they will spring up like grass in a meadow

Isaiah 44: 3-5  For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground  I will pour out my Spirit and my blessing on your descendants.  They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like a poplar trees by flowing streams.  One will say, "I belong to the Lord." Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, "The Lord's" and take the name of Israel.

During those tough teen years when kids are figuring out what they think of the faith they have been brought up in and what they will do with this Jesus their parents have set before them I found this passage and highlighted it in my NAS and my NIV.  I wanted to find it quickly and easily to remind myself that no matter what my eyes saw, how badly I failed, how badly my children failed, God would nourish and work it out.  He would pour water on thirsty land and streams on dry ground.  In those years I was often dry ground, parched and cracking.  So I would come to this place and be reminded that I would see meadows and trees by the streams - someday.

Someday is today.  The fullness of those words and the truth of the promise gained life as our grand joys found their way into our lives and our hearts.  Water on thirsty land.  The blessings multiply throughout the years.  But the joy of seeing our grandchildren learn about Jesus and my children walking in faith is a blessing beyond what I could have expected or known.

Perhaps the concern for today is not children.  Maybe it's a bank account that is not quite meeting the bills.  Perhaps it's a diagnosis that even the word terrifies.  A loved one has died and we are left with the memories, the grief of loss, and the loneliness of forced aloneness.  A single life that was filled with passionate pursuit is now simply lonely.  The marriage did not, is not bringing the fulfillment expected.

Whatever the dryness is, there is still hope.  In John 4 we are told of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well of Jacob.  He talks to her for just a few moments and confirms what she says and all of a sudden she gets it.  She runs to town and announces that this man has told her everything she ever did.  The towns people leave their work and go out to the well to see this man.  She was overflowing with living water and they recognized it. They saw the dry land had been saturated in living water and went to the source.

Whatever your life circumstances, he is the answer.  He is the comfort you seek, the healing you need, the answer to the question, and the provider of your needs.  It may not look like what you thought it should, but it will be exactly what it should be when it is laid down before the Mighty God, the Creator, the Most High.  Laying it down in fear and trembling before the One who holds the key to everything, finding the peace that comes only from Him and in the most unpeaceful times, that is gift that is found this side of eternity as we learn to trust him.

Hang on his Word.  He is trustworthy when all else fails.

God's view

Last week I talked about the need to see who we are without Christ in order to recognize the amazing goodness of the Lord toward us.  This week I want to look at what the Word says about us. Seeing the truth of who I am without Christ, I believe, was necessary so I would understand honestly who I am in Christ and that who I am is all about who He is in me.   Getting stuck in that place of self-awareness was never God's intention for my life though. Seeing myself through the eyes of God was His intention all along.

I had defined myself by my sin, by my circumstances, and by every negative thing anyone said to me.  God's Word proved to have a very different opinion about me though.  So let's consider what the Bible has to say to each of us, individually, and grab hold of the amazing love that He lavishes on us.

The first thunderbolt that pierced my armor of self-depreciation was from the book of Isaiah:  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  For I have carved you into the palms of my hands and your walls are continually before me.  (Is. 49:15-16)

I remember the feel of wonder the first time I realized that Jesus literally did this. The Hebrew word for palms include the top of the wrist where the nails pierced him.  Those nail marks were a revelation to Thomas.  They are carried on the beautiful body of Christ into eternity and one day when I stand before him I will see where he carved me into the palms of his hands because he loves me. The marks of death for the sake of my life.

But there are so many more pieces of treasure that continually served as a balm, a healing solvent, liberally applied to the wounds of my soul.  Here are some:

Romans 3:24  I am the forgiven child of God.
Romans 8:1-2 I am the child of God - set free
Romans 8:37   I am the victorious child of God
1 Cor. 1:2       I am God's child and acceptable to him
1 Cor. 1:30     I am a holy child of God
2 Cor. 5:17     I am made new as a child of God.
Ephesians 1:4  I am God's child, I am loved.
Ephesians 2:13 I am God's child who has drawn close to me.
Ephesians 3:12 I am a confident child of God.

Internalizing each of these truths transformed my understanding to allow me to walk in the forgiveness, the freedom, the victory, the acceptance, the holiness, the newness, the love, the closeness, and the confidence that are God's view of who I am, and to see you in that light as well.  God's grace is so full and complete that as we get a glimpse of it and understand just a glimmer of the truth He lavishes on us it changes us from the inside out.  I challenge you to spend some time in the next month as the world focuses on human love to meditate on a few of these verses and draw near to God.

Glorious Princess

One of the sweetest lessons the Lord gently and lovingly imparted to me has been who I am in Him.  The peace of soul that comes with knowing I am a daughter of the Most High is intense, if peace can be described as intense.  Knowing that nothing can take me out of the protection and care I have in the palm of His hand is comforting.  Knowing that I cannot truly make a bad decision for even the really bad ones are used for my good in the end, simply because I love Him and He promised.  All the horrible things done to me and by me are made not simply justified, but good and useful in His hand.

However, it took years before I honestly believed God's Word concerning who I am.  I knew me.  I knew my mistakes, my hatred, my ugliness way down deep.  Do you know what I mean?  Others saw a compassionate, friendly, helpful person.  (These are words others had said to me about me.)  But I knew better and it took layer upon layer of the Lord's kindness and patience telling me, reminding me, speaking anew the truth of His Word that it wasn't about me.

That's it really, isn't it?  It's not about me; what I did or didn't do; what I think or say or feel.  It's about His amazing, abundant, complete, and overwhelming grace following mercy.  Recently I have been thinking about this a little deeper though.

Not only is it not because of me, but those things about me, as I see the truth of them, and realize how desperately distant from God they make me, yeah, those things give me a perspective that allows me to draw closer to Him, appreciate His goodness toward me more deeply, and in general understand who I am in Him even better.

As I recognize my lack of worth, of my complete inability to be anything close to righteous, and I begin to mourn my position, not in self-pity, but in a true understanding of how what I am separates me from the loving God I was created to commune with, I begin in that moment to realize in a deeper, truer sense of how much I need Christ.  I am overwhelmingly humbled that despite my complete and utter worthlessness He loves me.  I am lovable and valuable because of His love.

We live in a time and culture that promotes self knowledge and self esteem.  In some ways there is value in that.  I have seen that get in the way of what God is doing in someone's life though.  We don't deserve anything good or kind.  David called himself a worm.  Jeremiah and Isaiah both told us in one way or another that we are nothing next to God. If not for the blood of the lamb and the veil of the temple God's chosen would have been devoured by judgement.  Find someone who is honestly repentant for their mistake, their bad choice, their sin, and you will find someone who in those first moments feel horrible about themselves and rightly so.  They should feel badly.  It's right they take responsibility.  Only then can they come to a place of recognition of the truth of their need for a Savior.

We utterly and completely need Jesus.  In that first moment when we see we are nothing without Him and every moment following it.  It is good for me to remember what lies beyond the Blood that takes it all away.  Remembering keeps me from feeling deserving.  When I think I deserve it (and we all get to that sense of ownership or accomplishment from time to time) I then begin to see myself as my own Savior.  Now I would never say it that way in the moment of course.  But isn't that what it boils down to?  Replacing Jesus because we feel capable?

The sweet kindness of our Father is like a loving Daddy who allows us to try on own so that we will fall, and then remember - we need His provision.  We are not enough on our own.  It is humbling to say "I can't, help me."  It is necessary to remember so that not only we draw nearer to the God who loves us and longs to  relate to us, but also that in those moments of humility God is lifted, Jesus is lifted and glorified.  I am precious to my Savior.  I was worth His life in His eyes.  I am His bride, his delight, the love of His life.  I am the daughter of the Most High King, a princess, loved beyond measure and treasured more than diamonds and gold.  I am all this and more simply because of His love and not because of anything I am on my own. I did not earn it and I can do nothing to hold onto it.  It simply is. I am a glorious princess not because I am glorious, but because He is glorious through me and in me!