How to Feel God’s Love: 8 Practical Insights
Not long ago, I texted a friend and told her about long days in a house filled with noisy children. “I wish I knew how to feel God’s love, but all I feel is chaos,” I expressed.
Her response came seasoned with wisdom.
First, she reminded me that regardless of whether I feel God’s love or not, his love is always with me. “Feelings are futile,” she offered. “Instead of aiming to feel God’s love, stand on his promises. Cling to the words he speaks about his love for you.”
I realized she was right.
We don’t always feel God’s love. Furthermore, we cannot trust our feelings.
We have the assurance that God loves us, whether we feel it or not, because he demonstrated it through the most extraordinary act of love a Father could every display.
We’ll get to this at the end of today’s post. I’ll also offer a free devotional eBook to help you connect with God. First, let’s look at some practical steps we can take when we want to know how to feel God’s love.
How to Feel God’s Love
If you want to become more attuned to God’s love, I invite you to spend some time letting these words wash over you.
How to Feel God’s Love
1. Open your Bible and soak in his promises about his love for you.
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deut. 4:29 ESV).
When we seek God with our whole hearts, we find him. We can claim this powerful promise during life’s troubled times.
God is not far off. He wants us to experience his presence and power. Seek him and you will find him!
When you don’t feel God’s love, open your Bible and search for Scripture about God’s love for you. Write these verses in your journal. Post them in your home. Speak them out loud. God’s Word renews our minds.
This is the most practical way to feel God’s love.
2. Spend time in silence and solitude.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).
We also experience God’s love by spending time in silence and solitude with him.
During this time, we don’t aim to accomplish anything.
We talk to him in prayer. We read his Word and worship him in song. This is a time for resting in his presence and reminding ourselves that he loves us, even when we do not feel his love.
I invite you to join me here for 11 ways to connect with God.
3. Ask God to help you become more aware of his presence and his love.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7).
This Psalm brings us comfort by reminding us that we cannot run or hide from God. His comforting presence is always with us.
The next time you feel alone or misunderstood, remind yourself that God is always with you. He pursues you with goodness and mercy. God is literally chasing you down with loving gifts in his hands. Ask him to help you become more aware of his pursuit. This is a prayer he will answer.
4. Quiet yourself and listen for the still small voice of Truth within you.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Cor. 3:16).
This powerful verse teaches us that God dwells within us.
The next time you doubt God’s nearness, speak this verse. The Living God has made his dwelling within you!
God most often speaks to us through the words of the Bible. But he can also speak through gentle impressions from the Holy Spirit.
These are warm, life-giving thoughts that align with his Word. More often than not, when we ask God to speak to us, the impression will be the same, “I love you.”
We’re not making this up. This is God’s gentle voice.
5. Remind yourself that God’s love surrounds you. His ways are different than our ways.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).
Everything God does is a representation of his love.
At times, the difficulties we face don’t look like demonstrations of love. In these moments, we remind ourselves that God’s ways are not our ways; they are higher than our ways.
6. Cling to the promise that nothing can take God’s love away from you.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Romans 8:35).
God’s love for us is unconditional. It can never be taken away from us.
Cling to this truth when you don’t feel God’s love.
7. Look to the cross.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
The ultimate demonstration of love is for a loving father to allow his child to suffer for someone else. For this reason, God demonstrated his love, once and for all, when he allowed his Son to receive the punishment we deserve. This is unconditional love.
When I became a mother, the cross suddenly took on a deeper meaning. As I held our child in my arms, I knew I would do anything to protect her.
I couldn’t fathom a love so great that a good Father would willingly send his Child to die in the place of someone else, let alone die in the place of people who had rejected him. This is love.
8. Thank Jesus for laying down his life for you.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
Jesus literally laid down his life for us. When you doubt God’s love, remember that he demonstrated it through Jesus.
Let this be an anchor. Regardless of how you feel, you are loved beyond measure.
~~~
Let’s apply these truths to our lives in the moments when we wonder how to feel God’s love.
God’s love is always present. He never stops loving us.
When we don’t feel God’s love, we are called to cling to his promises and not our feelings. Here are 10 Bible verses about God’s love for us. Cling to these words when you doubt God’s love.
Bible Verses About God’s Love for Us
1. Romans 8:35 ESV
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
2. John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
3. John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
4. Romans 5:8
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
5. Jeremiah 31:3
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
6. Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
7. Ephesians 2:4-5
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
8. 1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
9. Romans 8:38-39
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
10. John 15:9-10
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
~~~
The next time you wonder how to feel God’s love, turn to these words. Soak in them. Stand on them. Your heavenly Father loves you with an everlasting love, and nothing can ever take his love away from you.
If these words have blessed you, I also invite you to help the children in your life learn to experience God’s love. Explore the family devotionals and free devotional eBooks below. Be blessed as you experience God’s love in deeper ways!
Calling All Parents and Grandparents!
As the parent of two sons and a daughter, I have a heart for helping parents develop deeper relationships with their children and with God. Our kids, ages 6, 11, and 15, share this vision. They have helped me write three family devotionals for parents or older relatives to read with the children and teens they love. You can find all three books here or read more below.
Attention All Boy Moms (and Dads)!
God’s Warrior: Devotions for Boys Who Want to Grow in Courage and Strength helps young boys, ages 5-13, learn what it means to trust God and become strong warriors for his kingdom. Now, more than ever, our world needs men who are willing to boldly carry God’s love into the world. I wrote this boys’ devotional book with our two young sons, Aiden and Caleb, ages six and eleven! You’ll enjoy their honesty as we teach boys how to be strong warriors for the Lord. Find this life-changing devotional book here.
Mother-Daughter Devotionals by a Mom and Daughter
Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith is written for girls ages 7-12. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, conversation starters, and a shared journaling section for moms and daughters after each devotion. I wrote this book with the help of our daughter, Bekah, when she was eleven. Find this one-of-a-kind shared devotional here.
Heart to Heart: A Mother-Daughter Devotional With 50 Devotions for Teen Girls is for teenage girls ages 13-20. It includes 50 devotions, each with a shared journaling section to help moms and daughters connect through writing. This is a great book for moms who want to communicate about awkward topics—like dating, sexuality, peer pressure, and more—but don’t know where to start. Bekah and I will help you right here.
Find Our Family Devotionals Here
Find all three books right here. They are also free on the Kindle Unlimited plan, which you can enjoy with a free three-month trial! These books make great gifts, and you don’t need to be the parent of young children to read them. Share them with your grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or the young ones you love.
Learn Why Willpower Doesn’t Work and Experience God’s Deliverance and Healing
God wants to work in your life to accomplish what you’ve been unable to do through willpower alone. Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free shares practical ways to experience God’s freedom, healing, power, and presence in your life. Find this life-changing book as a free eBook on Kindle Unlimited or for 12.99 in print right here. (If you do not have Kindle Unlimited, you can try it out with a free three-month trial!) This book will transform your life and revitalize your relationship with the Lord!
A Free Devotional to Help You Connect With God
God is a good Father, and he wants us to experience his healing, deliverance, and replenishment. Most of us have learned that we cannot heal, deliver, or refresh ourselves; we need God to do this work within us. I invite you to create space for God to transform your life by downloading a free copy of my devotional eBook, The Lean Into Grace Devotional: An 8-Day Devotional for Healing, Deliverance, and Replenishment. Find it for free here. I also offer a library of free online devotional eBooks for free. I invite you to explore the collection right here! 
