Assurance of God's Love

God absolutely loves you. Do you know that? It’s hard to get our mind around, but it is true. He loves you.

 Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say and do.1

?HENRI J. M. NOUWEN

This is where the faith journey starts: understanding that God loves you. If you do not have an assurance of God’s love, your faith journey will not last long.

Memorize this and you will grow in your assurance of God’s love:

 • Psalm 86:5
• Zephaniah 3:17
• Romans 5:5
• 1 Kings 8:23

THE GOOD GOD

You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. (Psalm 86:5)

It is not advisable to experience the verses in Memorize This in isolation. That can be a dangerous practice. Each verse shared is part of a larger book and the total of God’s love letter to us?the Bible. In that light, read all of Psalm 86. Then jot down things that stand out to you in the psalm.

Psalms is unlike most other books in the Bible. It could be called a songbook or book of poetry because the psalms were used by believers to worship the Lord.  

Did you notice how small capital letters were used in several places to refer to God in the psalm? When you see “LORD” in the Bible, that reads YHWH in the original Hebrew text. You may have heard it pronounced Yahweh. It is the most reverent and holy name used for God in the Bible.

Yahweh was considered to be a mysterious God. The Israelites respected and even feared Him. After all, this was the God who destroyed whole cities. His followers approached Him with caution.

David, the writer of Psalm 86, was king of Israel and one of the most incredible individuals of history. God said David was a man after God’s own heart. But David was also a man who had some struggles along his life journey. He had an affair and was a murderer. He was a sinner just like you and me.

Read Psalm 86 again. How does your new insight into God and the author of this psalm change your perspective on it? Jot down some thoughts.

God is still mysterious. We don’t know why certain things happen in our lives. And we are still sinners. We do things that we know God would rather we not do.

With this in mind, write your own personal paraphrase of Psalm 86:5.

THE GOD WHO IS WITH US

“The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you, 
he will quiet you with his love, 
he will rejoice over you with singing.“
(Zephaniah 3:17)

For context, read Zephaniah 3. Zephaniah was a prophet. A prophet is one who speaks the words of God. Let’s break this verse down.