How do you know someone loves you? Is it by their actions? By what they say and do? How does someone prove their love to you?

We were on the book of Malachi and the theme was doubting God's love.
The Israelites doubted God's love for them. Well, I can see where they're coming from...I mean it's during the exile period, and they were captured by the Babylonians and after that the Persians... and to top it off, it seemed that the Edomites (the Nation they were always at war with) were doing better than them.

History: Abraham had a son - Isaac, who had 2 sons - Esau and Jacob. Esau traded his birth right for a bowl of stew that Jacob was cooking. Esau despised his birthright. And then Jacob pretended to be Esau and deceived Isaac and took Esau's blessings. ... So then Jacob (later known as Israel) had 12 sons, which formed the 12 tribes of Israel. and Esau (that is, Edom) had sons (dont' noe how many...but definitely a smaller group than the Israelites, and were called the Edomites.)

On the contrary, we don't doubt God's love for us when our country isn't doing well... There are other things to make us doubt God's love. For example... when we compare our grades with others, when we see that our life isn't as smooth-sailing as the rest.. The question we should ask ourselves now is..

Are you not finding satisfaction in God's love?

God didn't say "Because I love you, I'll give you money, I'll make you rich, I'll give you a good job, I'll give you blah blah blah"? Well, if God's love isn't found in material stuff, how do we know God loves us?

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. - 1 John 4:9-10
Jesus has died for us so that our sins are taken away and He has shown His goodness by not withholding things from us. But that's not a measure of His love.

I've never really doubted God's love for me, until I was asked "Why does God choose to love us? Is this reassuring?" And I didn't know how to answer that, and for a split second I thought: what if He didn't love me? O_o Nearly burst into tears. How can I serve a God who doesn't love me, who doesn't care for me, who couldn't care less about what happens to me? But, thank God I serve a God who is faithful, a God who is merciful and shows grace and love to His people. I can't fully understand the measure of God's love for His people, but I'm sure it's far greater than what the human mind can perceive. I just pray I won't be like the Israelites to doubt God's love and to snort at God, giving Him blemished sacrifices (like in the book of Malachi), where their attitude towards God isn't right.

I pray that when I learn of His word, that I'll be a do-er of His word, honouring Him and fearing Him. :)

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