Rest in What God Says About You

“I love you”—three words that change everything. When these words are experienced through a relationship with God, they don’t just change our mood or our day— they change us from the inside out! God wants you to experience His love, to feel loved. He wants you to base your sense of worth and belonging on it, not through wishing and waiting for temporary external affirmations from others, but through His words. His words don’t change, they don’t fail; they are always relevant and applicable to our lives. God’s love is an invitation to us to find our deepest sense of identity and worth in the context of a relationship with Him.

Love Languages Go Both Ways

The great thing about love languages is that they work both ways. No matter what our primary love language is, God is loving us in many ways, and we can respond to God in kind. We both give and receive love, and there are many ways this happens—but mostly it happens through our primary love language on both the giving and receiving ends. For those of us who are words of affirmation types, we can learn to respond to God in love—again, through words of affirmation to Him. We call this praise and adoration.

“God’s love is an invitation to us to find our deepest sense of identity and worth in the context of a relationship with Him.”

Try it out. Even if you’ve never “prayed,” or if prayer is already an everyday part of your life, try telling God that you love Him. See how your day is different in the end if you spend time giving God words of affirmation. God speaks your love language. He tells you that He loves you in many ways, that you are valuable to Him, that you matter. What would it look like if you spoke back to Him through your love language as well?

We Praise God to Connect to Him

In your times alone throughout the day, in a car, an elevator, or simply in your heart, try speaking words of affirmation, or praise, to God. You can say things like, “God, you are so awesome,” “God, I love you,” “God, you are always there for me,” or “God, you are . . . ” (fill in the blank). If prayer is not something you do very often, keep it very simple. God will hear! When we do this, we often find ourselves becoming better lovers, feeling love as we express love through the words of our lips.

We don’t praise God in order to tell Him something about Himself He doesn’t already know. God knows how awesome He is already. We speak words of affirmation to Him to help us connect our hearts to what is true about Him and in doing so, we feel His love within us. One way you can begin to do this is with the poem above, Psalm 139. Try speaking this poem out loud back to God right now and see how that makes you feel. When we hear words of affirmation coming out of our own mouths back to God, it helps us truly receive God’s words to us. And it will help us to feel more love and give more love.