"Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing -- sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death -- can take that love away." Henry Nouwen

I am loved by God.  You are loved by God.  Yet, I have found that deeply believing and living out of this truth takes time and attention with God.  It is a relational and experiential process.  It is not limited to a knowing of facts and phrases from the Bible, but includes personal experience of the God described in the Bible.

My history, where most of my actions were motivated out of a desire to earn love, has developed powerful habits of behavior.  I am finding that I must enter into an experience of relationship with God that trains me otherwise.  Yet, I find that this process is a slow nurturing of trust and faith.  I have experienced that I need God to slowly help me trust His love.  Only then can I courageously consider more and more of my heart and life with Him and others.  Without this, I am naturally prone to ignore, suppress, and even deceive myself about the truth of my attitudes, motivations, and behaviors.  As I ignore and suppress bits of me I reject the truth that I am loved, and my life is given to the joy-stealers of fear, anxiety, and worry.

Where might God be at work to remind you of His love for you?