Knowing Our Worth Before God

God's heart is so big. He has room enough in His big heart for all of us. We were meant to feel as though we belong and that we have a home, so to speak. I believe one of the saddest things on earth is for someone to not have a home. It is a place of safety, security, and provision. This is what He promises us. There is nothing more satisfying and fulfilling than for someone to feel a part of a family. To feel like we are taken care of and protected and to know we are loved and cared for. He has our back in this big ol world. He really has our back!

Oh how I long to know Him more. And to know that there is a love greater than what we have experienced! The more our hearts taste of Him it's as though we have barely began! He longs to bring into His love every person feeling alone in this world. I think we would be shocked at the number of people who feel it. Even those who are surrounded by others often feel it. We were made with the desire to be known and heard. We want to be listened to instead of going through life like a gerbil on a wheel. We were made for deep friendships and relationships because that's who God is and that's what He loves. He is about community. He is about family! We were made to feel so secure about ourselves and full of worth because of our value before God. The Father wants to speak His worth into our hearts so we can overflow with His love to others. Most of all, we can love Him in return and love others a whole lot better. That's who He is and what He does --He brings worth and value to who we are.

Learning to Receive God's Love

What I want to know is the God that sustains us through every season in our lives. I cherish the times I feel strong in Him. When He feels close, it’s as though I can accomplish anything. The confidence He gives is like nothing else. His love is stronger than what situations scream at us and when He speaks, fear and worry disappear. What about the days when we feel nothing? The moments when doubts seem to settle in and we can’t grasp the hope that He is near. When my heart grows weary and I feel empty, what will He say to me then? When I don’t feel strong and the desire towards God has decreased, what is His heart towards me in such a moment? This is what I want to know. What is God’s heart for us when we are weak? And I think we would all agree that we are just that. Weak. Some of us may not know it yet, but we are. When I say weak, I mean there is nothing in and of ourselves to accomplish anything in God without God. There is no desire in our hearts for Him without His hand placing that inside of us. The smallest little place that is towards Him inside of us is all His doing. It is His work of grace that causes our hearts to even want to say yes to Him in the first place. Knowing this stops us from striving and helps us to understand that, though we do have a responsibility before Him, it is mainly God who works in us to achieve His purposes and plans. Something I want to grow towards is being before God as a child. Since it is inside of God’s heart to want to take care of us, cover us, protect us, and love us, it is necessary that we don’t buck His ever increasing desire to be a Father towards us. Imagine a child that refuses to eat what his/her mother or father prepares for dinner. The child decides that he/she can make their own meal. After deciding on macaroni and cheese, the child heads towards the kitchen and gets the box out of the cabinet. To make this example even more fitting, this kid can’t read. He mixes together all the ingredients that is pictured on the box and pours it into a pan. After placing it on a burner, he is clueless as to how to turn on the oven or what temp to put it on. You get my point without me having to continue this story. We so often place ourselves in spiritual neglect by not allowing God to care for us when we feel weary and worn out by life. So many people are looking for something somewhere to fill the emptiness that is inside of them. I’m getting better about leaning into God when I sense this boredom and emptiness in my life. I’ve tried to “cook my own meal” before and I’m finally learning it’s better to just sit at the table my Father has prepared for me. It’s not easy to trust until He has allowed a few storms to come our way and we realize in the end that He does walk with people that don’t feel strong. We realize His heart is towards us and He is for us when all of life seems to be crumbling underneath what we thought would bring happiness from our own making. He is pleasantly able and willing to come and build something better for us, something lasting and of greater quality than anything we could come up with ourselves. It’s eternal. It’s rewarding. It’s life-giving. It’s having a Father that cares about us and loves us. His goal is that we would allow Him to love us more through life's difficulties.

Letting God Look At Us

I don't want to be afraid of God. The problem with you and I is that we are always having to deal with the fact that we simply aren't perfect. In every heart there is darkness. In every person there are things that need to be changed. Sometimes the person knows it, and sometimes they don't. When I am walking in pride, I don't know it until God creates a situation to show me the state of my heart. He does this because He is committed to judge sin in our lives. Every time He shows us a dark part in our heart, it's the beginning of defeat in that area of our lives. It is a glorious thing to come to know ourselves in the light of our weakness as well as how God views us. As long as we are in this earth, He is committed to changing us. It's very humbling when we realize the state of our own hearts, but it is the very work of God to bring an understanding to us of the necessity of being humble and broken before Him. Part of that journey is letting God look at us. It does no good to cover up or hide the issues in our hearts, but that is often the response we give Him because of fear. Letting God look at us, and opening up our hearts in honesty is a huge step in allowing Him to bring change to us. If you are like me, pride often stops me from experiencing Gods ways in my life. So for the ten billionth time, I come again asking Him to bring the needed brokenness in my life. Like everyone, I have many things that are in need of repair. But I also know we are dearly loved by the One doing the changing.

More On How God Treats Us (For Lack of a Better Title)

One thing that is true of God is that He is a huge giver. There is nothing selfish about Him. Yes, there are definately things He wants and things He asks of us, but the amount and measure He has given will always outweigh what little we have to offer. And even in the things He asks of us, His motive is always wanting what's best for us. That's what good Fathers do best. We can never give Him back the same amount He has given us. Though it is true on the earth that some can't ever repay what others give them, God is on a completely different scale. I mean, His kindness towards us is unheard of. The only difference is, we don't know the fullness of His gifts and love towards us yet. Of all the rewards we have and will receive on this earth, it is much more in eternity. The fact is, however kind we think God is now, He is much more than we can even imagine. One day we will look at our lives and see His love all over it. Though many may be offended now and question what has been allowed to happen in their lives, a day is coming when all will realize what the heart of God is truly like. None will be offended in that day because they will understand in clarity God's ways in our lives.

Matthew 7 says “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" Often in my life I expect God to give me a snake or a stone only to find that He is nothing of that kind of giver. The reason I expect that is because I am used to being given the measure of what I deserve. God does not give us what we deserve. He gives us better than what we deserve and we are simply not used to that kind of treatment! I don't know about you, but I don't go around giving people what they don't deserve. If someone makes me angry or if I'm treated wrongly, I unfortunately do just the opposite. That's just human nature. But God is different. Though we deserve nothing, He gives abundantly. When we can, over time, begin to relate to God on these types of terms, He has gained much ground in our hearts. The hardest thing for us to receive is the fact that a God who is so perfect in love and kindness accepts us as we are and is patient with us through our journey of becoming more like Him.