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Glory · God the Father
God's love for you is grounded in Christ, not in your loveliness. He loved you while you were still a sinner, He gave His Son for you, and nothing you have done can make Him love you less. When you feel unlovable, the answer is not to become more worthy but to receive the love that is already yours by faith, and to remember that the Father runs to meet even the child who has wandered far.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/how-do-i-receive-love-when-i-dont-feel-lovable · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Romans 8:31-39
As you read: He did not spare His own Son; and no created thing can separate you 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 the son who has wasted everything, and celebrates his return.
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.’”
Psalms 51:1-12
As you read: The man whose sin was public and terrible, pleading for mercy and restoration.
1Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.
3For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
4Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
5Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
11Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.
1 John 4:9-19
As you read: Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son.
9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world.
18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love him, because he first loved us.
Paul states the order so we can't miss it: 'God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' John agrees: '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.' Your lovableness was never the basis. The basis is God's character and Christ's finished work, both of which are settled whether or not you feel worthy.
“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8
“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
“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
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”Galatians 2:20
Look at what His love has already cost: '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?' Paul's own confidence was personal: 'I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.' If God loved you enough to give His Son, then no assessment of your current worthiness can subtract from a love that was given while you were at your worst.
“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
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”Galatians 2:20
“By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”1 John 4:9
“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8
In the parable, the son has squandered everything and deserves nothing, yet 'while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran.' David, after the greatest moral collapse in his story, prays 'Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness,' and is forgiven and restored. John assures us that 'if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Your worst moment is not beyond His love; it is exactly where His love runs to find you.
““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
“Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.”Psalm 51:1
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”1 John 1:9
““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. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.”Luke 15:22-24
Feeling unlovable is a feeling; it is not the truth. Scripture commands us to believe what is true, and what is true is Paul's settled persuasion that nothing 'will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,' and God's promise, 'I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.' Zephaniah pictures God rejoicing over His people and calming them 'in his love.' Let the promise anchor you when the feeling says otherwise.
“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
“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
“Yahweh, 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.”Zephaniah 3:17
“We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.”1 John 4:16
The deepest cure for feeling unlovable is your new identity: 'See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!' You are not asking a stranger to like you; you are a son or daughter, chosen 'for adoption as children through Jesus Christ... according to the good pleasure of his desire.' The Spirit in your heart cries 'Abba, Father,' testifying that you belong. Receive the love you were given as a child, not the approval you could never earn as a stranger.
“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
“Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.”John 15:9