I don’t often share my journal entries. They are deeply personal and usually very prayerful. But even as I wrote the below passage on the way to a reunion, I knew it would be a message for others as well as for myself. As I prepare this passage, I am in flight returning from the reunion, and a re-reading of my entry shows me clearly that God was bolstering me for attacks to come (see getupandwalkblog: All that glitters is not gold.). He was reinforcing me with His validation. I am grateful.
This message is for you: God loves you. He loves you dearly. You are precious. He created you, as you are, specifically for His pleasure. There is nothing you can do or experience in life that will remove you as the apple of His eye. ANYTHING that a person tells you, or that you tell yourself, that is contrary to this truth is an absolute lie. Believe it. Know it. Live it.
Friday, August 2, 2013
(early afternoon, transcontiental flight)
“Even as I try to validate my existence by going after and enjoying things, activities and opportunites in life, I am still completely aware that I mean NOTHING to anyone. I’m disposable. I’m dismissed. I’m unloved. I’m hated. I’m used. I’m abused and taken advantage of and taken for granted.
Father God, it has been only You – Your Word, Your Love, Your Son, Your Spirit – that has sustained and lifted me. Comforted and enlightened me to my true value, my true worth in Your eyes. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.
Where would I be if I believed and responded to and acted upon what people think about me, and say about me or treat me? How pitiful would I be if I believed the lies of people who know not love? If I allowed their hate to hollow me out and fill me with bile? If I allowed their silence to be representative of my existence?
How blessed am I that you have revealed Your Love and Spirit to me! So blessed that I can hold on to You in the storms of uncertainty and a whirlwind of attacks. You, my Rock, my Shelter, my Strong Arm, my Provider – You, my Father, my Creator, my Builder, my Designer, my Teacher, my Encourager – You have blessed me so. I bless You back, Father God, with all that You are in me, I praise Your Name, I worship You, I honor You. I show Your light deposited into me to those with eyes to see it and a heart to embrace it.
Thank you for this word, Father! I needed it! You are Great, Magnificent and Marvelous!”
Amen. Amen. Amen
ANCHOR (BEAUTIFUL EULOGY) by Josh Garrels
Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it — the LORD is his name: “Call to Me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” – Jeremiah 33:2-3 (ESV)
