The one that Jesus loves

I feel like people would live a lot differently if they truly believed that Jesus Christ loves them every second of the day, good or bad, happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant.

The other day I was reading in the book of John and I noticed that John refers to himself six different times as the one that Jesus loves.

John 13:23 Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.

John is the one who wrote the book so he is talking about himself, referring to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved.

^{John 20:2-4} She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

When reading those passages I had always thought it a bit haughty of John to refer to himself as the one Jesus loves. But reading those words now I feel as though I understand what he was trying to say.

John grasped something incredibly important. He understood his identity.

The way that he identified himself was by Jesus’ love. That’s what I want. I want to know beyond all else that I am the one Jesus loves.

In life we identify ourselves many different ways. By our education, where we live, who we know, where we go to church.

While all of those things are great, none of it matters unless our ultimate identity is found in being the one that Jesus loves.

I am a daughter, a sister, a student, a friend. But on the day that I stand before Jesus the only thing that will matter is that I am the one He loves.

John didn’t always see himself as the one that Jesus loves and neither did I. We didn’t know Jesus’ love, but that doesn’t change the fact that He has loved us before we were even born.

God’s love has not changed. His views of us haven’t changed. The only thing that has changed is how we view ourselves.

John had gone from seeing himself as a career fisherman, to the one Jesus loves.

I had gone from seeing myself as insignificant and purposeless, to the one that Jesus loves.

When you are filled with sorrow, you are still the one Jesus loves

When you are filled with doubt, you are still the one Jesus loves.

When you are filled with guilt, you are still the one Jesus loves.

On the highest mountain peak or in the deepest, darkest valley, you are the one Jesus loves. There is nothing that can ever change that.

How wonderful would it be to have the kind of relationship with Christ that all He has to do is say, “Beloved,” and you know he is talking straight to you.

John had that relationship with Christ.

Sometimes during the day I find myself taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and repeating in my head, “I am the one Jesus loves.”

In times of insecurity and fear and self doubt the most comforting words to whisper to yourself are, “I am the one Jesus loves.”

We are God’s beloved. If you look the word, “Beloved,” up in the dictionary you will find that we are not simply loved. We are GREATLY loved, dear to His heart, cherished by Him, and precious to Him.

1 John 4:7-10  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The reason that John was able to write such beautiful words about love was because he lived fully believing that God loved him. He grasped love because he lived and walked with and was discipled by LOVE Himself.

Gods love is a promise. A promise that we are His and there will never be a time when we are not His. His love is a promise that He has called us by name, has numbered the hairs on our head, and has given us the right to call Him, “Abba, father.”

I am the one that Jesus loves.

You are the one that Jesus loves.

Lets dare to believe and live out that truth.

Remembering who we are in Christ

I have come to the conclusion that spending time with God daily is one of the most important things you can do. 

Without TRUTH from God, its SO easy to forget. To forget who you are and what you were made for.Without memorizing God's truth, its SO easy to believe the devil's lies, the world's lies.


James 1:23
²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.


If we listen to what God says and put it into practice in our lives, we combat the enemy.

But I know that if I don't spend time in God's word and with Him, I forget what He says.


Because I don't want to forget who I am. But more importantly, I don't want to forget WHOSE I am. 


I was watching the Bible series on TV and the ways I saw Jesus interacting with people literally brought me to tears a couple of times. The tax collector, the woman caught in adultery, the leper, all who devalued themselves because of their situation, or what they had done, or what life had handed them. 


And Jesus gave them their identity back, He gave them their value back. No longer were they categorized by any of those things, Jesus identified them as God's child, a valuable human being, full of worth.


To pursue me even when I didn't want Him. Though I turned my back on Him, He NEVER turned His back on me, not for a single second. I want the constant reminder that the way God views me never changes, I'm secure in my identity with Him. I don't want to keep forgetting that.

There is not a lie the devil can throw at you, that God does not give you a truth for. 


Every lie, every doubt, every fear, there is always reassurance and truth in the word of God. 


Sometimes though, even if I do spend time with Him in the morning, by afternoon I feel the lies creeping their way back in. And thats where memorizing God's truth is especially necessary.

I want the constant reminder that I have a God who loves me enough to pursue me.
When I'm doubting and unsure, I want to remember my God who pursues me. 

God blessed the broken road

I used to really dislike the song, “God Blessed the Broken Road.” I just thought it was stupid and corny…but NOW I love it. Well, its starting to grow on me. I listened to a bible teacher talking about that song and relating it to their walk with Jesus and something just hit me! In my head usually things make sense but it takes a while longer for my heart to catch up. While listening to the teacher talk about the song in that way, my heart suddenly caught up.

Suddenly, things that seemed to be so important before, didn’t even matter anymore. God frequently completely flip flops my perspective on things and it rocks my world. It takes me days to comprehend what He is showing me, and to try to wrap my mind around how awesome He is.

Before I had always thought of the song lyrics as a boyfriend/girlfriend thing, but thinking about Jesus instead really opened my eyes to things I had never seen before.

Every long lost dream led me to where you are, others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars, pointing me on my way into your loving arms

Everything seems different when you stop saying to the people who have hurt you in the past, “That was a horrible thing to do, I expect an apology,” and say instead, “It doesn’t matter anymore, thanks for pointing me to Jesus.”

That person I thought was such a problem, well maybe they were just a part of the process. Things from your past sure look different when you stop feeling forever regretful about them and start looking at them instead as a gift.

 

                                                    

I think about the years I've spent, just passing through, I'd like to have the time I lost, and give it back to you. But you just smile and take my hand, You've been there, you understand, it's all part of a grander plan that is coming true.

Sometimes I think about the time before I accepted Jesus and I regret that I wasted so much time trying to find happiness and love and purpose when He was right there waiting for me the whole time. But I’m realizing that thinking about the past takes all the joy out of the present.

Life really is just a journey, with bumps and curves and turns and even some potholes. Imagine taking a really long journey and along the way you get a flat tire. And after a while you get if fixed and continue on the road. But all along the road you are still upset thinking about the flat tire and complaining that the whole trip was ruined.

That’s ridiculous right? But I think that’s what we do in life sometimes, at least I do. I keep holding onto things that happened and are over. Things that shouldn’t matter anymore because they’re over. So that’s what Jesus really said to me through that song. He said, ’Katie life is a journey! There aren’t certain moments that define the whole trip! Its all just a long road leading you to your savior.”

EVERY experience in my life LED me to Jesus, led me to my savior. If I hadn’t had the life that I did I don’t know if I would be with Jesus right now. And if I did accept Jesus, I don’t know if I would be as close to Him.

This much I know is true, that god blessed the broken road that led me straight to you

I know its true that God has blessed my life, all the good and all the bad. He has blessed my journey and He is using everything and turning it into good.

I have also found that when you stop holding onto things that don’t matter, you have a lot more time for things that actually do matter. It is the most freeing feeling.

Its one thing to acknowledge with your head that things happen and are over and need to be let go of. Its another thing entirely to have that sink into your heart and really get it. I thank God every day that I finally get it. That I have been set free and have been given from God a peace that literally passes ALL understanding.

One night I sat in my car thinking about my life before Christ and my life now and I was grasping for understanding. My life has done a one hundred percent turn in the opposite direction. And sitting in my car I couldn’t wrap my mind around the miracle that God had performed. I was as shocked as if I had seen a lame man walk or a blind man see for the first time. I just over and over again, “God how did you do that? Thank you so much.”

Three and a half years ago I came to Jesus with empty hands. I came absolutely broken. I came to Jesus with absolutely nothing. I was so empty. Now I look in the past and I see a broken road leading me straight to Jesus. I look in the future and I see endless hope and I look around me and I look within me and I am anything but empty. I am full in joy, peace, and love. I have been blessed in so many ways I cant count them all. Jesus has filled me overflowing

Listen to this song and if, like me, you don’t really like it, throw those negative thoughts about it out for the window for a couple of minutes. Think of every lyric of this song in context to Jesus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai8904MzY9o

Into the lions den and the fiery furnace

Its been a rough week. I have stuffed my schedule so full of activity that I haven’t gotten a chance to sit and recharge and spend a lot of time with God. And the devil knows that! And he has just been attacking, hitting where it hurts, bringing up old wounds.

I’ve been going to a women’s bible study and really taking time to do the workbook that accompanies it and it has been like a breath of fresh air.

In the workbook I was reading a passage in Daniel, and noticed something that I never had before.

God did not immediately save Daniel. Lately I’ve noticed that I can be self focused and demanding of God. I want God to move in the way I think He should, WHEN I think He should.

But what I noticed when reading Daniel that…

DANIEL WENT INTO THE FURNACE.
And…
DANIEL WENT INTO THE LIONS DEN.

I love the way these three guys answer the king after he threatens them with a fiery furnace.

Daniel 3:16 Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

These three guys committed to serving God even if He chose not to save them! They trusted that no matter what the outcome, God was faithful and that His will (even if it be them dying in a furnace), was the best way to go.

When God doesn’t come through for me in the way that I think He should, I sometimes feel betrayed or rejected. But I want to be like Daniel, content no matter what the outcome, knowing that God’s plan is ALWAYS the best plan.

God does choose to save Daniel and his friends, but they are still thrown into the furnace!

In this story God chooses to deliver them THROUGH the trial, not FROM the trial.

In the story of Daniel in the lions den, Daniel heard that anyone worshiping anything other than the King would be thrown into the lions den.

So Daniel promptly goes home and gave thanks to God.

Daniel didn’t go home and plead for his life, he went home and gave God thanks! So many times I find myself grumbling and complaining. But I realize even in times of hardships, there is still so much to be thankful for!

So Daniel was thrown into the lions den and stayed there all night long. And in the morning not a single scratch was found on him.

Daniel trusted that God would pull him through unscathed, but he spent all night with lions!

I don’t like trials. Not a fan. I just want God to save me BEFORE I’m thrown into the furnace or the lions den. And sometimes He does.

But other times, He knows that its wiser to let me go through the fire and to save me at the end.

The waiting period in the middle makes me cling to the hand of God and search for Him with all my might. If God had saved me right away, I would have called out a quick, ‘thank you’ and have been on my way.

Going through the furnace reminds me how desperately in need of God I am. In times of distress and hardship and pain, I find God so much closer by my side than when I feel myself competent on my own.

I know that even when I’m going through trials that God never leaves my side, not even for a single moment.

Still sometimes when things don’t go my way and trials come I quickly forget this lesson. I’m praying God will soften my heart and mold me into someone who is content to ride out the storm while holding His hand.

1 Peter 1:7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.
Thank you Jesus for the refining fire which will take this lumpy piece of coal, tossed around by a sinful world, and mold it into something beautiful that will glorify Your name.

This is a quote from a book by Joni Eareckson called, “A place of healing.” It’s a great book that I would recommend and I love this quote.

He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.

Song Recommendation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHGU3z10fo0

God is Sovereign!!!

God is sovereign. I know this, but for years I hated the thought of it. A lot of times the sovereignty of God is an avoided topic. Because then comes the famous question, “If God is sovereign, why does He let bad things happen?”

And this is exactly what I wrestled with for the majority of my life. I knew God was sovereign. Even as a non Christian, I had no doubt that God was the one in control.

So I thought, if God is going to let bad things happen then he just must not care about people. I was resentful and bitter towards God, picturing Him up in the sky watching our sufferings and shrugging His shoulders indifferently.

Then I became a Christian my freshman year of college. For the first time in a really really long time, I began to see God as loving, comforting, and kind. But with this new, kind God, how was I to explain away all the hurts that I saw around me and felt within me?

Then, in a weak moment, a thought popped into my head, “Either God is not sovereign, and thus too weak to save you, or He is sovereign, and just doesn’t care enough to do so.”

I knew God was sovereign, but I also knew I couldn’t be at peace with a God who plans for my suffering.

I lost a lot of sleep worrying over this, until I was assured by someone very wise that God never plans evil.

When looking it up myself I found the well loved verse,

Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

But I still had that nagging, painful feeling in my heart whenever I thought about God’s sovereignty. I now know that God doesn’t plan evil, but the though of Him not stopping it, was still too heart wrenching to think about. So I just shoved it to the back of my mind and tried to forget about it. But these past couple months it kept popping up.

I had been very worried about following through on something God was calling me to do but I finally did and found so much peace. And I was so extremely relieved and grateful. I just looked up to heaven and bursting with joy, thought, ‘God you are sovereign.’

And then I had to pause, surprised at my own thinking. Had I just thought of God’s sovereignty with delight instead of horror?

Over these months without me even knowing it, God has been changing my way of thinking. I’ve always struggled with trusting God, and I have learned to without even realizing it. One of the things I struggled with the most now is beginning to come to me as easily as breathing.

I have now began to understand some truths. God has the whole world in his hands. Not in a tight fist, ready to squish it at any moment. But in a gentle embrace, delighting in our joys, and weeping with our sorrows. What really cut to my heart was once having someone tell me, “As painful as that hurt is to you, you will never be able to understand how deeply it hurts the heart of God.”

I still don’t understand why God doesn’t prevent some things from happening, why He allows some wrongs. I know that we live in a broken world and that God refuses to make us robots and allows us to choose to accept Him or not.

But I have come to be okay with that because I know God’s character. I don’t need to know why certain things happen. Because I trust God. God’s purpose is always good! Whatever He chooses to do with my life, I can be assured that it is for my eventual good, and will be used to help glorify His name. Im not so scared anymore, knowing that God has everything under control. I feel safe, like I don’t have to worry.

God can always be trusted to do what is best. There is not a single situation that God cannot redeem, that He cant use for His good purposes. There is not a single thing that happens to us that just goes to waste. God is using EVERYTHING.

God is my father, I know He has my bet interests at heart. So I can finally relax. I can finally stop trying to control every single thing. It feels so freeing to hand it over to God.

God is sovereign, my heart is reassured.

Song recommendation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKJ2hKe2QX4

God Wont Use Gifts To Bribe Us

I heard a preacher one time telling his congregation that as long as they pray every day and live their lives for God, they will have cars, money, houses, everything they ever wanted. And he said that if they do not get the things that they want, this must mean that they are doing something wrong and God is not pleased with them.

And hearing that preacher mislead a huge group of people made me so mad. Because I don’t believe that if you live a Godly life that God will give you everything you ever wanted. Because then what happens when you don’t get everything you want but you are living a blameless life?

Wealth and success are not the results of a Godly life. Look at the life of Jesus, He was perfect and His life was filled with persecution, mockery, and toil.

If we do right God will bless us. But what if the blessing is simply being able to wake up in the morning and live our lives?

But I have found myself caring more about what God can and has done for me than who He actually is. I have always measured how much God loves me by the things and people and experiences that He has blessed me with. But even if God never did another single good thing for me for the rest of my life, that wouldn’t change who He is. He is still God, and deserves all the honor and glory and praise. Doing nothing, God is still awe inspiring. I figured because God gives me good things He must love me. But even when I feel like He has drawn back His hand, He still loves me.

God gives us good things according to His perfect timing and planning.

Matthew 7:11

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

God gives us gifts because He loves us, He doesn’t hand out bribes.

Matthew 10:29

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows

We should not be concerned about whether or not God gives us gifts, because He has our every need taken care of .

God does, and will give us good things, but not to win our love. He already won our love, on the cross of Jesus Christ. God gives us good things because He loves us.

What we need is a change of perspective.

James 1:2

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance

PURE JOY. Not just, ‘try to get through,’ or, ‘hang in there,’ but, consider it PURE JOY.

Instead of thinking, ‘how is God going to bless me today?,’ we should be asking, ‘how can I be a blessing to others today?’

We need to realize that God has already given us the priceless gift of eternal life, everything else is just a completely undeserved bonus.

There are times when I feel empty and dry and I cry out to God, “God, I cant hear you, I cant feel you, I cant see you. God don’t you love me?”

And even when I cant hear his answer, I know He does. Because the same God who made the universe and knows every star by name, knows the exact number of hairs on my head.

My name is written on the palm of his nail scarred hand. He rejoices over me with singing and will never stop doing good to me. He gave me His holy word so whenever I’m feeling lonely, whenever I’m feeling lost, I can read His words and be reassured of His love. What a love I have in Jesus.

Song recommendation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MecgrJvbk24