Does Jesus Know You Love Him?

This morning around 3 a.m., I experienced something I know many of you may have also faced at one point in your life: a sleep paralysis attack. It is a strange and frightening experience where you are caught between sleep and waking, aware of what is happening but unable to move. I felt the heaviness press down, almost like a rugby team pinning one player to the ground. For a couple of minutes, it tried to keep me silent, but even before my mind fully woke, my spirit had already begun to pray. My mouth moved on autopilot, praying in the Spirit, reaching for God in that shadowy moment.

The insistence of this dark presence to keep me quiet was startling. Yet even in that weight, I knew I needed a new tactic. I fixed my thoughts on Jesus. I remember thinking, “Jesus, I have You inside me. You love me. How can You let this happen to me?” That is when I sensed His whisper. Gentle yet firm, He said, “I want to hear you say it.”

From the core of my being, with a whisper that felt like thunder rolling through eternity, I answered Him: “Jesus, I love You.” Instantly, the darkness fled. Not just lifted, not just eased, but fled in a flash, gone without a trace.

The victory was delicious.

This is what lingers in my heart now: Does Jesus know you love Him?

We know from Scripture that His love came first. First John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” It is not our love that initiates the relationship but His. He is the one who crossed the distance, who bore the cross, who looked at our weakness and did not turn away. He loved us before we ever whispered His name, before we even knew how desperately we needed Him.

And yet there is something powerful, life-changing even, about us answering back. About us not just knowing in our heads that He loves us, but speaking out loud: “Jesus, I love You.”

The Song of Solomon 8:6 describes love as “strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.” That is the kind of love Christ has for His people. That is the kind of love that drove Him to Calvary. And that is also the kind of love that He stirs within us when we belong to Him.

In that moment of spiritual struggle, I realized something. Jesus already knew I believed in Him. He already knew I prayed, served, followed. But He wanted my voice to say it. He wanted to hear me confess what my heart was already feeling. The whisper, “Jesus, I love You,” wasn’t just for Him to hear. It was for me too. It was my reminder that my love is alive, that it matters, that it has power when spoken.

We are not saved by the strength of our love for Him. Salvation rests on His love for us, the unshakable foundation that He has already laid. But when we voice our love back to Him, we step into the intimacy He designed for us. Love that remains hidden and unspoken can wither. Love declared becomes strong, like fire, like thunder, like the sunrise after the longest night.

So I ask you, friends, does Jesus know you love Him?

Not simply in the abstract way we sometimes speak of God. Not as part of a creed or confession repeated without thought. But personally, tenderly, passionately. Have you whispered His name and told Him directly, “I love You”?

Life has its battles. Some of them come in the middle of the night, unseen by anyone else. Some of them come in the middle of the day when worries pile on and hope feels far. But in every battle, love is stronger than the darkness. Love will not be silenced. Love is what made Him endure the cross. Love is what makes us endure the fight.

The moment you say, “Jesus, I love You,” something shifts. The darkness that tries to keep you pinned begins to break. The shadows flee. Heaven itself bears witness.

He already loved you first. The ball is in your court now.

Will you say it?

Love,

Cathy.