People often get the idea that God is mad at them. We hear how God hates sin, and Jesus died for our sins to satisfy God’s wrath. Despite how much leaders and teachers emphasize God’s love, we are human, and we interpret biblical ideas like sin and judgment to mean God doesn’t like us, or he’s simply waiting for us to fail.
Beyond the human aspect, our “flesh,” Satan gets involved. When we encounter truth, the Devil lies to twist it and accuse us and God, as he’s done from the beginning. The enemy will interpret God’s Word, or attempt to, if we allow it. Further, the world systems and philosophies take corrupt interpretations and deceptions and communicate them, too.
The truth is, God deals with sin and corruption expressly because he loves us and likes us. He values us greatly. It does well for us to remember how he feels about us, truly, which encourages us all, leads us to life, and combats the lies of the enemy who seeks to destroy us.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Ippei Naoi
1. He Loves You
All of God’s decisions are based on love. He cares deeply about every part of our lives. He doesn’t love us from a distance. The Father gets personal, intimate, and with an overflowing, faithful love. God doesn’t just care about whether we go to heaven or hell. He cares about the details, our struggles, hopes, and needs.
Jesus constantly taught about the Father’s love for us. Christ says in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” God cares intimately for plants, and they aren’t created in his image. Jesus asks a rhetorical question, of which the answer is “yes!”
We want to be seen and known, loved for our deepest parts, and Psalm 139:1 reminds us of this about God. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.” To search reveals God’s intention and interest in us. The Creator loves every bit of us—our health, relationships, careers, and even our Peace. When we hurt, 1 Peter 5:7 teaches us, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Not only some of our cares. All of them!
The God who created and sustains all things, he specifically and abundantly loves each of us, individually and corporately.
Photo Credit: ©CUnsplash/oConner Ching
2. He Likes Us
“Okay,” people might say. “He loves me, but he can’t like me.” We know our faults and mistakes. Encountering God, we become aware of our inability, and the enemy tries to tell us he might love us, but doesn’t like us.
God loves us deeply and likes us. He delights in us. He finds pleasure in us and smiles over us. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us, “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” God doesn’t just tolerate us, like we annoy him but he puts up with it. He celebrates us. Singing over us communicates joy, not duty.
Even with our faults, God sees the future people he designed us to be, and he remembers the purpose for which he created us. He sees the good work he’s building in us. We don’t have to earn this pleasure. It exists for us in Christ. Psalm 149:4 says, “For the Lord takes delight in his people.” He enjoys and treasures us.
So when we come to God, don’t picture him frowning. See him as he is: smiling and eager to be with us because he really likes us.
Photo Credit: ©Pexels/Jean-Daniel Francoeur
3. He Values You
God doesn’t create trash. He is good and loves, so his creation and work lead toward that goal.
We know the value of something by what we will pay for it. God chose, from his love, to give the best he had—his only Son. He proved our worth through generous action and self-sacrifice. In God’s eyes, the eyes of absolute truth, we are worth rescuing.
As Romans 5:8 says, “But while God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God valued us even before we understood we needed him, while we lived broken and selfish lives. With his unselfishness, he saw our need and sin and chose to give himself for us. Therefore, we see our value is intrinsic, a part of our very existence, and not tied to our actions or thoughts, our past, or our choices. We possess this worth inherently.
And God couldn’t ascribe any greater value to us. Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” There’s no greater love than this, for God to give himself. He alone is worthy of praise and glory; he alone has power and authority. He couldn’t give anything greater than himself.
We aren’t worthless or replaceable. God gave everything for us, and nothing can change that.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Bobby Stevenson
4. He Wants You to Be with Him
God created humanity for an intimate relationship with Himself. Made in his likeness, humanity could then engage with God on a higher level than the rest of creation. From the beginning, the Father desired a relationship with us. He didn’t create us to live distant or apart from him but to walk with him, know him, and remain in his presence.
Humanity rebelled and separated ourselves in our selfishness, but God’s desire didn’t change, nor his design. As the only wise and true one, his motives remain true and faithful. So even after our sin separated us from him, the Father made a way to reconcile us through Christ.
The Bible tells us it makes him happy to do this. Ephesians 1:5 says, “He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” He didn’t redeem us to himself, making us part of his heavenly family, from duty or obligation. He delighted in it. He wanted to adopt us into his family. Being with us brings him pleasure.
Jesus expressed this in his prayer to the Father: “… I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.” (John 17) The Son expressed the heart of the Father, for us to be with him. And the final redemption of all things returns us to God’s desire for an intimate relationship with us. “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.”
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Maria Korneeva
5. He Wants to Give You Good Things
As Jesus taught the love of the Father, his Gospel invites us into a relationship with God as a good father. The best. When we come to him in repentance, he thinks of us as his beloved child, son, or daughter. And a good father seeks to give good things to his children. He doesn’t hold back. He gives generously and with love. He may not give us what we think we need. The Father knows the best gifts to give us, and he delights in providing for us.
Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” For those of us with kids, even nonbelievers, we understand wanting to give our kids the best we have. This human desire, even flawed at times, reflects the heart of God, only infinitely more pure. His gifts are rooted in what is of the eternal best for us.
This includes both provision now and eternally, for every facet of our lives. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.” He gives inner peace, contentment, and joy, an unshakable treasure in the trials of life. And he provides for every physical, emotional, and spiritual need for those who seek the Kingdom through Jesus.
We don’t have to beg him for stuff. Our Father is rich in mercy, grace, and love. He enjoys giving us the very best.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Christopher Sardegna
6. He Made You with a Purpose
Humans have two needs: intimacy and purpose. As already discussed, God created us for intimacy with Himself. And from that intimacy, he created us with a purpose.
We aren’t a random creation. The Creator formed us with intention, meaning, and dignity. From the time of Eden, he designed humans to reflect his glory and walk out his mission on earth in partnership with his presence. We matter,, and our lives have meaning.
Paul argues in Ephesians that we aren’t saved by our works or any ability. God saved us with grace through faith, all gifts from his love. But we weren’t saved only from sin but for a purpose. The apostle writes the next sentence. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do.” We were made on purpose for a purpose. Before the world was created, he thought of us in eternity and had good works for us to do, ways to bless others, and find meaning in our lives. He gives us supernatural gifts and empowers us for this reason.
Everyone seeks to find meaning and purpose. We can only find these through Christ, as Paul tells us. He created us to live through us and redeem the world through our obedience and the Spirit within us.
This meaning came before the world, so nothing can rob us of it. We can rebel and refuse to participate in it, but it exists in Christ and is therefore beyond our struggles and feelings. Every person needs a why, and God provides this generously and lovingly in our purpose.
7. He Will Not Give up on You
God is eternal. He is love. Therefore, his love doesn’t give up on us. He’s faithful even when we aren’t. We fail, doubt, rebel, or wander away, but God stays resolute in his love and desire to see the best for us. He doesn’t leave us. God is omnipresent. Where could we go? When we struggle or reject him, he pursues, and his long-suffering calls us back to himself.
Jeremiah 31:3 quotes God saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” God’s love doesn’t wane or fade, doesn’t depend upon us. It flows from who he is as a loving Father who won’t stop loving us. He doesn’t break promises or covenants.
Peter denied Jesus three times the night before the crucifixion. At Jesus’ lowest point, Peter abandoned the Master (John 18:15-27). And yet, after the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter, addressing the issue and returning the disciple to his purpose (John 21:15-17). God didn’t give up on Peter, despite his failure. The Father does the same for us, offering us mercy and restoration if we return to him.
If we ever question God’s faithfulness or mercy, Lamentations 3:22-23 famously assures us, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” We may fail him today, but his mercies are new every morning, fresh and full. He keeps showing up, making sure life and evil don’t consume us.
No matter where we are or what we’ve done, God hasn’t given up on us. Believe it and return to him.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Tinnakorn Jorruang
Originally published Tuesday, 22 April 2025.