 Hey everybody, welcome back to another video where we will be answering your questions. We've taken a bunch of questions from Google, the most commonly asked religious questions, and believe it or not, in one state, Texas, the most common search question was, why does God hate me? So the title of this video will most likely be, why does God hate me? And if you're watching this video, I want you to know that God does not hate you. God is your Father, He loves you, hopefully you have a Father on earth who appreciates and loves you, or a mother. And so you can understand what that love is like, or if you're a parent, you can understand what love would be like for one of your children. But God does love you, I want to start off with that, and I think my, what I wonder as people are searching that question, why does God hate me? I feel like there are circumstances in their lives that maybe they don't understand. Maybe bad things are happening to them, that they feel are out of their control, or they don't deserve. And so one thing to think about first would be, you know, those things that are happening to you, are those because of other people, like are the choices of other people kind of causing you to go through stress and trial? Is it someone in your family, I can think of a circumstance where someone, they lost a child and it was very tragic and sad, and this person was mad at God and really kind of blamed God for the things that were happening. But if you analyze the situation a little more, there were choices that a family member had made, which weren't good choices, they had gotten involved in drugs and become addicted, and because of their choices, bad things happened, and it wasn't necessarily God at all. And I think we need to understand that God has given all of us freedom, and he has given that to us as a gift, and with that freedom to choose comes consequences, and we need to be able to take responsibility for those who not blame God. I'm going to be reading a few verses from the Book of Mormon that will help us understand more about the love of God, but don't blame God for things that happened in your life. Try to seek out and see his love, and we're going to talk about a few ways that that can happen. But there's a scripture in 1st Nephi chapter 17, and I want to read verse 40 and 41, and it says that, and he loveth those who will have him to be their God. God loves people who believe in him and who want him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he remembered the covenants which he had made, wherefore he did bring them out of the land of Egypt, and he did straighten them in the wilderness with his rod, for they hardened their hearts even as he have, and the Lord straightened them because of their iniquity. So there we learn a couple of things, one, God loves us, and he will make promises with us, and he does expect us to follow him, and maybe there are times perhaps when things aren't going well in your life, and those times perhaps there are things that you are doing that aren't best, and so there needs to be a course correction. But I found that very often what happens is bad things happen to people, and is due to the choices of others, and we tend to blame God instead of blaming those who really should be held accountable. I wanted to read another scripture in the Book of Mormon, which does a great job of helping us feel the emotion of love that God has for us. One of the prophets, Lehi, in 2 Nephi, chapter 1, in verse 15, he's talking, and he says, But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell. I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. So how's that for an image? Just being embraced, like I mean you can think of these are images of Christ, but God is in his image, or he's in God's image, and just imagine receiving and embraced from a loving Father in heaven as his child. And that's just a beautiful thing and a wonderful thing to think about. And I love how the Book of Mormon kind of shows that emotion of being accepted and loved and wrapped in God's arms. There's another scripture in 2 Nephi chapter 4, verse 21, and it says, He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh. Now I had a personal experience, probably 10 years ago. I was really struggling with this, not does God hate me, but does God love me? I just wasn't feeling, and I needed to feel that he loved me, that he knew who I was. I needed to feel it, and so I remember going through a period of time where I would pray often to try to figure that out, did God love me? Please help me feel it. I feel like my relationship with my dad wasn't the greatest, and so for me, understanding that there's a God in heaven who loves me completely is maybe a little trickier for me. But I was praying really hard to have God let me know that he loved me. And I remember exactly where I was in my living room as I was praying. I stood up after praying, and I was right by our piano, and I got filled with this all-consuming feeling of love. Just as it says here, he filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh. And I felt that. I really did. I have only felt it once. I haven't felt it a lot of times. But I did feel it that one time, and that's helped me to feel of God's love for me. And I want us to think a little bit about that. I think one of the problems with wondering if God hates us or if he loves us is not recognizing the way that he actually shows his love. And so there's a scripture I wanted to read. It talks about, actually I'm not going to read this one. But if you look in the Book of Mormon under love, there's a lot of scriptures. And my favorite from the Bible is talking about God's love, and that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. And that's what better proof is there of God's love than the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his Son so that you and I, we could repent of our sins, be forgiven, and that we could be resurrected. That's just a wonderful thing. But let's think about a few ways that you can receive God's love. And these are some things that I've really thought about lately. God shows his love through other people. I think oftentimes we pray to God and we want God to give us an answer. But then we don't recognize when other people are sent by God to show us that love. And I'm actually going to put a link in this video below. And then maybe a little button up here or there. Right now it's going to pop up with a link to a video about a lady who kind of was going through something similar. She didn't feel like God loved her. She's praying that God, please show me you love me. Tell me you love me. And she had a lot of people come and try to express that love. And she's pushing him off, pushing him off. She wanted to feel God's love. Anyway, great video, we'll watch that. So through other people is how we can feel God's love. And then also I think children and like little babies, they're just so full of love. You can feel just love and they just are so loving and they are so interested in you and willing to express that love and share that love. Another thing that helps me feel God's love is music. Really good uplifting like Christian music or hymns. That is a way that I feel God's love. I actually was singing a song this past week in our sacrament meeting. It's called How Gentle God's Commands. How kind his precepts are. I wish I had a hymn book on me and I could read those lyrics to you, but maybe I'll post those in the description below too, but God loves us and when we listen to music and are reminded of those things in song, for some reason it's the most powerful way for me and for lots of people to feel that love of God. And the last way is through reading the scriptures. Actually in the Book of Mormon, I think this is in Jacob 3 verse 2. It says, Oh all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God and feast upon his love. For ye may, if your minds are firm, forever. So one of the ways that one of these prophets in the Book of Mormon, Jacob said, is as we feast upon the scriptures, we can also feast upon God's love because there are constant reminders of the ways that God has loved people, has blessed them, has given them miracles, has lifted their burdens, has extended his kindness and mercy and grace. Anyway, that is this video. I want you guys to know God does not hate you. Remember, oftentimes the bad things that happen to us are just a result of the choices of other people and God has given us the ability to choose as a gift and we need that gift and with that gift comes bad things often. But also with that gift comes great things and the ability to learn and to grow in this life. So God loves you. One of the next questions we're going to answer is what is sin? What is the resurrection? So if you want to click this little button right here to subscribe, we'll keep putting out great content. And if you have questions, post them in the comment section below. What question would you like me to help answer next by using the Book of Mormon, which again is another testament of Jesus Christ. It's a companion to the Bible, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormons or LVS. We use both the Book of Mormon and the Bible as scripture. And we love them because they bless our lives. And it's one way that we are able to feel of God's love for us. We'll talk to you next time guys, bye.