Does God hate me?
Answering the internet's most heart-breaking Q.
“Why does God hate me?” is a top-searched question about God on the internet. Since 2021, more people are asking it everyday. In fact, the question is on an upward trend.
Perhaps you’ve asked the question online, through ChatGTP or in your heart.
Maybe it’s because you feel so guilty about something you’ve done—a lie you told to someone who trusted you, an addiction you can’t quite beat, a recurring problem or fear that won’t disappear.
Or maybe you don’t even know why you feel it. It’s the lingering sense that’s been there as long as you remember. Nothing goes your way. Everyone else has the upper hand. Blessing is a foreign land you don’t set foot in.
So it must be that God doesn’t like you. At all. Well, my friend. You are wrong. Dead wrong.
God, in fact, doesn’t just like you, he actually loves you. Deeply. Personally. More than anyone else does or ever could. With a love that goes beyond logic or feeling.
God loves you with an everlasting love.
And I have the receipts.
Here are just a few passages from scripture that reveal and prove this love. These are handwritten notes God gave as evidence to ensure you'd get the memo.
The go-to verse about God’s love - John 3:16
John 3:16 is an ultimate verse about God’s love, expressed through the centuries. Do you have a childhood memory of hearing the words? Perhaps it was from your sweet grandma, or your Sunday school teacher at church.
You’ve probably seen it handwritten on signs in big, bold letters at sports events. Maybe you remember all the controversy surrounding Tim Tebow’s eye black (and the wild story of 3:16 showing up in the famous 2012 playoff game in which he beat the Steelers, throwing 316 yards, with yards per completion being 31.6):
The chaser: 1 John 3:16
The numbers attached to Bible verses aren’t sacred. They were added in 1560 in the Geneva Bible to make reading easier and verses simpler to locate for cross-referencing and study.
But how cool that 1 John 3:16 also powerfully shares the love of God in such a concise way:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Joseph’s story is a technicolour example of God’s active love, even amidst hate
The story of Joseph, who wore the coat of many colours, in Genesis is a great story to spend some time with. Of all the people in scripture who faced trials, Joseph could easily have searched the Egyptian internet to ask the question, “Why does God hate me?”
His brothers sure did. They planned to murder him out of jealousy (because he was his dad’s favourite). Rather than kill him, they sold him into slavery.
But as a slave, he stood out. Not only to his master Potiphar, who trusted him with everything, but to the woman of the house who desired him. When she couldn’t get what she wanted, she falsely accused him, and Joseph was thrown in jail.
Maybe you know the rest of the story (or have watched Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash musical).
Joseph could have believed God hated him. His circumstances seemed to say so. But God out-manoeuvred the haters, and planted the actual truth in Joseph’s heart. In fact, even as he continued to find himself in worse and worse situations, as he was treated terribly by the people closest to him, he couldn’t escape the love and favour of God.
One of the classic, most-quoted lines of the Old Testament still shocks and inspires readers today. Joseph uttered it when his famine-stricken brothers were at his mercy in Egypt and discovered the brother they thought was dead because of their jealously and evil, was actually their meal ticket and rescuer: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).
Joseph could have believed God hated him due to his circumstances. The opposite was always true. It would have been a different story if he believed the lie.
Wow, bro. So you shared a few verses and now I’m supposed to be convinced?
Unravelling the lie that you’re not loved takes time. If you think that God isn’t for you, and doesn’t love you, it’s your thinking that needs a shift.
I can’t do that for you.
But may I suggest an experiment? Just start.
Just start reading about God’s love for you. Read verses like the ones above, from the source itself. Truth is the antidote to the lie just as sunlight is a solve for darkness. Open the heavy curtains to the light as you open up God’s Word.
The truth, as you immerse yourself in it, starts to change you and how you think.
(If you’re not much of a reader you can listen to God’s word too. Just download the Bible App and listen to the following passages on audio).
And if you think God doesn’t love you. Someone or something is telling you the lie. So, perhaps consider what you’re listening to and what the source of the lie is. As you start reading and listening to God’s truth, consider what or who you need to stop listening to as well.
Love proved out in the greatest gift.
God is a Father who gives good gifts to his children. A proof scripture gives of this loving relationship is Jesus' famous passage on prayer and the Holy Spirit in Luke. No father would give their child a snake when they ask for an egg. Or a stick of dynamite when they ask for a burrito.
We can all agree on that, right?
Dads are hardwired to help meet the needs their kids have, feeding them with food that will nourish, not giving dangerous animals or objects instead of the life-giving food for which they vocalize their need. With this universally agreed upon fact, Jesus gives proof of God's love by telling us he gives the Holy Spirit.
In the coming weeks weeks I’m going to write about why having the Holy Spirit is a good thing. Who the Spirit is, and why the gift of the Spirit is such evidence of God’s love. I plan to do so by diving deep into the book that introduced us all to him in the first place: the book of Acts.
Come along for this journey
You don’t have to be a scholar. You don’t have to be a lifelong believer. You don’t have to be a super holy person. You can just start reading the Bible. It was written for you. It’s words will change and empower you, and it will give you hope.
Just Start (Reading the Bible) is a new series I’m developing in 2026 here on my newsletter. It’s designed to help and encourage people just like you to start reading God’s word again or for the very first time.
If you liked this, here’s some other posts that may interest you.
Andrew - I answered your poll today on what content I like most. I like all your content but particularly your writing about Scripture with the lens of todays culture. I'm happy to hear you want to write about reading the Bible. Honestly of all the subjects you could write on - nothing more impactful. 👍🙏
Beautiful truths and promises to cling to