Do You Really Believe God Loves You?

"...I am now utterly convinced that on Judgement Day the Lord Jesus will ask one question, and only one question,  

'Did you believe that I loved you, that I desired you, that I waited for you day after day, that I longed to hear the sound of your voice?'

The real believers will respond and say, 'I believed in your love and I tried to shape my life as a response to it.' But many of us who are faithful in our ministry, our practice, our church-going are going to answer, 'Well frankly, no sir. I never really believed it.' And there's the difference between the real believers and the nominal Christians that abound in our churches across the land. No one can measure, like a believer, the depth and intensity of God's love. But, then again, no one can measure, like a believer, the effectiveness of our gloom, our pessimism, our low self-esteem, our self-hatred and despair, that block God's way to us. 

You see, now, why it is so important to lay hold of this basic truth of our faith. Because you are only going to be as big as your own concept of God. We make God in our own image and he winds up being as fussy, as rude, and narrow-minded, and judgmental. and legalistic, and unloving, and unforgiving as we are.

...So many Christians I meet, [God] is too small. Because he is not the God of the Word. He is not the God who is revealed in and by Jesus Christ, who at this moment comes to your seat and says,  

'I have a word for you. I know your whole life story. I know every skeleton in your closet. I know every moment of sin and shame, dishonesty and degraded love that's darkened your path. Right now, I know your shattered faith, your feeble prayer life, your inconsistent discipleship, and my word to you is this, I dare you to trust that I love you as you are, not as you should be.'

Because none of us are as we should be." Brennan Manning