God Loves You

Today’s post comes from a member of College Park Fishers, as they continue in their Evangelism Challenge. We hope it encourages you to hear what God has been doing!

It was mid-winter, and I was stuck at home with contagious kids. A dear friend was stopping for a visit and bringing us one of our favorite things, library books! She was on home leave from missions and working on her masters in intercultural studies. The baby was finally asleep, and kids were diving into piles of fresh books, as I asked my friend what she had been learning in her latest class. “That God loves me. The God of the universe loves ME.” Later as she hugged me goodbye, tears filled my eyes as she boldly proclaimed, “God loves you. Don’t forget.”

A few weeks later, I was driving back from a day trip to IKEA with another dear friend. As we drove through the steadily falling rain, I told her about the evangelism class I was taking at church and asked her to share the story of how Jesus had pursued and saved her. It was a beautiful story, and as I listened, I knew that she needed to be reminded of this truth too. “Don’t forget what He did to call you to Himself, to save you. God loves you.” The rain kept falling as that truth soaked into her heart.

In early spring, my neighbor and I found an evening we could leave our husbands with the kids so we could sit down to a dinner that didn’t require cutting up food for toddlers. I was trying to care for her by asking questions without question marks and diving deeper into topics that touched her heart. She mentioned there were times in her life that she knew God was real, but she wasn’t so sure of it now. “Would you tell me more about that?” She shared her heart about a time when God had unmistakably intervened on her behalf. I looked her in the eyes and spoke confidently, “God loves you.” Our evening continued with some intellectual discussion about spiritual things, but I knew that God had graciously used the truth of those words to reach her.

This summer, I was driving my girls and a neighbor boy home from Backyard Bible Club. It was the last night he could attend, and I didn’t want to waste an opportunity to share the gospel with him. I tried to flesh out the truths of who Jesus is and why He came and died, but my audience was nowhere to be found. “Look, it’s the Conner Prairie balloon!” and “Oh, that’s my favorite pizza place,” was all I heard from the backseat. So I opted for an open-ended question. “What do you think of Jesus?” He quietly replied, “I don’t know.” With a great big smile, I declared, “I know something about Jesus. He loves you!” Our guest lit up and agreed wholeheartedly.

God loves you. Those powerful words have been a theme throughout the last six months of sharing hope with neighbors and friends. I have seen God pierce hearts with the truth of His love, and I know without a doubt that is what they needed at that moment just as I needed to hear it on that winter day at home.

God loves you.

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5