Q:
I know Christians are supposed to be happy, and I try to put on a happy face when I'm with other people. But down inside, I admit I'm not a very happy person, and I don't understand why. God must be very disappointed in me.
A:
God knows all about you — and the most important truth I can tell you is that in spite of your feelings, He still loves you just as you are. God’s promise is for you: “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
How do we know He loves us? We know it first of all because He has told us He loves us in His Word, the Bible. Would He tell us this if it weren’t so? No, of course not — because God cannot lie. We know God loves us also because of His care for us every day. Even when life is hard, God’s love still surrounds us and supplies our needs.
Above all, we know God loves us because of Jesus Christ. As the divine Son of God He could have stayed in heaven forever — but He willingly left heaven’s glory and came down to this earth to give His life for us. Why did He do this? There can be only one explanation: He did it out of love. The Bible says, “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 4:10).
Why do I stress this? Your unhappiness may have various causes (including childhood experiences you may have forgotten), but once you realize how much God loves you, your life will never be the same. Thank Him for His love for you — beginning today.