This week on my podcast (click here to check it out) I spent some time in Isaiah 55. I love this passage because it presents a beautiful invitation from the Lord, in His own voice:

Eternal One: If you are thirsty, come here; come, there’s water for all.

Whoever is poor and penniless can still come and buy the food I sell.

There’s no cost—here, have some food, hearty and delicious, and beverages, pure and good.

I don’t understand why you spend your money for things that don’t nourish or work so hard for what leaves you empty.

Attend to Me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest, most delectable of things.

Listen closely, and come even closer. My words will give life, for I will make a covenant with you that cannot be broken, a promise of My enduring presence and support like I gave to David.

Isaiah 55:1-3, the Voice Bible

We are invited, in our poverty and thirst, to come and enjoy His provision and His presence. We aren’t required to be worthy or bring anything…. just ourselves. We are invited to receive and to hear from Him. Read those verses again. The invitation is so beautiful.

Now, consider this question. When the Lord beckons to you to come and enter into His care, how do you approach?

Perhaps you head right in, as a child who’s come home breezes through the front door with excitement and confidence.

Or maybe you hesitate, as though you’re a servant who must cautiously enter in through the back entrance.

Which best describes you? Take a moment to talk to the Lord about this. Press in to get a sense of His response to you.

Tell me about it in the comments below if you feel comfortable!

Without a doubt, God wants you to come boldly through the front door of His presence and approach knowing how much you are wanted and loved. Though we do serve Him, we are first and foremost His children, loved and cherished. No more entering through the servant’s entrance and hovering in the shadows to gather courage for an approach.

Come on in through the front door. You’re home.

 

Sometimes when shame infiltrates our core at a very young age, it can become a guiding force in our lives. Even though we know we’re saved, cleansed from sin and forgiven, we can still find ourselves operating out of that core of shame. It can lead to perfectionist tendencies, an inability to say no to others, a desire to hide our hearts from others, self-sabotage, and even addictive behaviors. We are either making decisions out of shame, or we are looking for ways to escape and numb the shame. Read more »

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!