Written By April T Giauque
How can I become God’s favorite?
I always knew about Heavenly Father because we prayed to and talked to Him. Father is listening. I knew I could build my relationship with him through prayer. I knew I could become one of His "Favorites" if I continued to build this relationship with him. Over time, I started to wonder, how do I find Jesus? I only knew I closed my prayers "in the name of Jesus Christ." But did that mean Christ was listening to my prayers? How did I connect directly to him?
Maybe I'm a bit dimwitted in asking that question, but I did not know how to build a relationship with Jesus as I had done with Heavenly Father. So, I turned to the scriptures and not to any philosophy of men. A love grew in my heart as I read the scriptures, prayed, and served others. I prayed to ask Heavenly Father, "What is this feeling this love I feel--Who is this feeling?" His answer came simply, "That feeling is Jesus. Call it for what it is and start to believe it, and bit by bit, you will find His love for you and your love for Him."
In the October 2024 General Conference, Elder Kirk likens this feeling of "becoming the favorite" as he has raised his six children. They all want to know who their “favorite” is. Elder Kirk is loving and close to his children; they all feel that special love, which is how Jesus and Heavenly Father are for us. We are all favored in them. We must stay there and focus on them to feel and believe it!
“Our Saviour’s love is the ‘highest, noblest, strongest kind of love,’ and He provides until we are ‘filled.’ Divine love never runs dry, and we are each a cherished favorite.”
Two Great Commandments
When I keep the gospel simple, I remember the two greatest commandments: 1) Love God with all my heart, might, mind, and strength, and 2) love my neighbor as myself–in that order. By loving God, I want to attend church, read, pray, pay tithing, love, and serve others. It becomes natural and a priority. Elder Hirst says, “Is it any surprise that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love those around us? When I see people showing Christlike love for one another, it feels as if that love contains more than just their love; it is love with divinity in it.”
Think about that. We are invited to participate with God in an experiment; when you serve his fellow beings, you call down God’s help and love for them AND you! Have you ever felt that moment when Heaven seems to surround you? They are moments I live for! “When we love one another in this way, as completely and fully as possible, heaven gets involved too. Isn’t it wonderful that there are times when we can feel so fully and personally noticed and loved? Nephi can call Him “his” Jesus, and so can we.”
In your brokenness, you can find Him.
Elder Hirst shared, "Through His brokenness, He became perfect, and He can make us perfect despite our brokenness. Broken, lonely, torn, and bruised He was—and we may feel we are—but separated from the love of God, we are not."
Now, why is it that, at times, we don’t feel God’s love? Are we looking into the shadow and not into the light of Christ? Is our doubt blocking His Light? Is our sin and lack of repentance doing it? Was it all the “small stuff” that just got in the way, and have we slowly drifted with distraction? These little things and the “Big Things” will contribute to that feeling.
We might be tempted to doubt our faith instead of doubting our doubts. Satan NEVER stops pounding on us, but God NEVER leaves us. But we seem to shout at Heaven, “Where are you?” We can’t seem to feel God’s love. When that test happens, use your knowledge of what you KNOW to be true and stay there! Wait with knowledge; don’t flea–STAY! Is hand is stretched out still! Use Knowledge and faith in times of doubt.
That is why we are blessed with knowledge so that we can see things as they are. Knowledge is the truth, and the truth is a rock that, as lies, doubt, depression, discouragement, and despair pound themselves against, will shatter all of Satan's lies, and you will stand on His rock. As you seek Him, yes, you shall find Him.
In Jesus, we find togetherness!
It keeps going back to the two greatest commandments. When we love one another, God gets involved. If we take the time to love those who are distant from “a sense of divine love, we can follow this pattern—by doing things that bring us closer to God ourselves and then doing things that bring us closer to them—an unspoken beckoning to come to Christ.”
God is always there. He never leaves. We are the ones who leave him. Doubt, fear, the lies we tell ourselves, shame—a feeling of imperfection. Satan wants us to stay in that doubt. Christ wants us to feel joy! Jesus is the rock—he is that truth. As lies, doubt, depression, discouragement, and despair pound themselves against the rock of truth, it will shatter all of those lies from Satan, and you will stand on His rock. As you seek Him, yes, you shall find Him.
“Divine love never runs dry, and we are each a cherished favorite. God’s love is where, as circles on a Venn diagram, we all overlap. Whichever parts of us seem different, His love is where we find togetherness.” —Elder Hirst.
I’m too Broken
I mess up every day, and that’s just a given. God knows that. His entire plan is built upon the fact that He knows we are going to mess up and so he prepared the plan with a Savior “built in.” Elder Hirst said, “You are never too broken for Him. There is much for us to do in this life, but self-loathing and shameful self-condemnation are not on that list. However misshapen we might feel we are, His arms are not shortened. No. They are always long enough to “[reach our] reaching” and embrace each one of us.”
When we don’t feel the warmth of divine love, it hasn’t gone away. God’s own words are that “the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but [His] kindness shall not depart from [us].” I love what Elder Hirst said next. “So, just to be clear, the idea that God has stopped loving should be so far down the list of possible explanations in life that we don’t get to it until after the mountains have left and the hills are gone!”
God Never Leaves Us
So, if God’s love does not leave us, why don’t we always feel it? Just to manage your expectations: I don’t know. But being loved is definitely not the same as feeling loved, and There might be an intrusion into your ability to feel God’s love for you. If so, these things can dull or suspend our ability to feel as we might otherwise feel. For a season at least, perhaps you will not be able to feel His love, and knowledge will have to suffice.
His voice is pleading when we might be in that place of doubt, not knowing, or sin. We just have to act on faith and wait it out a little bit. We have to look at the facts or God’s love for us even if we can’t feel it now. We need to get a bigger perspective and “see the forest for the trees” or get a 30,000-foot view of the situation.
“Can you take a step back from whatever is in front of you and maybe another step and another, until you see a wider landscape, wider and wider still if necessary until you are literally “thinking celestial” because you are looking at the stars and remembering worlds without number and through them their Creator?”
When You Feel God’s Love—Joy!
When you are filled with love, whenever it is in this life, “please try and hold on to it as effectively as a sieve holds water. Splash it everywhere you go,” Elder Hirst said. Think about that love splashing all around your family, spouse, friends, co-workers, fellow church members, and strangers you interact with. Let’s douse them with that love because it fills you with that Joy—His Joy!
The joy of the gospel is available to all: not just the happy, not just the downcast. Joy is our purpose, not the gift of our circumstances. We have every good reason to “rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men.” Let’s get full.
Join me Tuesday, November 26th at 6:30 pm on the Beacon of Light Podcast From the Pulpit as I share my insights on Elder Karl Hirst's talk and how to "Become God's Favorite!"
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