Jesus Loves me

I was listening to a speaker last night (Richard Showalter). He was talking about how the love of God can propel us in our ministry. One of the stories that he told was about a research team that decided to try and figure out the characteristics of a successful Christian leader. Their plan was survey (or evaluate) different successful Christian leaders and figure out what characteristics they had. Then compare and eliminate all the ones that did not match. So the end result would be that they would have a list of characteristics that all the leaders had in common. So they did their study. They asked questions about prayer life, bible reading, public speaking, and so on. When they finished that all the leaders only shared one characteristic. They were all convinced that God loved them.
This sense of being loved and being loved by God effects our entire lives. It is this sense of being loved that allows us to truly move forward. It gives us the confidence to risk and even fail.
Now I have grown up in the church so of course I have heard that God loves me. But do I really, really know that? Do I feel it in my bones? Do I allow God's love to define and redefine me? Do I constantly seek love in other areas of my life? Do fail to risk because I am scared to fail because I feel that will effect how God loves me? Am I ready to receive God's love?

"Jesus loves me this I know..."