Saturday, January 26, 2013

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.

Monday, January 21, 2013

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!