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He is strong.” Nothing happened at the end of that first day, but he persisted. For weeks he would sit and sing the same melody with greater conviction each time: “Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”
    As the days passed, the patients began singing with him one by one. Amazingly, by the end of the first month, thirty-six of the severely ill patients were transferred from the high-dependencyward to a self-care ward. Within a year, all but two were discharged from the mental institution. 1
    These simple words, “Jesus loves me! This I know,” were first penned as a poem by Anna Bartlett Warner, an American writer born in 1827 in Long Island, New York. In 1862, the prolific hymn composer William Batchelder Bradbury set the words to the tune that we are familiar with today and added the chorus, “Yes, Jesus loves me!” The popularity of the hymn spread rapidly across America and to every continent in the world. It has been translated into many languages and quickly became one of the best-known and loved hymns of all time.
    The hymn’s ongoing popularity lies in its succinct elegance in unveiling Jesus’ heart. It beckons one to recognize that no matter what challenges, failures, and misdeeds one might be dealing with,
the love of Jesus remains a constant
.
    No matter what challenges, failures, and misdeeds one might be dealing with, the love of Jesus remains a constant.
    “Jesus loves me! This I know.”
    How so?
    “For the Bible tells me so.”
    So simple, yet so powerful.
    Whether we feel it or not, Jesus’ constant love for us rests in the truth and on the foundation of His unchanging Word. It proclaims that His love for you and me is based utterly and completely on Him. On His promises, His work, and His grace.
    God’s Love for You Is Unconditional
    Do you believe that God loves you today? No matter how many mistakes you’ve made in your life, I’m here to tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt that God loves you. He loves you with an everlasting love. Right now, regardless of the challenges you may be going through, I want to encourage you to see yourself walking under an open heaven, surrounded by His unmerited favor. Expect good things in your future. Believe in His love for you. Believe with all your heart that you are the apple of His eye and the delight of His heart. Believe that you are highly favored, greatly blessed, and deeply loved!
    God’s love for you is unconditional. It’s a love that is so pure, pristine, and marvelous. It has nothing to do with your performance, but everything to do with who you are in God’s eyes—His beloved. The emphasis of the old covenant of the law was all about your love for God, whereas the emphasis of the new covenant of grace is all about God’s love for you. The sum total of the law under the old covenant is, “You shall love the L ORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5, see also Matt. 22:37, 40).
    Let’s be honest here. Have you ever met anyone who can love God this way? Of course not. Even David, whom the Bible describes as a man after God’s own heart, didn’t love God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength. It’s a human impossibility. The law was designed to show us that we are incapable of loving God perfectly.
    Knowing that man wouldn’t be able to fulfill His commandment to love Him with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength, do you know what God did? He demonstrated how only
He
could love us with all His heart, all His soul, all His mind, and all His strength when He sent His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from all our sins with His own blood. That is why the new covenant is all about God’s love for you and not your love for Him! Under grace, God doesn’t want you to focus your thoughts on, “Do I really love God?” That’s not the focus of the new covenant. Under grace,