Do you truly believe in God's unconditional love for you?

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I have an extremely hard time with this. I can’t believe that anybody other than my cat would love me unconditionally (or even conditionally for that matter).
 
My cat doesn’t know any better, but God does. God knows I am garbage, my cat does not know that. That’s the problem.
 
You are wrong. God does not think you are garbage. He loves you and cares for you, no matter what you have done with your life. He sent his son to die for your sins. Because of him, your sins are forgiven.
 
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I wish I could believe that that will work, but I should have become much different from the way I am a long time ago. Here is a little more insight into the problem:


I really don’t believe I am at the far right end of the bell curve of the sins of sinners.
 
I’ve always had the gift of faith. Through all my meandering in different spiritual paths I knew, deep down, a higher power was out there and was directly interested in my life and how I lived it. When I became a Christian I had an intellectual understanding of God’s love, and I certainly had answers to prayer or events occur that I believed to be Him working in my life for my good. However, it wasn’t until I did the Ignatian Exercises that I began to understand the personal nature of God’s love. Once that became a reality for me it’s just been a series of ongoing conversion. Also, the more you practice gratitude the more you’ll see His presence in your day-to-day goings on, and a great way to develop that is with the Ignatian Examen. You can, and should, also pray for deeper conversion. And never be afraid to ask God to show you His love. If you want to believe and to know, even the tiniest bit of faith will be rewarded. For me it was a major turning point in my spiritual life, going from knowing in my head that God loves me/all of us and really knowing it.
 
NuclearReceptor said:
Did you always believe this, or did you eventually find your way to this?

Why do I find it so difficult to believe fully with my heart? I accept it superficially intellectually…but I always feel like I’m just outside of His ray of light in the shadows unworthy to be a child of God.

It’s a cause of distrust, cynicism, faithlessness, doubt, despair, desolation, sadness.

But it also seems reasonable that God wouldn’t care about my life or what I do or what I feel, experience, or suffer. I’m just a nobody in a world of billions of souls past, present, and future.

I know what I’m supposed to do minimally as a Catholic…it just seems like everything I’ve done is a facade and that it doesn’t matter what I pretended to do because it amounts to nothing.

Where does one find trust in God’s love?
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So does what you do merely seem to be a facade or is it a facade? Jesus said:
Matthew 6
4 Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven.
2 Therefore when thou dost an almsdeed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.
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Matthew 23
1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. 4 b They tie up heavy burdens [hard to carry] and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. 5 All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, 7 greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’
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So God does look at the heart. The new commandment:

John 13
34 A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
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We do not love one another or God unless charity exists within us. If our acts are only for appearances it is not charitable. It is charitable to set a good example for others since we desire to not mislead them, even though we may be lukewarm.
 
Yes I firmly do. And here’s why.

I had severe scrupulosity and anxiety. I had no idea I was ill. All the sins I’ve ever committed just kept running over and over in my head like a movie. It used to paralyze me. I would fall on my knees and start crying. This happened every day for a while- sometimes several times every day.

One day, I watched Mass on TV. The Gospel was on the conversion of St. Matthew. I remembered three things from the homily - that we are precious in God’s eyes, that our unworthiness makes us worthy to be His servants and also people not only sin, but also do good things. I also remembered this verse from the Gospel: ‘I came to call the sinners, not the righteous’.

A few hours later, I was getting ready to go to college, when the anxiety (or whatever it was) set. The movie started playing in my head and I sank on my knees half dressed, sobbing and weeping. And I suddenly remembered the verse ‘You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.’. It was as if God was telling me that even after looking at all of this, I’m still precious to Him, and honored and He loves me. And the other things in the homily started making sense.
I found strength to stand, and the anxiety gradually ceased.

I’ve heard that verse a million times but that’s the only time when it touched me. And now, no matter what, I simply cannot deny that God loves me.

Maybe you can pray for a similar experience of His Love. It’ll be something you can use as an anchor during difficult times. And also, it’s okay if you don’t feel like He loves you,if you don’t feel the warmth of His love all the time. Feelings come and go.
 
What a beautiful testimony, cookie-san. May God bless you for sharing your story.
 
It’s the quoted stats, and also, though this is not in the video, the principle of mediocrity. I don’t believe that out of roughly 100,000 randomly chosen Catholics, that I would be in, say, the top 5. Actually, not only would I not be, but I think it would be laughable for me to even begin to think such a thing.

Compared to the top 5, I’m pretty sure that I’m just a joke. It’s kind of like saying I could walk into the octagon and do a few rounds of mma with Stipe Miocic. I’d just wind up waking up in the hospital, that is if I were lucky and didn’t just get killed straight away. There are a few people who could go in there and give him a run for his money, but I’m certainly not one of them.
 
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Pat_Albertson said:
It’s the quoted stats, and also, though this is not in the video, the principle of mediocrity. I don’t believe that out of roughly 100,000 randomly chosen Catholics, that I would be in, say, the top 5. Actually, not only would I not be, but I think it would be laughable for me to even begin to think such a thing.
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So if we are not in the “top 5” we are garbage? I didn’t have time to watch the video.
 
Worse, we are destined for hell. It would be better to just be garbage.

By the way, you should watch the video.
 
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Pat_Albertson said:
Worse, we are destined for hell. It would be better to just be garbage.

By the way, you should watch the video.
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Well, such destiny is contrary to catechism. I don’t have time to watch the video, but it sounds very Calvinistic.
 
I like asking a complementary and more personally demanding question…

“Do I love God without condition?”

Do I wall off areas of my life, not exactly doing the will of God in them?

Do I make excuses for not loving God to the point of dying to myself?

Do I draw lines in loving others, who are God’s children too?

Where do I love God “conditionally”?

When I “write off old friends” because they annoy me now…do I see this act as conditionally loving God?
 
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Pat, I finally pushed to about the middle of the video and listened for a minute.

First of all, we don’t have to believe any private revelations whatsoever. Any statement from anyone, saints included, about how many people go wherever after death can be taken with a grain of salt.

The one reference to scripture I heard, “few are saved”, has to be scrutinized in terms of the definition of salvation, which can have a very life-on-Earth context.

The Linns say that we must consider scripture this way: If anything in scripture makes it sound like God loves us less than the person who loves us most, something is amiss. Have you ever read Good Goats: Healing our Image of God? That book shows us a merciful God, not one that condemns us.
 
Hello.

With my husband out of a job and not knowing where/when money will come in, I have to believe in God’s unconditional love. Nothing else I’ve tried has given me the peace I get when I turn things over to God.
 
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