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By Posted on Posted in identity, wonderfully made No Comments

The Lord has been speaking to me quite a bit from Psalm 139. These lessons are helping me understand my value in Him. Yesterday, I learned a truth worth repeating to myself multiple times a day:

My value comes from being created in His image.

Today, the Lord turned the lights on (so to speak) when I read verse 14 of the psalm. It states that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” If you’re like me, in the church for more than half your life, then you’ve heard this verse a gazillion times.

Before I could rush on to the next verse, the Holy Spirit nudged me to look closely at the verb phrase and its tense.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The tense of “am” speaks to an unbroken continuity. The tense of “made” speaks to completion. I have been fully made in a way that inspires awe, reverence, and wonder… and it is an ever-present state.

That struck me. This scriptural truth revealed that, down deep, I believe that I was once-upon-a-time created wonderfully, but the world and I have ruined me. Wrong.

God is telling me and you today that what He has made is wonderful. We are awe-inspiring evidence of His creative power.

Exchange your self-criticism and self-loathing for awe. He made you in His own image!

By Posted on Posted in God's love, identity No Comments

Where does your value come from? If you’re like me, you fall into the trap of thinking that your value comes from:

weight and appearance

intelligence and schooling

talents and accomplishments

success in marriage and parenting

faith and spiritual discipline

financial situation

This morning while I was reading Psalm 139, the Lord flooded me with truth.

 13 For you created my inmost being;  you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,  I know that full well.

He began to speak to my heart so clearly:

Before you could think, plan, respond, or resist, I created you. I planned a life for you. I chose you for a purpose. I did not find you in a desperate moment and take pity on you; I made you. I’ve always known you, in the deepest and truest sense. I have led you and carried you often.

I have never wondered for one moment “what to do with you”. I planned from the beginning of time to create you, to love  you, to empower you as my child. I have a clear purpose for your life. I want to use your hands and feet to make a difference in this lost and hurting world.

Beware, however, of thinking that your value comes from your gifts or your anointing. Someone with a less obvious anointing or dormant gifts is not less valuable. Using your gifts does not make your more valuable.

You are chosen, you are Mine. You were not chosen because of your “value”. You were created by Me. Your value comes from My breath in you. It comes from being made in My image.

You love your children because they came from you. You are bound to them. Your love does not come from their personality or performance, it comes from your attachment to them, your relationship to them. You loved them before they could ever love you back. You loved them even before you saw them.

That is how it is with you and I.

 

By Posted on Posted in breakthrough, surrender, trusting Him 1 Comment

An excellent question was posed at bible study Tuesday night. We were discussing how Jesus tore the veil that separates us from God when he died on the cross;  how we have complete and unhindered access to God.  However, we allow things to come between us and the Lord. Here lies the question… what veil have I allowed to be hung in my heart? What keeps me from drawing intimately close to my God?

We took a moment to be silent and ask Him to reveal the veils that hide our hearts. God was undeniably clear with me. It is my fear of losing control over my life, loved ones, and circumstances that keeps me from being ever-close and abandoned to God.

The Lord has brought me a long way from the self-protecting, self-sufficient, controlling person that I became in my teenage years.  While I have learned to let God have more and more control, I have not managed to escape the fear that comes when I do yield to Him. I still have to wrestle quite a bit to get to the place of letting go. The enemy pushes my deep-rooted fear buttons and tries to convince me that giving up control is too dangerous.

This morning, God revealed a breakthrough truth to me:

Surrendering and yielding to God does not mean that I am powerless.

It does not mean that I am completely lacking control in the situation. It is MY choice to surrender to God. It is MY decision to let Him have control over my family, finances, and future. Surrender is not a place of weakness or powerlessness. I am choosing to put my trust in the One that makes the best decisions for me and the ones I love. The One that knows the perfect solution to my quandries. The One who has a full provision for all of my needs. I am choosing to rest in the embrace of the One who cannot be moved.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29