In this episode, I share more about how this truth has played out in my own life — and the steps you can take to make it real in yours.
Friend, You Are So Loved
💌 Valentine’s Day tends to magnify the tender longings we have in our hearts to be seen, loved, and cherished.
It might also bring up the belief that we’re not enough, too different, or destined to be alone.
But the truth is, there is Someone:
Who loves us despite our imperfections, sins, and mistakes.
Who doesn’t see us as too different or not enough.
Who truly sees us – because He created us.
And who wants us to know that we’re never, ever alone.
💯 God doesn’t just feel love as an emotion. He actually is love.
1 John 4:16 (NLT): “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
💖 God and His love – which is holy and different from human love – cannot be separated from one another.
The sun is always hot. If the sun wasn’t hot, it wouldn’t be the sun.
In the same way, without love, God would not be God.
God is love. Always. Even when He’s also feeling other things.
👉🏻 This means that:
God’s love for you is always present
It’s not about what you do – it’s about Who He is.
🌎 God has loved you since before He created the world.
Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT): “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”
👉🏻 That’s not a fleeting love. That’s a love that sees you, values you, and cherishes you 24/7/365.
In Matthew 10:30-31 (MSG), Jesus says, “What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.”
❤️🩹 God is known for tenderly caring for those who have been misused or overlooked.
Hagar (Genesis 16) is an example of this.
Hagar is a servant to Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Sarah is unable to get pregnant, so she has Hagar sleep with her husband.
Hagar gets pregnant. This causes her to treat Sarah “with contempt” (verse 4), which then upsets Sarah. Sarah then treats her so badly that Hagar runs away.
🪽 In the middle of the desert, pregnant, alone, and without money or a plan, Hagar is met by an angel of the Lord.
He tells her to return home, but also says this in verse 11: And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.”
And in verse 13 it says: Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”
💕 God saw Hagar. He saw her situation. He saw her struggle. He knew what she was feeling and thinking. And He met her there.
He didn’t blame her. Didn’t shame her. Didn’t focus on her mistakes or missteps or actions.
Instead, God met her with love and clarity.
✝️ Jesus, the Son of God, also loved the unlovable during His ministry.
In Mark 5:25-34, we read about the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.
She had spent a ton of money on doctors, but her condition had only worsened.
Because of the Jewish laws, her constant bleeding meant that she was always unclean.
This meant that she was an outcast of society, unable to live a normal life within the community. For twelve years!
Imagine her heartbreak. If Valentine’s Day had existed back then, her loneliness and desire to be seen, loved, and cherished would’ve been crushingly magnified.
Yet when she touched Jesus’ robe in faith, she was healed. She took Jesus by surprise, but He didn’t rebuke her for it.
In fact, in verse 34 Jesus tells her: “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Likewise, in John Chapter 4, we read about Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well.
Culturally, the Jews and Samaritans hated one another.
So the fact that Jesus specifically went into Samaria to speak to her broke cultural precedent.
Also, the fact that He spoke to a woman – and one who had had five husbands and was currently living with a man she wasn’t married to – was downright scandalous.
But it’s clear that Jesus cared about her. Enough to ignore a cultural divide and the fact she was ostracized by her own community.
And not only did He provide what she truly needed, He did so with love and revelation.
In fact, the first time Jesus reveals that He is the Messiah is with this woman.
