And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.
—1 John 4: 16
As vast as God's love is, some refuse to believe that He loves them. Despite all the evidence He has given of His great love, some people deny that love because they say He has failed them. "I have prayed and asked for certain things," they say, "but God didn't answer those prayers." For these people, the proof of God's love—and in some cases, God's very existence—would be not just answered prayer, but prayer answered according to their wishes.
How foolish to base your acceptance of God's love for you on that one test. Do we give our children everything they ask for? Of course we don't. Sometimes they ask for things that aren't good for them. Prayer is not a test of God's love. Prayer is not a means by which you get your own will accomplished. Prayer is a means by which God accomplishes His own will.
So if prayer is not the test of God's love, what is? How can we know we are loved? John gave us the answer to those questions in the previous chapter. "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3: 16).
THE PROOF OF GOD’S LOVE IS JESUS.
The proof is the Son of God walking willfully to the cross, taking on the sins of mankind, and dying to redeem us. When you know Jesus, you have come to know Love itself and you can say with John, "We have known and believed the love that God has for us."
Father, thank You for Your great love for us. May Your love be perfected in our lives, dispelling all fears.
Amen.