Session 6: Loved

As you read, look for:

• God loves you and how He's made you.

• Being loved in Christ is beautiful.

• There's no need to try and earn love; it's already yours.

STUDY

THINK IT THROUGH

Love is what we long for.

We express different kinds of love.

You may love your strong legs. You may love how the sun rises on your way to a team workout. You may even love how effortlessly your sport comes for you. You may love pancakes in the morning and also love your family, but those both have different meanings. All those love examples show affection, but there’s another love that sits above the rest. A deep, lasting love that’s wired deep within us that goes to the center of our very being. We desire beauty, depth, vulnerability, to be seen, valued and treasured. We long to know that no matter what we do or say, at the end of the day, we are still deeply loved.

In our desperation to have this basic need for love fulfilled, we can often look for it in places that distort the pureness of it. We can obsess with the thought of being loved and let it take over our minds. We’re impatient, wanting to love and be loved so much that we may try to force it on our own timetable and in our own way. This often causes pain, heartbreak and even places a person on a pedestal, making them an idol.

We long for love but look for it in all the wrong places.

But what if we don’t need to look because it’s been with us all this time?

What if God has given us what we need and has made it easy to find His love? Let’s dive into the Bible to see what God has to say about love.

THE WORD

Use the in-app Bible and look at some key verses. While there are hundreds of them that point to aspects of love, we’ll start with some basics to get a handle on a foundational love found in Him. Take 10 minutes to read the following verses and record what it says about who you are:

When God fashioned the folds of the earth and grafted the stars in the sky, He saw your face and knew the kind of woman you’d become. You are created in His image, the delight of His heart, and He longs for you to recognize your worth as His beloved daughter. You are of immense joy and value to Him.

Do you believe this? Please take a moment and ask yourself if you truly believe God loves you, personally. Ask God what He has to say about this.

Then, read the verses from 1 John below. This entire book is bursting with God’s love for us, exploding on the pages. There it is—the love of our Father:

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” — 1 John 3:1

He calls us daughters, not by anything we have done, but because of His great love. How do we know God’s love? We look to who He gave us: Jesus.

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” — 1 John 4:7-10

What do these verses in 1 John tell you about God’s personal love for you?

God loves you with an incredible, personal love. Before the foundations of the world, He set you apart. He came and sent His Son to come and rescue you from the danger of sin so you could be with Him for all time. All He’s desired is your heart and a relationship with you.

When our hearts wring with worry over whether we’re good enough for that spot on the team or if that guy thinks we’re attractive, God gently whispers that we are beautiful in His sight and loved just as we are. He’s captivated by you because He made you with intention. He looks at all the things that make you, you—your personality, your compassion, your strength and commitment, the way you see the world—and smiles because He intentionally put them into your soul.

What does He tell us about fear and love? Take a look at 1 John 4:16-18 below. Let’s take a few minutes to talk through what He says about His love.

God is love. And love has been here since the beginning of time. It’s not going anywhere. His is the love we can count on. It’s faithful, true, selfless, gentle, keeps no records of wrongs and delights in truth. It compels us closer, it spreads shade to our parched and sun-scorched souls and roots us into the soil of Jesus Christ. When we look to Jesus, we find where we belong.

There’s no need to try and earn love or be a better version of ourselves so we fit in. You’re seen and accepted already. The love you’re longing for is yours to simply receive.

“We love each other because he loved us first.” — 1 John 4:19

Have you ever felt like you were unlovable? What do you think God might have to say about this?

TAKE AWAY TRUTH

Here’s the bottom line: The love you’ve always hoped for is here. Receive it. Believe you are of immense value and worth, just by being God’s daughter. There is nothing more beautiful than when a woman lives confidently out of her belovedness, out of the heart-knowledge that she is loved and known by her God.

This is beauty: embracing God’s love and holding tight to Him while extending that same love to those around her.

Rest in the truth that you are wholeheartedly loved by a good and gracious God who transforms you every day deeper into the heart of Jesus. Breathe it in: You are loved.

TEAM TIME

Application

As teammates, you can help each other learn to the Truth about who you are as God’s daughters. The theory that there’s strength in numbers is supported in Scripture—starting with the Father Himself as One of

Three—and it certainly applies to you in your quest to embrace who you really are. By joining forces with your teammates, you can multiply your strength and resources in the battle for your souls. As a group, let’s work through the following questions and activities together:

1. What are some characteristics of God's love?

2. What's the difference between worldly love and Biblical love?

3. Have there been times where you have tried to earn love and were disappointed or hurt? How did it make you feel?

4. Do you believe God personally loves you? Why or why not?

5. How can God's Word help you understand how much God loves you?

6. How does living loved make you beautiful?

WORK IT OUT

Use the in-app Bible and review this verse and before our next session attempt to memorize it.

PRAYER

As we embrace God’s love today, let’s close in this prayer: