The Love of God

     I wanted to share a pretty powerful experience I had a couple four or five months back. I was serving in the town of Glasgow, Montana. Glasgow is a pretty small town and I loved serving there. There are some great people there whom I grew to love and appreciate. Anyways, at this time, I wasn't really down or depressed or anything. I've been blessed to have a positive attitude for the most part during tough times on my mission, but I just really wanted God to show me that He loved me.
     So, like it says in James 1:5, if we lack wisdom, we ask God, I decided to pray to my Father in Heaven, asking Him to show me in someway, that He truly loved me. Now, I grew up believing that we have a God in Heaven who loves us, and I still believed that when I asked my prayer, I just wanted a confirmation that what I had believed my whole life was in fact true.

 

     Now, I was told once that if we want to talk to God, we pray, and if we want God to talk to us, we read the scriptures. If I remember right, that same day I prayed asking God to show He loved me, I was reading in my scriptures and I was reading in the New Testament in the Book of 1 John of all books. Let me share a few verses from that chapter;

 7 "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

 8 "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." 

Most of this chapter talks all about how God is love, love is of God, etc. and as I was reading this, I almost got a little annoyed with it because it kept saying that God is love. At that exact moment when I got a little bugged, the Spirit pretty much slapped me in the face and some words came into my head like, "Look, maybe God is trying to tell you here that He truly loves you." Or something to that effect. When I realized that, I got a sense of calm, peace, and comfort and I knew, with all my heart that God does in fact know me personally and He really does love me! 

 

 

I would like to testify to you all that God loves each and every one of us with a perfect love! He knows us and each of our situations and He is always there for us, whenever we may need Him!

Who Am I?

     One of my favorite movies is the classic film, Zoolander. The hilarious, and yes, kind of pointless film about male models finding out there is more to life than being really ridiculously good looking. The main character, Derek Zoolander, played by Ben Stiller, finds himself lost after losing the number 1 spot for male model of the year by his fellow rival model, Hansel, played by Owen Wilson. This loss shattered Derek Zoolanders entire universe and he is depressed and throughout the film he, in a round about way, tries to find out who he is. A couple times during the movie, he asks his reflection in a puddle of water, and the heavens the question, "Who am I?". With that introduction, let me tell you something that everyone needs to know and should never forget; who YOU are.

 

     Many people in this world sincerely have the question "Who am I?" and really want to know. What glorious news the gospel of Jesus Christ has which tells us in fact, who each and every person is. The answer to that question is simple. You are a child of God! There is spiritual power that comes from that simple phrase and knowing that we are all children, sons and daughters of God.

     God is literally the Father of our spirits. He lives in Heaven, therefore, we as Latter-day Saints refer to God as our Heavenly Father. We are His children, and He loves us more than we can comprehend. He cares about us and He wants us to be happy in this life. He is happy when we are happy, and He is sad when we are sad. Our loving Father in Heaven loves us so much, that He provided a way for us to communicate with Him, and we do that through sincere prayer. Just as we have an earthly father who wants to talk to us, more importantly, we have a Father in Heaven who wants, and expects to hear from us. He wants us to talk to Him, so He can give us guidance and direction to our lives. Because God loves us so much, He answers our prayers, so we can feel His love in greater abundance in our lives. 

     No matter what circumstance we may be in this life, if we feel like we are forgotten, we must NEVER forget that we will NEVER be forgotten. Our Father in Heaven will never abandon us. We will always have Him love to us unconditionally and help us out in our times of sorrow and despair. We only have to be willing to turn to Him and trust in His constant care.

     I know that each and every one of us are literally children of God. I know He loves us because I have felt His love in my life on many occasions. I know that God knows us personally, inside and out and He is very aware of the situations we are in. He has a plan for each and every one of us in this life and we can know of His plan for us by doing what He has asked us to do (prayer, scripture study, keeping the commandments etc.). I am so grateful for the knowledge I have to know who I am; that is, a child of God.

Here is a song we sing and learn as children that tells us perfectly who we all are.

Enjoy.