S1E5: The Life Changing Benefit of Knowing You're Already Loved

Have you ever wondered if God truly loves you, especially during life's most challenging moments? This question lies at the heart of our spiritual journey, and today's episode explores the profound revelation that transformed my relationship with the divine.

Despite decades of meditation, mindfulness practice, therapy, and personal development work, I discovered in 2014 that I still didn't fundamentally feel loved by God, others or myself. Standing in an auditorium listening to praise singers declare "God, we know you love us," I experienced a heart-breaking moment of clarity – all my spiritual seeking had somehow missed this essential truth. This revelation marked the beginning of my authentic journey opening my heart up to God.

Working with my spiritual coach became pivotal when he asked, "Do you believe God is benevolent?" My immediate "no" revealed deep-seated anger and betrayal I felt toward the Divine. Years of combined spiritual coaching and trauma therapy helped me uncover what blocked my relationship with a loving God. I learned not to believe "the first lie" – that I wasn't whole, complete, or perfect already, in the eyes of God. And understanding the truth that nothing can ever separate us from God; we're always connected to the Source of It All.

Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God with all your heart. Yet how often do we overlook the "as yourself" part? This self-love isn't selfish – it's alignment with divine truth that can heal relationships and transform our experience as humans. As Anita Moorjani explains, loving ourselves in the present moment has the power to heal the past and shape our future.  It's that powerful!

I invite you to explore these questions: What would change if you truly knew you were loved by God, no matter what? How might you cultivate the same unconditional love for yourself? Take time today – through journaling, meditation, or contemplative walks – to discover what embracing divine love could mean for your life. Your journey toward accepting God's love might be the most important spiritual work you'll ever do.

Please subscribe wherever you listen and consider leaving a review or rating, as it helps others discover this kind of support on their spiritual journey.

Check out Anita Moorjani here.

Music by Song Channel Music.  Listen at SongChannelMusic.com

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God.
Thanks for joining me today.
My name is Sarah Haeckel, hostof Welcoming God.
Today, let's talk about God'slove.

(00:26):
So we finished off the lastconversation around God's love
being in the present moment,that when we are in the present
moment, the best things arehappening, because this is where

(00:47):
God is.
God is right here, right now,loving us wholly,
unconditionally, and the onlyquestion is how will I, how will
we, how will you love yourselflike God does unconditionally,

(01:09):
and why?
Why is that important?
Why is it important to loveourselves wholly and
unconditionally?
What is important about thatand this would be a good time if
you want to pause the podcastand just sit for a moment and

(01:31):
inquire.
You could journal about this,meditate, talk with a friend
what truly is the gift of ustruly loving ourselves, truly
loving who we are, as God trulyloves us?

(01:54):
Now you might be thinking well,I don't know that God loves me.
I don't feel that God loves meall the time.
Things can be hard, things canbe challenging.
Things aren't working out theway that I want them to.
You know, one of the phrases inmy head over the years has been
I've worked so hard.
Why don't I have this yet, thisthing, that thing that I've

(02:18):
been wanting for years andtrying to work towards.
And then through the help of myspiritual coach, who has really
been instrumental in helping meunderstand God's love.
Also, tawadakwe, a native elderhere locally that I've done

(02:39):
some healing work with, has alsohelped me understand what I
would call God's love.
He doesn't frame it that way,but yeah, it's the love that is.
It's what's happening, it's thetruth, and it doesn't always
feel good.
But when I can learn tounderstand that God is a

(03:08):
benevolent source I know thisnow and it's been trying to help
me my whole life when I canjust work in harmony with it, it
makes life so much easier.
But what if I don't know thatI'm loved?
What if I don't know that Godtruly loves me and cares for me?

(03:30):
So this is where the inquirybegins.
It begins with an exploration.
I took a course called FemininePower years ago and they would
say okay, let's look at ourinner selves like an existential

(03:51):
detective, so turn on yourinner eyes, turn on your inner
ears and look around and justinquire and inspect and see
what's going on in there.
Going on in there.
And I remember the moment Irealized I still didn't feel

(04:12):
loved.
I was shocked because I haddone years of healing, growth,
work on myself personally,spiritually seeking therapy.
You know all kinds of thingsmindfulness, meditation,
personal daily practice.
For decades I still didn't knowthat I was loved.

(04:35):
And that realization came to mein 2014.
And that was the moment thatGod came back into my life and
it was remarkable for me.
And I remember standing there.
I had heard the call of God.
I felt this call in my heart toopen my heart to God again.
And I'm standing there in thisauditorium and these praise

(04:59):
singers are on stage singingthese songs that I'm going to be
painting to the following dayat this Easter Sunday service.
That just happened to this jobhappened to land in my lap right
at that moment when I wasfeeling the call to open my
heart to God, and God literallyput me right there.
And I remember the praisesinger on stage standing there,

(05:25):
pointing his finger up towardsthe ceiling, towards the sky,
looking up and saying God, weknow you love us.
God, we know you love us, god,we know we're loved.

(05:56):
And that hit me square in thecenter of my heart space and
broke me at that point onlearning to love myself, that I
still didn't know I was loved,and all the healing work and
everything I had worked on fordecades.
It was a revelation to me andthat was truly the beginning of

(06:19):
my journey, of coming back hometo God, to Source and, you know,
being spiritual, just being ona spiritual path, it wasn't
enough anymore.
I needed something more and Itruly know now I needed to
connect with God, the one truesource.

(06:40):
I needed to know it was thereand I also needed to know it
loved me, and it would be yearsmore until I finally came to
terms with the fact that, oh myGod, god really does love me,
and that was really largely,mostly with the help of my

(07:04):
spiritual coach.
Hey, sarah here, if you'reenjoying listening to this
podcast, please click subscribe.
It helps more people find andbenefit from this show.
Thanks so much, and let's getright back into it.
His first question to me was doyou believe God is benevolent?

(07:28):
And my first response was no,no, I don't.
And I felt mad at God.
I felt betrayed by God, likewhat the heck?
I just feel like you have usedme and abused me and you've
taken things from me and keptthings from me and why aren't

(07:48):
things working out the way thatI want them to.
And I felt angry, mad, betrayed, sad.
And it wasn't until years laterof working with my spiritual
coach and unpacking all of thisstuff that was just in the way,

(08:08):
and also doing deep level traumahealing with a therapist, which
was very crucial to healingthese deeper levels and layers
of not feeling loved, notknowing I was worthy of love and
loved and lovable.
Those two things together, thetrauma therapy for five years

(08:33):
consistently and working with aspiritual coach who I still work
with to this day those thingstogether really helped uncover
for me the things that were inthe way of my relationship with
a loving, true God, source of itall.

(08:55):
And I remember a guy that I metmany years ago said to me don't
believe the first lie, and thefirst lie is that you are not
whole, complete or perfect.
Don't believe the first liebecause you are already whole,

(09:16):
complete and perfect.
And that just follows up byremember who you are.
I heard that phrase or got thatphrase somewhere years ago.
It just either came to me or Iheard someone else say it and
it's like don't believe thefirst lie, remember who you are.

(09:41):
You are whole, complete andperfect.
I am a part of this life and Ibelong to it.
Nothing will ever separate mefrom the source of all of life,
and this is the truth.
That's the truth.
Nothing we ever say or do willever separate us from this love,

(10:06):
and it is so our hearts to itJust open, accept, be in harmony
, in harmonious relationshipwith this one true source.

(10:28):
So when God comes through meand says, just stay with me.
Me and says, just stay with me,that's where I can go, okay,

(10:48):
okay, I trust you, I know youhave my best interest at heart,
I am loved by you, and that iswhat matters.
And then from there, how do Icultivate my own self, love,
knowing I'm already loved by theone true source?

(11:09):
How do I then learn to activelylove myself and show up loving
my whole self, all my parts, allthe parts I don't like, all the
shame, all the blame, all theguilt, all the freaky stuff,

(11:30):
whatever?
How do I truly learn tocultivate this loving
relationship that God alreadyhas with and for me, with my
human self and all of my parts?
So this is what I truly knowwe're tasked with.

(11:51):
You know, jesus said somethingalong the lines of the most
important thing you can do.
You know, the most importantcommandment is to love your
neighbor as yourself and to loveGod with all your heart.
Like that is numero uno Loveyour neighbor as you love

(12:14):
yourself, which I think oftenkind of gets overlooked the
loving ourselves part we focusso much on.
I'm supposed to love myneighbor, but, like, if you
don't love yourself, how do youlove your neighbor?
So, love yourself as you love,love your neighbor as you love
yourself and love God with allyour heart.

(12:38):
And why?
Why is this important?
Because this is what makes lifethrive.
This is what cultivates more oflove in life.
It truly is what heals.

(12:58):
I think of Anita Morjani, whowrote Dying to Be Me, an amazing
book about her near deathexperience, and I took a course
with her after I listened to herbook and she said basically,
loving yourself is the mostimportant thing you can do.
Loving ourselves in the momentliterally has the ability to

(13:24):
heal the past and shift thingsfor the better in love, with
love, and this is what God istrying to do for us in the
present moment, right here andright now, and that is why it's
crucially important to learn howto cultivate a loving, healing

(13:47):
relationship within ourselves,like God loves us and is present
with us.
And it is a journey.
This is something that I thinkI will be learning for the rest
of my life, and I just encourageyou, what would it be like to

(14:10):
just spend some time inquiringabout what's important about
God's love, what's importantabout knowing that I am loved?
What does this do for me, when Iknow I'm loved by God already,
no matter what, no matter how Iact, what I do, etc.

(14:31):
How does this change me?
How does it support me?
What does this knowing this dofor me?
What does this knowing this dofor me?
And then, how can I, how will Icultivate, grow the same loving
, nurturing, compassionate,patient relationship with myself

(14:57):
, unconditionally, like God hasfor me already and always?
And what's important about this?
What does having a trulyunconditionally loving
relationship within myself andwith all of the parts of myself

(15:19):
do for me, do in myrelationships with others, do in
life, do for my relationshipwith God?
How does this affect myrelationship with God?
How does loving myself fullyand wholly in the present moment
allow me to truly live out thiscommandment that Jesus spoke

(15:42):
about To love your neighbor asyou love yourself and to be able
to love God with all of yourheart.
Let's leave it there for now andI ask you when will you inquire
about these questions?

(16:04):
When will you sit with yourselftoday, whether it's to journal,
whether you go on a walk and beactive in your inquiry?
When will you take a fewmoments today to inquire about
these questions today, toinquire about these questions?
Have a beautiful one, abeautiful day, and I look

(16:35):
forward to seeing you on thenext episode.
Take care for now.
Thanks for joining me onanother episode of Welcoming God
.
Please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen and
consider leaving us a review, asit helps more people find and
benefit from this show.
Music by Song Channel Music.
You can listen and hear more atsongchannelmusiccom.
Until we meet again, aloha nuiloa, take care and God bless.