Madelyn Murray O’Hair, the outspoken atheist who was instrumental in getting prayer removed from public schools seemed, on the surface, to be tough as nails. Yet recently her journal was uncovered and numerous times she had written, “Somebody, please love me.”

People will do just about anything in order to feel loved. Some people think, “If I succeed enough, people will love me,” or “If I sleep with this person, he or she will love me,” or “If I am pitiful enough, people will feel sorry for me and begin to love me.” The problem is, none of these strategies work. Those who pursue love by means of success usually end up feeling used and unappreciated. The same can be said for those who try to trade sex for love. Those who use a pity as a means of earning affection usually find that pity soon turns to contempt, and they end up feeling alone and abandoned.

I have discovered that most people who feel unloved have a distorted view of reality. They aren’t really completely unloved–they just don’t recognize the love that is in their life. Their emotional pain blinds them to the fact that they have friends and family who love them very much.

I want to say this to you: If you sometimes feel unloved, or if you really are in a position in life where there is no one at all that loves you, there is hope for you today.

Most of you have heard of Kurt Cobain. He was in the band Nirvana, and he single-handedly started a new trend in the world of rock music–it was called “Grunge” music. He sold millions of albums, he had millions of fans, and the critics loved him. He had a beautiful wife and a daughter. And then, on April 5, 1994, he committed suicide. After it happened I saw an interview with a psychiatrist on CNN, and the question was asked, “How could a man who was loved by so many reach such a level of despair?” The psychiatrist said, “The adoring fans were a very small part of Kurt Cobain’s life. His misery was caused by the fact that he felt estranged from the people that mattered most.”

If you feel unloved, there is a hope I can offer you today: There is someone who loves you, and he matters very, very much. And he has gone to amazing lengths to prove it.

God loves you. Most of you have heard that statement thousands of times throughout your life–maybe so many times that the statement has lost some of its impact. Some people think, “Yeah, God loves me. So what? He has to–he loves everybody.”

I want to make something clear: God loves you with all of his heart, and it’s not because he got stuck with you. He doesn’t love you just because you’re part of the big mass of humanity. He loves you individually. He loves you as if you were the only one in the world to love. No matter what you have done, or no matter what your life has been like, God loves you. He wants to share his love with you.

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you… Deuteronomy 7:7-8

…the Lord loves you.

Need proof?

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Look at the cross.

Beyond this God cannot go.