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Glory · God the Father
You can know God's affection is real because it is anchored in facts, not feelings: He did not spare His own Son for you, and nothing can separate you from His love. Jesus is the exact picture of the Father's heart, and the Father rejoices over you with singing. Feelings lag behind the promise; so we ground ourselves in the cross, the Word, and the Spirit's witness, and we let that love become the love we live from.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/how-can-i-know-gods-affection-for-me-is-real · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Romans 8:31-39
As you read: He who did not spare His own Son; and nothing in all creation can separate us from His love.
31What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
33Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Luke 15:11-32
As you read: The father who runs to his son: the clearest picture Jesus gives of the Father's heart toward the undeserving.
11He said, “A certain man had two sons.
12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.
13Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
14When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.
15He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
16He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!
18I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
19I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’
20“He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;
24for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.
25“Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on.
27He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’
28But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him.
29But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
30But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
31“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”
Zephaniah 3:14-20
As you read: God in the midst of His people, calming them with His love and rejoicing over them with singing.
14Sing, daughter of Zion! Shout, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem.
15Yahweh has taken away your judgments. He has thrown out your enemy. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is in your midst. You will not be afraid of evil any more.
16In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.”
17Yahweh, your God, is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.
18I will remove those who grieve about the appointed feasts from you. They are a burden and a reproach to you.
19Behold, at that time I will deal with all those who afflict you, and I will save those who are lame, and gather those who were driven away. I will give them praise and honor, whose shame has been in all the earth.
20At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says Yahweh.
1 John 3:1-3
As you read: See what great love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.
1See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
2Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.
3Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
Paul argues from the greater to the greater: 'He who didn't spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?' You look at the cross not for a vague assurance but for a settled verdict: God so loved you that He gave. John puts it in the perfect tense: 'In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.' The affection was demonstrated in an event, and events do not need our feelings to remain true.
“He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?”Romans 8:32
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”John 3:16
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”1 John 4:10
“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8
When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus answered, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father.' The tenderness Jesus showed to sinners is the Father's own tenderness: in the parable, the father sees his son 'while he was still far off,' runs to him, and throws his arms around him; and Jesus said that even evil parents know how to give good gifts, 'how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!' Whatever you fear about God, check it against the face of Jesus, who is the mirror of the Father's love.
“Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’”John 14:9
““He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”Luke 15:20
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”Matthew 7:11
““But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.”Luke 15:22
Paul's confidence is total: 'I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come... will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Jesus says of His sheep that no one 'will snatch them out of my hand,' and 'No one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.' Your sin, your failure, your weakness, your darkest day: none of them can separate you. The love is held by God, not by your grip.
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Romans 8:38-39
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”John 10:27-29
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”Romans 8:35
“I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”John 10:28-29
Affection can feel absent on a hard Monday. So God gives us promises to stand on, not moods to chase: 'I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you,' and, 'See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.' And He has 'predestined us for adoption as children,' so that the Spirit in our hearts cries, 'Abba, Father,' testifying with our spirit that we are His. When feelings lie, the promise and the Spirit tell the truth.
“Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.””Hebrews 13:5
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.”1 John 3:1
“having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,”Ephesians 1:5
“For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;”Romans 8:15-16
The love is meant to be tasted and lived. 'Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good,' the psalmist invites, and John draws the inevitable line: 'We love him, because he first loved us.' The person who is certain of God's affection is freed to love others from it rather than grasping for love from them. Paul's prayer is that we would be 'rooted and grounded in love,' able to 'comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth' of Christ's love. That is how you know it is real: it changes you.
“Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”Psalm 34:8
“We love him, because he first loved us.”1 John 4:19
“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,”Ephesians 3:17-18
“Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.”1 John 4:11