Testimony-My fight against the enemy

Artist example and Satan temptation.

So when my feelings tell me different, they tell me that I am not specifically, individually love by God.  I can reflect on these things that we have discussed:

1.  I reflect on God’s love for me through the sending of His Son and how I was separated from God, praying that the Holy Spirit make this love clear to me and confirms it in my spirit that I am a child of God.

2.  I can reflect on the changes that God has brought about in my life which is a result of the Holy Spirit that only his children receive.

3.  Do I love Jesus; do I want to live for his Glory?  Without the Holy Spirit presence in your life, you will not love Christ.

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