{"id":10426,"date":"2026-03-10T13:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=10426"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:14:39","slug":"gwen-stefani-says-discovering-christs-love-changed-her-life-i-didnt-know-how-to-receive-love-before-blake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2026\/03\/gwen-stefani-says-discovering-christs-love-changed-her-life-i-didnt-know-how-to-receive-love-before-blake.html","title":{"rendered":"Gwen Stefani Says Discovering Christ’s Love Changed Her Life: ‘I Didn’t Know How to Receive Love Before Blake’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DFree \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pop star Gwen Stefani is opening up about how faith and love transformed her life, revealing that she didn’t truly understand how to receive love until she encountered what she describes as “Christ’s love” through her relationship with husband Blake Shelton.<\/p>\n

The Grammy Award-winning singer shared the deeply personal reflections during a recent conversation<\/a> with author and speaker Jeff Cavins on the prayer and meditation app Hallow. During the discussion, Stefani spoke candidly about her spiritual journey and how it has shaped both her personal life and her music.<\/p>\n

Stefani admitted that before meeting Shelton, she struggled with accepting love from others.<\/p>\n

“I also experienced active love, I think, for the first time when I met my husband because I had never really received active love,” she said. “And I don’t think I knew how to even receive it.”<\/p>\n

She explained that expressions of sacrificial love often made her uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

“I would be so uncomfortable when someone was sacrificing or actively trying to love me through their actions,” she said.<\/p>\n

Cavins described that type of self-giving love as reflecting “Christ’s love,” something Stefani said she gradually came to understand through her relationship with Shelton.<\/p>\n

The couple first met in 2014, when Stefani joined NBC’s The Voice<\/em> coaching panel. What began as a professional friendship eventually turned romantic in 2015 after both singers went through difficult divorces. Their relationship grew steadily over the following years, leading to an engagement in October 2020 and a wedding in July 2021 at Shelton’s Oklahoma ranch.<\/p>\n

Since then, the pair have collaborated on several musical projects, including the hit duets “Nobody But You” and “Purple Irises,” and have publicly supported each other through major career milestones.<\/p>\n

Shelton has often spoken about how much Stefani means to him. When he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he credited his wife as the greatest blessing of his life.<\/p>\n

“I kind of stopped checking things off my list of great accomplishments in my life when I married Gwen,” Shelton said during his speech. “She will always be the greatest thing that’s happened along this journey.”<\/p>\n

For Stefani, the relationship has also deepened her understanding of God and her purpose. She shared that earlier in her career, she often felt anxiety about performing and writing music, unsure where her talent truly came from.<\/p>\n

“I always knew it wasn’t coming from me,” she said.<\/p>\n

Over time, however, she came to believe that her abilities were gifts from God.<\/p>\n

“I remember at a certain point in the last 10 years going, ‘No. God made me to do this,'” she explained. “And if I don’t do it and share it, that’s a sin.”<\/p>\n

Stefani now sees her music as a way to share joy and reflect the gifts God has given her, whether through meaningful songs or simply music that makes people smile.<\/p>\n

“God chose me to do that,” she said, adding that learning to accept that calling has been an important part of her faith journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pop star Gwen Stefani is opening up about how faith and love transformed her life, revealing that she didn’t truly understand how to receive love until she encountered what she describes as “Christ’s love” through her relationship with husband Blake Shelton. The Grammy Award-winning singer shared the deeply personal reflections during a recent conversation with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":10456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGwen Stefani Says Discovering Christ's Love Changed Her Life: 'I Didn't Know How to Receive Love Before Blake'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gwen Stefani says discovering Christ\u2019s love through Blake Shelton changed her life and helped her finally learn how to receive love.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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