Jesus loves me.
I was thinking about this song recently, “Jesus Loves Me.” I learned it as a child. It speaks of knowing Jesus loves me, that it’s in the Bible.
But do I know this? Do I believe it to be true?
Reflect
I asked a group recently to take a few minutes to write down what they love about Jesus. They reflected and wrote. The exercise went smoothly. Everyone seemed to accomplish this with relative ease.
Then I asked them to write down what Jesus loves about them.
Some wrote a little. Others hesitated. Which camp would you fall into?
Some days I write a little. Other days I hesitate.
I know what I think of myself.
Some days I’m not sure if I want to know what Jesus thinks of me.
Can He just think of me on good days when I have my act together? When patience and kindness rule my heart and only loving words come out of my mouth?
Can Jesus just look the other way on other days until I think I have everything figured out?
Thankfully I don’t have to worry about that. Any of it.
Jesus knows what’s on my heart and still loves me. (Psalm 139:1-4)
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me. Psalm 139:1 NIV
Jesus loves me. Rest in that truth. Take a deep breath. Remember this:
Jesus loves me.
Think of it as a three step process:
Jesus loves me.
Come back to these three simple words at different times throughout the day. Pause. Remember. Reflect. Jesus loves me.
This I know.
The more I remind myself, the more I believe it. This moves from being something I have to remember, to something I already know. Something I’ve internalized.
For the Bible tells me so.
Here’s the fun part. Open your Bible. The more I look in my Bible, the more I discover. Through these discoveries I recognize more of the depth of God’s love for His children.
I don’t read the Bible so that Jesus will love me more. I read the Bible to discover how much He already does.
Time spent with Jesus shows us how deeply He loves us. It’s hard to know how much someone loves us if we don’t spend time with them.
Notice I didn’t say how much they love us is dependent on how much time we spend with them. I said we don’t realize how much they love us, how much they already love us, until we spend time with them.
So spend time with Jesus. Not so that He will love you more, but so you will more fully know how much He already loves you.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1 NIV
We don’t read the Bible so Jesus will love us more. We read the Bible to see how much more Jesus loves us than we believe.
Are you just getting started with your Bible?
You’ve come to the right place. Let’s learn what’s in it together.
This song, “Hello, My Name Is,” by Matthew West, reminds me of this love of Jesus. Maybe it will speak to you too.
I love that Jesus’ love is unconditional. I’m very grateful for that. I need to remind myself of that when my thoughts stray from His truth and I struggle with lies that I’m inadequate or that I need to know everything. Sometimes all it takes is 30 minutes reading my Bible to recalibrate. Great post, Susan.
Thank you, Lynn. Yes, reading the Bible helps us to refocus on Jesus.
Thank you for this, Susan. I have needed this encouragement quite a bit recently (and I have been trying to put it into practice). I really appreciate the way you’ve put it: “We don’t read the Bible so Jesus will love us more. We read the Bible to see how much more Jesus loves us than we believe.”
Thank you for sharing this, Jess. I remind myself of this too. The Bible gives us the Word that shows how much Jesus already loves us. He invites us to open it up and find out.