GOD SENDS HIS LOVE BY CHRISTY BOWER
For a long time, I couldn’t truly understand God’s love for me. I knew in my head that God loved me, but I wanted to feel the reality of God’s love in my heart. Because I could not see God’s love for me, I ran away from Him for a few years. Then, as God began to restore my relationship with Him, I reached a point of knowing that I had to make a decision about whether I would believe what God said. The Bible said that He loved me, but I couldn’t see the evidence in my own life. I was almost challenging God to “prove it”. It was one of the hottest summers on record, so I went down to the coolest part of the basement with my Bible and a notebook. I spent the entire weekend looking up every verse on God’s love and faithfulness. What started
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as a philosophical debate with God somehow touched my heart enough that I surrendered and made a decision to stop resisting Him. I began to grow in my relationship with Him, but I continued to battle chronic depression. A wise Christian woman challenged me to keep a notebook by my bed and to record three things for which I was thankful each night before turning out the lights. I took the challenge. At first I recorded obvious and generic