Unlikely Guests

I LOVE this time of year…the crisp leaves crunching under our feet, the cool air and mixture of bright sunshine and cloudy days…the building anticipation of the holidays just over the horizon.  At my house, the fall decorations are all up, the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spices are looming in the air (thanks to my stock of candles) and I find myself thinking about what fun get-togethers I can come up with.  I love spending time with my girlfriends, whether we are getting together for a meal and conversation, having a baking or jam making party, a game night…doesn’t really matter to me.  I just love hanging out with other women, talking about real life and sharing a ton of laughs…and we laugh a lot!!  But we also share our hearts and our struggles and at times our tears.

As we head into this particular holiday season, I’m highly aware of a lot of hurting people around me… women struggling with health issues, families that are falling apart, marriages in distress, financial stressors, parenting struggles, churches under attack, relationships in crisis, depression, loneliness, and a whole lot of loss.  It can be overwhelming at times to think about all the pain that is being experienced by the women around me.  I’ve found myself asking how to help them…how to reach out and share God’s love and grace to these broken daughters of the King.

This morning I ran across a post in a blog that really spoke to my heart.  The author was sharing that like myself, she loves to plan events, get-togethers, and specifically parties for her kids and one of the things she and her children spend a lot of time working on is the guest lists for these various events.  Here’s an excerpt from her post:

“When my children and I make their party guest lists together, we prayerfully ask the Lord to put those on our hearts who would be blessed by receiving an invitation. Perhaps a friend who is not financially able to host birthday parties themselves. Or someone who is dealing with paralyzing emotional pain. Maybe someone whose parents are going through a divorce. Perhaps a friend who is shy and tends to be socially isolated. Or the one who has rough edges, is not easy to be around and doesn't see God's loving acceptance of them. The poor, the lame, the crippled and the blind.

Truth is, without Jesus and His redemptive love, we are all "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind." Even in Christian circles, we can feel like the outcast or the unwanted guest. We've all experienced that "I wasn't invited" feeling. An invitation speaks of acceptance, inclusion, care, love, worth and friendship. God's Word tells us to extend invitations to unassuming guests.

The Lord of Hosts beckons us to come to His wedding banquet. As we unfold and accept His invitation, we are seated at the table of the King. Just as we are chosen by God to be guests of honor at His party, let's select unlikely guests and place them at the top of our own guest lists. You are honoring God by inviting the poor, lame, crippled and blind. "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God" (Proverbs 14:31, NIV).”

~Sharon Sloan

http://www.proverbs31.org/devotions/the-guest-list-2009-11/

The holiday season is upon us and if you’re anything like me, there will be a variety of family functions, work Christmas parties, and get-togethers that I will be either attending or hosting.  But this idea of inviting “unlikely guests” speaks to my heart in a deep way.  It doesn’t matter how old we get, the human nature of our hearts desires to be accepted…to be loved…to be seen and matter to others.

So my challenge to all of us (myself included) is to reach out to the broken and hurting…to include the “unlikely guests” on our guest lists this season and to send them an invitation.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a get-together.  Here are a few ideas:

1. Invite women to bring their Christmas cards or craft projects and spend an afternoon or evening working on them while enjoying some great conversation and some coffee/tea and cookies.
2. Host a game night and ask the ladies to bring a snack to share.
3. Invite a group of ladies to come over for a day of baking.  The idea is that each person brings a recipe or two and ingredients and once everything is made, each woman goes home with a little of each recipe.   Or…as a group you could put together goodie baskets, add a note of encouragement or a scripture, and give them out to others that are struggling or just need to be blessed.

Be creative and think about the woman that perhaps attends your church, but sits in the back quietly and leaves without interacting with others…or the single mom who is overwhelmed and struggling…or the woman who struggles with social skills, but desperately wants to be a part of the group.  Ask God to show you who you can bless in this way and then choose to be the hands and feet of Jesus in her life.

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." 

~Hebrews 13:2

"...not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."
~Philippians 2:4

"And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."
~Hebrews 13:16

Free Indeed

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

~Hebrews 2:14-18 (NIV)~

These two verses carry a lot of meaning for me, especially when it comes to my journey over the last couple of years which has been filled with breaking chains of bondage and replacing lies with His truth. As I was reading through a couple of commentaries regarding these verses, I stumbled across this comment:

“…Christ knew what he must suffer in our nature, and how he must die in it, yet he readily took it upon him. And this atonement made way for his people's deliverance from Satan's bondage, and for the pardon of their sins through faith. Let those who dread death, and strive to get the better of their terrors, no longer attempt to outbrave or to stifle them, no longer grow careless or wicked through despair. Let them not expect help from the world, or human devices; but let them seek pardon, peace, grace, and a lively hope of heaven, by faith in Him who died and rose again, that thus they may rise above the fear of death.” 

~Matthew Henry, Bible Commentator

“Let those who dread death, and strive to get the better of their terrors, no longer attempt to outbrave or to stifle them…”

Well, that pretty much sums up what my plan of action has been most of my adult life…those things that hurt, fears of failure, not measuring up, not being enough, not being lovable or worthy of love, being wounded over and over by people that were supposed to protect me, feeling like I have to perform to deserve love…let’s just shove all of that (and plenty more) down as far as possible until I can’t feel it every waking moment, and when it creeps back up (which it always does), I’ll just ignore it, put on a brave face, and pretend it’s not hiding right under the surface. I can clearly say that this was NOT a good plan! It was a defense mechanism that allowed me to survive emotionally a lot of painful stuff in the short term, but I have paid a high price for avoiding those wounds and I’ve spent a lot of my life in bondage, with many regrets and largely doing life on my own at a heart level.

Having said that, the last couple of years have been a journey towards healing, exposing those wounds one by one, and allowing God in all His infinite love and mercy to unravel the intertwined messes that have encased my heart for so very long. It is not a fun road, but it is a freeing one, and I’ve been incredibly blessed to have had some amazing people around me throughout this process as well as some professional help. I have discovered a lot along the way, but probably the most important thing I have and am still learning is what it looks like to truly be rescued and loved by our Savior. And I don’t mean rescued in the sense of God getting me out of a bad situation, which believe me has happened more times than I can count. I mean being completely rescued…being brought out of the pit of seclusion and darkness…of woundedness and loneliness…understanding what it looks like firsthand to walk in freedom and in His light while finding rest in the shadow of the Almighty(Psalm 91:1-3)!

I can assure you that I haven’t arrived and this will continue to be a process for me for a long time to come, but I can also tell you as someone who has been there, Jesus didn’t become like us, experience all of our sin and pain, and die for us to remain prisoners in bondage. He came to set the captives free and to give us an abundant life that is full of more than we can ever even imagine (John 10:10)! He has broken Satan’s deathgrip and power over us and it’s now a choice we have to make to choose to walk in His freedom rather than giving Satan a foothold and handing over the power in our lives. It’s not easy, but it’s 100% worth it and I wouldn’t trade what I have found for anything!

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” 

~John 8:36~

Never-Changing

 "But you’ll stay the same, year after year; you’ll never fade, you’ll never wear out." 

~Hebrews 1:12b (MSG)~

How encouraging are those words? No matter the circumstances, no matter how long from now, or how long ago...He is the same. His character is the same.

"For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."

~Malachi 3:6~

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

~Hebrews 13:8~

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

~James 1:17~

But I love the second half of verse 12b...

"You'll never fade, you'll never wear out."

That means there is no end to Him...AND...we can never wear Him out...despite all our attempts to test His love and His faithfulness, whether intentional or not, He will still be here and He'll still be the same...with the same love for us, the same gift of salvation, and extending grace and mercy beyond anything we can comprehend. It blows my mind to look back at my life and see how God has pursued me relentlessly, day after day, year after year, regardless of what I was doing, the lifestyle I was living...it didn't make a difference. No matter how much I change...no matter how far I've fallen, He's exactly the same...just reaching out His hand to me, wiping my tears away, and extending His unconditional grace and love and saying, "I love you, I will never let you go...let's start again. The cross is this way." No judgment, no running tally of my mistakes or condemnation...just "Let's start again." Wow! In absolute awe of who He is!

True Worship

"But the time is coming--it has, in fact, come--when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.  It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself - Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

~John 4:23-24~

I love this!  There are so many of us that often feel as if we're not enough, have nothing of value to offer Him, or that we are just simply too messed up to even do it right. But God simply wants us...exactly who we are, with all of our flaws and insecurities. He wants us to come as we are and worship and adore Him for who HE is...not focusing on what we are not or are lacking. In fact, it's in those moments of pure worship before Him that He often begins writing on the slate of our hearts..."I love you...You are my precious daughter...and I will never walk away from You."  And as we begin to believe that at a heart level, we have even more to worship and adore Him for.

The Cup of Suffering

I’ve been studying the book of John this summer, taking one chapter a week and this week we find ourselves in Chapter 18.  At this point in the story, Jesus had been preparing His disciples for the days ahead that would soon lead to His death and Judas has already betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver that set a series of events into motion.  Now they find themselves in the Garden of Gethsemane with a group of Roman soldiers, accompanied by Judas on the scene with the intent to arrest Jesus and take Him into custody.  Simon Peter steps forward and draws His sword and cuts off the ear of the High Priest’s slave in an attempt to protect Jesus and interrupt what is about to take place.  But Jesus calmly commands Peter to put His sword away and then asks him a question.

“Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

~John 18:11~

As many times as I’ve read this story over the years, I've never really paid much attention to this question, but it is most definitely one I have to process and let sink in this week.  Here’s Jesus, knowing full well what is about to take place and understanding the pain and suffering that He will endure as God’s plan unfolds, yet He doesn’t panic…He doesn’t try to fight it or demand justice…he simply acknowledges who He is and is content to let God’s plan play out.  I don’t know about you, but when I’ve been wounded or judged unfairly, I want to jump up and down and scream, “This isn’t fair!!  Where’s the justice in this?”  I want to take matters into my own hands and confront the problem or person and make sure that they know the truth and I want to fix it…like yesterday!

Unfortunately, it’s when I take matters into my own hands, that I usually end up in trouble and in a pile of sin because I forced the issue rather than accepting the “cup of suffering” that is part of God’s plan.  And no, it’s not always fair or fun, and yes, it is sometimes painful, and you just want to pull a “Simon Peter” move and let the other person have it because they’ve gotten it all wrong.  (Although I wouldn’t recommend slicing someone’s ear off, lol)

But here’s the thing…if Simon Peter’s actions had stopped God’s plan from unfolding, Jesus wouldn’t have gone to the cross, and where would that leave us?  Sometimes we can have all the rights in the world to react to a situation that is unfair and has wounded us, but if God has a different plan and we choose to ignore it and go our own way, we will likely miss out on what He wanted to teach us, bless us with, or use to touch someone else’s life.  It’s a difficult thing to hold our tongues, to lay those injustices down, and trust that God will take care of the rest of it in His timing.  Maybe He will address the issues in a short period of time, and maybe they will never be addressed, and we just have to accept that and know that God is sovereign, that He loves us, and that HE has a plan not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

As usual, God’s timing is perfect, and while I am so tempted to cry out for justice and “assist” God in revealing some things, LOL…I know that He’s asking me to lay it down and I want to walk in obedience with Him because as hard as that might be and as many times as I might pick it back up and have to lay it down again, I know that He will not abandon me, that He will give me all the things I need to do what He is asking,  and He has promised a great reward at the end of this journey.

Make Yourselves At Home

“Make yourselves at home in my love.” 

~John 15:9~

I don’t think I’ve ever read this verse in this version...what a powerful statement. But what does it look like to make yourself at home?

I have a small group of ladies that I meet with on a regular basis and just do life with. When they come to my home, they are all in my kitchen, they grab whatever they need, help themselves to whatever is in my fridge, wash the dishes that might be left in the sink…etc. They don’t have to ask, they know pretty much where everything is (especially Erika, who at one point re-organized my kitchen on my behalf, LOL)…and we pretty much do the same at their homes as well. We’ve been through some pretty rough stuff this year…worst nightmares coming to light, dealing with sin and dysfunctional relationships, a spouse with cancer, job changes, financial crises, death of loved ones, and through it all, we have rallied around each other, stepped up to help without judgments or disappointments attached, and just extended enormous amounts of grace and unconditional love. It’s all been something somewhat new to all of us on a very deep level over the last year and a half, and now that I’ve experienced it, I don’t know what I’d do without my girls. Mind you…we didn’t start out this way.

About 3 years ago, I started praying specifically that God would bring just a few ladies into my life that would be what I call my inner circle of core friendships…ladies that had my back no matter what and vice versa, that would challenge me and not allow me to become stagnant, and that I could just share my life with through the good, the bad, and the ugly. So after a little over a year of praying hard about this, God started to place some names on my heart. I didn’t know what it would look like and I didn’t want to be the “leader” although I was willing to get the ball rolling. Eventually I contacted all of them and we agreed upon a time to meet…no expectations or obligations…just kind of a let’s see what happens. We did meet and I realized that I was not alone in feeling awkward, scared to be judged, and terrified of sharing the real stuff that was going on. But then we met again…and again…and more and more walls and barriers began coming down…and here we are a year and a half later and not only are we still meeting, but we’ve added a couple of new ladies to our group and have been immensely blessed. It’s far more than I ever imagined, and I honestly didn’t even know that I needed all that I’ve been given until I experienced it.

Having said that, I think that this is similar in our relationships with God. Sometimes we compartmentalize our relationship with God and maybe without even realizing it, we give Him access to parts, but then withhold others out of fear of being rejected, being exposed, facing a lot of pain, etc. But making ourselves at home in His love, I think, requires a couple of things. One…we have to show up. It might be uncomfortable, and like the first night I met with the girls, none of us knew what to expect or how things would go down, but we started by overcoming that one moment of fear and we showed up bright-eyed and terrified, lol. We can’t begin to build deep relationships if we aren’t present. Secondly, we have to be willing to move from “knowing” that God loves us, to “believing” that He loves us. For me, that was a spot that I was stuck at for pretty much my entire adult life until the last year, and please understand that for most of us, that it is a process…at least for me, it took time, effort and some outside professional help to undo some things that I believed about myself and God that stood in the way of believing how much He truly loves me. But I can tell you, that when you get there, it changes EVERYTHING!! There’s nothing off limits, He knows it all anyways, and there is freedom in understanding at a heart level (not head knowledge) that we can’t frustrate God away…He doesn’t keep score and stand ready to accuse us over and over again. Instead, He loves us as His daughters and stands by with tender mercies, compassion, and tons of grace!!! (Psalm 103)

I believe that making ourselves at home in His love is just like any other relationship…sometimes it’s slow…we gain trust and give a little more…let a little more of our guard down…experience love at just a little bit deeper level, which causes us to want to take another step. We find that He is trustworthy and does have our best interests at heart, so we give a little more…that’s how deep relationships are built, right? Eventually we will get to the place where we aren’t protecting those certain “off limit” areas as much and although it’s still hard, we become more willing to invite Him into those places to work in our hearts because we believe that He truly does love us as His daughters and wants us to become more of who we already are and who He intended us to be.

Pleasing Others

Does anyone else in this forum tend to be a “people pleaser” or battle seeking the approval of others? Anyone tried to be the “good Christian” and make sure they did all the proper things, attend every service, make sure we were super involved in ministry, perhaps in an effort to impress God or to seek His approval?

My hand is raised HIGH on all 3 of those questions. But I love what Galatians 2:21 says,

“Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.”

“An abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God” WOW!! Isn’t that what we’re really seeking? Acceptance, grace, and freedom that is unconditional? Definitely an area that I’ve been working on for a while and even in my small victories so far, the change and the depth of my relationship with God has far exceeded anything that I received from trying to impress others.

Verse 20 says,

“It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me.” 

There is such freedom in that! This is something that I’m continually learning to embrace in a practical way. I grew up in a “performance-driven” environment where I learned very early in my life that my self-worth and value were directly tied to what I did and how well I did it. I spent so many years trying to earn the approval of others and that most definitely spilled over into my relationship with God as well. I didn’t believe that I was worthy of God’s grace and it was a never-ending battle to do enough to justify why He would love me.

But that is SO backwards. We cannot earn His love or His grace. It’s a free gift that has been given to us regardless of whether we choose to accept it and embrace it or not. I don’t have to perform...I don’t have to be perfect…I just have to be who I already am with all my flaws, my strengths, and weaknesses. His grace is sufficient for me in all of those things and it’s in acknowledging those moments of weakness and mess-ups in our lives that we can create real and transparent relationships with our sisters in Christ, not to mention that His power and glory SHINES!! (2 Cor. 12:9)

I offer up a challenge that I am taking myself.  When I find myself striving to please someone else, I need to stop, take a breath, and ask two questions.  1) Who am I seeking to please and why?  2) God, how can I please you in this situation?  In some ways it's an intentional choice to retrain my brain.  But if I can get into the habit of asking God to be the driving force behind each day, it will and is getting easier.

Part of the Journey

“But his mother told the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’”

~John 2:5~

I happened to glance down through the commentary notes in my Bible and it said this: “Mary submitted to Jesus’ way of doing things. She recognized that Jesus was more than her human son – He was the Son of God. When we bring our problems to Christ, we may think that we know how He should take care of them. But He may have a completely different plan.”

How often have I come to Him with a problem or situation and then argued with Him about how He was handling it or what He was asking me to do in response to it? But the thing is…every time, I look back later and realize He had the bigger picture in mind and often wanted to teach me something about Himself that I wouldn’t have recognized otherwise.

Such a timely reminder for me these days as I work through some painful circumstances that I’ve managed to avoid for a while. I know in my head that His way is always better, but often my heart reacts out of a desire to avoid pain. I’ve heard this quote many times over the years, but I heard it again this week and it was really encouraging.

“The greater the trial, the greater the testimony.” 

Heaven knows I’m not looking for a bigger testimony, lol. But I do want an effective one and I was reminded again that I can run the race well even when it’s hard. Welcome to the journey of the broken road and I’m so glad we’re all on it together.

A Change of Perspective

"Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man that had been blind since birth.  His disciples asked, 'Rabbi, who sinned:  this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?' Jesus said, 'You're asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame.  There is no such cause-effect here.  Look instead for what God can do.  We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines.' "

~John 9:1-4~

I've been reading through John Chapter 9 this week and each time I went back to it, the same verse leapt off of the page, yet I waited and wondered if I should really share what was going through my mind in such an open forum.  But I am going to share it because as much as I’d like everyone else to think I have it more together than I really do, the truth is that I am a broken person with lots of baggage that is desperately needing the Savior to unpack some of those bags and throw them out and replace them with His grace, acceptance, and love, which is a much lighter load.  That’s been part of my journey over the last six months…going back to some of the deep wounds and hurts that I have somehow managed to bury and avoid, some of them since childhood.  Obviously, I’m not the only one in either that position or in the middle of that process and neither are any of you if you’re relating to what I’m talking about.

For myself, a lot of my baggage comes at the hands of dysfunctional family dynamics that have been passed down over generations.  There have been times when I look at my own situation within my family (husband and kids) and see a variety of mistakes and patterns that I have continued to repeat that have been detrimental to them and I just shake my head and wonder, what was I thinking?  I swore I would never do that to my kids or I promised I would never treat my husband that way…but then, here I am right in the middle of that deep, dark pit, with little idea how to get out of it or how to undo the damage that’s already been done.  Then it seems that I find myself getting angry and wondering how such dysfunctional behaviors (also known as sin) could just keep repeating themselves over and over, generation after generation, when each one is so wounded by them.  Why didn’t someone stop it?  I sometimes want someone to blame for my “lot” in life…but who?  My parents?  My grandparents?  Generations further back? Whose fault is it?

I think that is somewhat the line of thinking from the disciples in verse 2, when they come upon the man who was blind since birth.  They naturally assumed that his “lot” in life was a result of sin and was a punishment.  But I love what Jesus said to him and it’s tweaked my perspective on my own situation.

Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question.  You’re looking for someone to blame.  There is no such cause-effect here.  Look instead for what God can do.  We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines.”

I love the NIV version of verse 3…

”…this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

I can’t change what has happened in the past, but blaming others isn’t going to change it either.  However, I can shift my focus towards where God is working, and I can choose to take ownership of my own actions, behaviors, and thought processes and allow Him to work in the midst of that as He brings healing, reconciliation, and restoration.  Heaven certainly knows that my attempts at avoidance and “stuffing” things hasn’t helped to break the patterns of captivity…but I can and am becoming free of those chains as I’m willing to humble myself and live transparently in my relationship with Him.  He already knows everything about me anyways, so when you think about it, it’s kind of a ridiculous game of hide and go seek that we play with God, who never loses sight of us and knows what we will do before we even do it.

A Good Day

Just sitting here grasping remnants of thoughts before they quickly flee and are replaced with another...so much swirling through my head these days.  Wondering how Matthew is doing and how he is going to deal with not being able to come home next weekend as we had originally planned, and knowing that he is counting down the days and will be so incredibly sad and won't understand.  Thinking about a lifetime of pain that is clawing its way to the surface and just lies in wait to be freed and being absolutely terrified of all that I will find there...knowing some of what is buried and not knowing the many memories and blocks of time that my memory will not recall.  Then looking at a marriage in shambles...so many wounds and resentments...feelings of being abandoned and on my own to keep our family afloat for so many years.  A husband who is finally making efforts to step up...that's what I've always wanted...why doesn't it feel gratifying now?

Add to that financial stress, fear of failure, fear that my son won't forgive us for the mess we allowed our lives to become...that the damage is too great.  It's the first day that I've had any energy to do anything around the house after coming off of all the narcotics from two surgeries, and while the house is clean, I feel little accomplishment.  People keep saying that there will be good days and bad days along the way...nothing bad has happened today...but I feel like I'm floating in raging waters, just keeping my head above water and gasping for every breath.  Everything is so overwhelming...I'm not even sure where to start.  So as days go, it's certainly not been great day...but I'm thankful for the lack of another crisis, I'm thankful that Kevin is stepping up to help,  that we have a steady income regardless of the amount, and that we have amazing friends that are surrounding us with support and love...so I'm choosing to see this as a good day and keeping in mind that God is at work in all of this mess, even if I can't see through it to the other side yet.

"Thank you for responding to me; 

      you've truly become my salvation! 

   The stone the masons discarded as flawed 

      is now the capstone! 

   This is God's work. 

      We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it! 

   This is the very day God acted— 

      let's celebrate and be festive! 

   Salvation now, God. Salvation now! 

      Oh yes, God—a free and full life!"

~Psalms 118:21-25~

True Origins

"My true origin is in the One who sent me..." 

~John 7:29

This statement struck a chord with me as I read through chapter 7 this morning.  A big part of my journey over the last couple of years has been focused on better understanding who I am in Christ...not just the fact that He loves me, but digging deeper in understanding how He sees me and what the depth of His love looks like.

“We are God’s chief creation, and we are here for His pleasure and His glory.  God did not create us so that He could have a front-row seat at an ongoing saga of our follies and failures.  He created us because He delights in us…not because He needed us, but because He wanted us (Revelation 4:11).  God measures His riches by His children.  We are His wealth, the apple of His eye, created to be His treasure.”

~Beth Moore~

We were created in His image and for His pleasure.  He loved us before we knew Him and there is nothing we can ever do to love Him more than He loves us.  As daughters of the King, He does NOT keep a running tally of our faults and mistakes nor does He beat us over the head with them or come after us with a spirit of shame and/or condemnation.  Rather, He is the perfect picture of patience, grace, and unconditional love.  God is FOR us.  He genuinely wants the best for us and wants to give us a life of freedom through Him…we just have to embrace it.

“By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.” 

~Romans 5:1-2~

It is in Him and Him alone that we find our true identity and origin.  I know that I have spent a number of years embracing and believing personal truths that were simply lies that Satan has used to keep me in bondage.  But, as I continue to better understand who I really am in Christ and the more lies I am able to uncover and replace with His Truth, the bigger the steps I am taking towards freedom and that is an amazing part of the journey.

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible and especially from The Message:

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.  We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.  None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.”  

~Romans 8:31-39~

New Perspectives

~Ephesians 3:8-9~

"When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along."

These verses have become a huge source of strength and encouragement for me over the last several weeks.  I’ve been feeling very inadequate as I’ve taken on a new role that I am highly under-qualified to do, and at times I have sabotaged my own success in my head because I was convinced that my lack of training and experience would quickly show their cracks and I would fail.  But as I sit reading these verses yet again, it’s once again hitting me that I have allowed Satan a foothold in my life by allowing him to grab hold of my insecurities and my fears of rejection and failure.  I hate that!!  I’ve allowed him to discourage me and to prey on my weaknesses, which has left me feeling paralyzed in a sense and I find myself holding back.  But I’m also realizing that by only focusing on my own abilities or lack thereof, I have placed God in a box.

But isn’t that exactly what Satan wants?  Isn’t that his plan of attack…to use our fears and insecurities to keep us from doing the things God is calling us to do?  I love what Paul says about it having nothing to do with his natural abilities, but rather that, “God saw to it that I was equipped.”

 ~2 Corinthians 12:9~

“My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.”  

That takes the outcome out of our hands and places it solely in His, which is a very good thing as I tread through unchartered waters with little idea as to what I’m really doing, LOL.  I’m so thankful that His mercies are new every morning and that we serve a God that continually extends grace to us and wants to use the least qualified to do His kingdom work, because in the end, all of the glory and honor and praise will be directed toward Him!!

~Ephesians 3:12~ 

“When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go.” 

For me, that perspective changes everything and allows me to take risks that I’m not necessarily comfortable taking, but I know that He is ultimately in control and His will is going to be accomplished despite my fears and weaknesses! So, I’m choosing to jump into the deep end with both feet, while admittedly still holding my breath, but knowing that I have a lifeguard on watch with a spotless safety record!