I’ve been reviewing Beth Moore’s chapter on "Believing you are who God says you are.” It’s not only a mouthful, but a topic that can go quite deep . . . Beth is good at that . . . but at the moment I feel like a took too big of a bite and need to chop it up a bit.
To get perspective, the first place I went to is one of my favorite Psalms . . . Psalm 139. I will highlight parts of it.
“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar. ..
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in – behind and before:
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain . . .
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
and the light become night around me,
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully
and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
All the days ordained for me were written
in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God, How vast is the sum of them!”
I remember, as a small child, not feeling comfortable with hearing that God sees everything. I went as far as hanging a dark towel over the window, thinking that what I was doing may be wrong and I did not want God to see. I can smile about it now, but I also realize that we can have the wrong perception about how God may judge us.
A fact that encourages me now is that because God made me, He knows me. He’s okay with me not being perfect and delights in the fact that in my imperfection, I still seek Him. If I were a perfect puppet in His hands, would His pleasure be the same?
“He knows how we are formed; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14
Therefore He gives me strength . . .
“My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12 :9
and He makes me able . . .
“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5
Who I believe I am may not always correspond with what everyone else believes. Noah was terribly outnumbered and scoffed as he built the ark that God had asked him to build. It took him a hundred years or so . . . time enough to doubt that what God had said, would ever happen.
In conclusion, I am content in the knowledge that I am not an accident, that my life has a purpose and that His thoughts toward me . . . .and you . . . are precious.
15 comments:
Great post... Love the photo on your blog header, what a beautiful flower!
It is amazing that the God of the universe loves us. A hard thing to wrap my mind around but I'm happy to have His truth to read and lean on and believe...
Beautifully written! My daughter and I were just discussing this Psalm last night. We are totally amazed that our heavenly Father loves us and keeps working on us and through us.
That deep purple tulip is gorgeous!
A good Psalm to read over and over again...to remind us of who we really are. Precious...in His eyes.
Thank you for this message of comfort & hope, which I needed so badly today. I am going through some deep waters over the past few weeks, and it's often hard not to become discouraged & lose sight of these things that I know to be true.
His strength is made perfect in my weakness. He created me to be a unique child of His own. His faithfulness is as sure as the dawn. As many as may be the promises of God - in Him they are YES! "I will choose to listen & believe the voice of truth."
God bless you overwhelmingly today!
Vange
Anneliese, I know you always have monday's post in the works the week before and I was struck at how perfectly it works with my Bread for the Journey yesterday. yes. . .I agree .. we are indeed precious in his eyes and that is really all that matters.
Your new blog header is so beautiful. It's my favorite so far.
thank you <3
First of all, love your new header! Beautiful. Secondly, thanks for the encouragement and reminder that yes, God made me. Feeling overwhelmed by medical issues/questions right now, so reminding myself that God made me and He knows the answers. I'll keep asking Him to show me and my doctors!
You were not alone in wanting to have a bit of privacy from God's gaze as a child. The LDS made their children even more nervous: A local columnist wrote that as a Mormon child he was also informed that ALL his ancestors also saw everything he did.
As he put it "I didn't take a poop for a week after learning that."
Poor kid. He eventually decide if the ancestors were going to be that nosy, he would show them by engaging in some real horrible behavior. Then he decided that his ancestors probably had better things to do than watch what a school aged boy was up to.
That used to be my favorite passage, as a young person...it gave me the worth I needed in Christ.
A great message to keep sharing to the lost and broken hearted.
Love this one today. It is a wonderful message of love and worth. I love that Psalm too.
We had to wait three years before finally getting pregnant with our first child. I framed this Psalm and hung it over his crib. So, it has always been special to me. Incredible that the One who knows us best...loves us most.And it is His love that gives our lives value. He is truly a God of mercy and grace. Thanks for this very meaningful post!
I am encouraged that God sees everything and loves us unconditionally.
Beautiful header!
Such encouraging words!! I used the amazing story of Noah with my jr. Sunday School class recently, so I enjoy your comments about his story! The scripture is a favorite of so many, yet so personal for each of us!
Beautiful and true. Thank you for the encouragement.
Post a Comment