God, What Do You Love About Me?

Often, I find myself unable to know what to say to God. So emotionally and mentally drained that I have trouble seeking and understanding His voice and the words I know He is speaking to me. It is in these times that I have to draw upon past experiences to remind myself what His voice sounds like. I want to share one of those experiences with you.

In high school, my youth group was quite large. A typical Wednesday night usually had around 150 plus kids, and this made some things very hard to accomplish. For a long time, the only experience I had with the voice of God was my leaders speaking over me and their discernment on what God was saying to me. However, one night this changed. My youth pastor told us to close our eyes and ask God this simple question: God, what do you love about me? The response was immediate and honestly very overwhelming at first. I did not expect such a vibrant and passionate response, but looking back, it makes perfect sense. I was so caught up in an inability to love myself, that I had forgotten the love of the Father. And in those few moments, God poured out His love on me in such a tangible way. He told me specific things He loved about me, which I did not expect to hear. Things I hated about myself, or things I had been told to fix were things God loved and valued about me. I knew what I wanted to hear, but He knew what I needed to hear. His response was so much better than I could have imagined.

On Monday, November 9, a group of us put on an event called Taste and See. Essentially this is listening prayer. We took intentional time to listen to God instead of just talking through our prayers the whole time. Personally, my experience last night led me back to that youth group night. I asked God that same question, and He poured out His love on me again in such a tangible way. I heard Him express how much He loves doing that. He wants to show how much He loves me in specific ways beyond the cross, even though the cross is enough. That is how good of a Father He is; He meets His children right where they are, especially when they are in need, and loves to do so.

Sweet friends, I know this semester has been so draining for all of us and that we are all burnt out. But I want to invite you to pursue His voice. Ask Him what He loves about you, and truly listen to His responses. He loves to tell you all the things He loves about you and really wants to speak that over you right now. So go somewhere by yourself, close your eyes, and utter those simple words: “God, what do you love about me?”