Questioning...

Which question are you most likely to ask?

Does Jesus really love me?
OR
Am I capable of being loved?

How you frame the question reveals how you feel about your relationship with God.  Any distance from God will be expressed in increasing sin.  So, whether it's a tightening grip on perfectionism, increased isolation, hopelessness, anger, promiscuity, failure to steward well (time, money, body), or whatever it may be: all is an expression of your distance from your savior.  And one way to measure this gap is to get to the root.  The root is the questioning either of Jesus, or yourself.

Does Jesus really love me?  This is a question that questions whether God is really good and whether he is really personal.  Is he trustworthy?  Does he keep his promises?  This suggests that the state of the World, all the hurt is too much for God.

Am I capable of being loved?  This is a question that focuses on the self.  It also subtly suggest that God is not all powerful and not able to overcome.  Sneakily it tells us that we are bigger than God, because our loathsomeness is too much for the creator of the Universe to overcome.

All of this gets into the nature of Grace and what we deserve.  Rather than getting into the details of the Doctrine, a better route would be to look out rather than to look in.  I've asked you to consider some questions.  These questions are good for shaping your prayers.  We needn't pray for Jesus to love us and we needn't pray to be loved.  Those questions have been answered.  We need to pray for the gap that we have created.  Introspection is not the answer.  That is well covered ground.  Instead we should consider the discovery possible by seeking the Infinite Jesus.  We should consider all that we do not know about our neighbors.  We need to be less in order for him to be more and him being more is the best of all things.  In many ways, both in the Bible and in life, people come to Jesus to ask him how they should regard themselves in relation to the Kingdom of God.  His painful responses are typically, "You shouldn't regard yourselves at all!"

"What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  The Rich Man.  Mark 10:25
"Let me go bury my Father first?"  The man that said he will follow Jesus. Matthew 8:22
"Turn your other cheek, give up your clothes, lay down your life."
It nevers says in red letters, "More self-examination!"

John the Baptist not surprisingly, gets it right when his disciples were arguing about Jesus:

John 3

 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”[h]