To be Known by God

Every moment we make a choice. We make a choice to either hide or to allow ourselves to be known.

It's scary to let God know us. It’s terrifying to invite Him to examine our hearts.

Of course He already knows every single thing about us but its so different to confess it ourselves. To confess, “This is who I am Lord, every part. Will you still have me?” 

And to hear Him say, “I know who you are. I know everything about you and I will never ever stop loving you.”

Such grace.

Being known by God develops intimacy with God. He knows how I’m feeling, me coming to Him with how I’m feeling is what matters.

Coming to Him and laying out every part of who you are, brings you to a deeper appreciation of the fact that He loves every part of who you are. When we don’t come to God with the hard things, its as if we are pretending those things don’t exist. We pretend that God only see’s the qualities in us that we would like Him to see.

When we bare our hearts before Him we come away assured that we are still unconditionally loved and accepted.

It’s beautiful to think, ‘Jesus knows the ugliness in my heart today and He loves me anyway. Jesus knows my bitterness today and loves me anyway. Jesus knows my selfishness today and loves me anyway.'

 

Think about it for a moment. God doesn't love you because He is obligated to. God loves you for who you are as a person. He loves you for everything that makes you, you. 

We do ourselves a great disservice when we hide from God. When we try to earn His approval by presenting Him with what we think He wants to see. More than anything? He just wants your, real, honest heart. He is the one who will accept and understand you in a way that no one else on this planet is able to.

Fear, insecurity, and shame are things that teach us to hide from God. Allowing your whole self to be known by God brings freedom, security, and joy in who God has made you to be. 

Knowing things about God and being known by God are two completely different things. One is simply head knowledge and one gives life. Its one thing to believe that God already knows you completely, its another thing to open up your heart, lay it all out there, and say, "Here I am God."

The other day I said, “Lord I trust you.” And I heard, “Yes, but are you daily entrusting yourself to me?”

So I realized I must now choose to entrust to God the knowledge of who I am, every single part of me, every single day, every single moment. 

Be brave enough to let him know you. Trust Him with who you are, who you aren’t, and who you hope to be.

Can we really be known by others until we have allowed ourselves to be fully known by God? Can we even know ourselves until we have allowed ourselves to be known by God?

It is a choice that we must make everyday. To not try to put on a show for God but to finally take off the mask and let Him see us. He is waiting to comfort us, waiting to heal us, if only we would turn to Him and be real. If only we would let ourselves be known.

Every moment we make a choice. We make a choice to either hide or to allow ourselves to be known. Today I choose to be known.

There is power in the name of Jesus

To me, taking a step back feels like I have failed. Admitting that I’m struggling with something that I’ve had victory over in the past makes me feel as though all the progress was for nothing. But stumbling doesn’t mean that we have failed or are failures.

 It means that we are human.

There are some lessons that we need to learn over and over again. There are some fears, some lies that we have to stand strong against over and over again. Some mornings you need to wake up and forgive all over again. Some mornings you need to proclaim truths all over again. Some mornings you need to ask God for courage all over again.

Sometimes the most difficult person to show grace to is yourself. 

We say, “I shouldn’t struggle with this anymore, I shouldn’t believe that lie anymore, I shouldn’t be that afraid anymore.”

But we are and we do anyway. Because we are not done being made like Christ. We are afraid to share our shortcomings, our backward steps with others, as though they aren’t holding onto any themselves.

But God never condemns. He knows that it’s hard being human; He knows that it’s hard living on this planet. It’s okay to not have it all together, it’s okay to stumble and take a step backward, as long as you don’t unpack and live there.

The good news is that God sent His spirit to live in us, and that alone is what gives us the power to say no to sin and to believe truth. If you have accepted Jesus as your savior, then the same power that raised Him from the dead lives inside you. That is incredible. There is power; all we have to do is call on His name.

Romans 6:11 Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do not let sin reign in your body so that you obey its evil desires... For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

It’s so easy for us to forget that God’s love for us is not a result of our actions.

I know sometimes I go to God and say, “Look! I don’t do that anymore, I do this more, look at how I’ve changed! Aren’t you proud of me? Don’t you love me now?”

And my Dad shakes His head understandingly and reminds me that He loved me before I even took a single breath.

We remember that we no longer have to be slaves to sin, that sin no longer has any power over us. We may fall occasionally, but we DO NOT have to live there.

The victory we have in Christ is being able to say, “God help me,” and knowing that He will.

Something that I struggle with is forgiveness. Sometimes I just don’t care that I’m supposed to forgive because all I’m feeling is hurt and forgiveness just doesn’t seem right.

I ask God, “How could you possibly ask me to forgive that person? Look at what they’ve done to me!”

And He replies, “Yes, I know. But look at what I’ve done FOR you.”  

If you are the one asking for forgiveness and the other person isn’t able to extend forgiveness, just know that God always will.

There is power in the name of Jesus to break every single chain that could possibly entangle you. There is no sin too bad, no person too far, no pit too deep for God’s power to save, rescue, and redeem. No matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve been, no matter how long or far you have strayed, God welcomes you back with open arms. You are not the exception, there are no exceptions. Jesus loves prodigals.

Every day I thank God that I am not dressed in my own righteousness, I am dressed in His. If I had to rely on my own power, my own strength, I wouldn’t make it a day.

I am so glad I can go to God and tell Him exactly how unbearably difficult it currently is for me to forgive. I am so glad that He is not up in heaven shaking His head in annoyance that I still struggle over the same hurt. I know that any time, morning, afternoon, middle of the night I can cry out to Him and say, "Lord help me to forgive, but more than that, help me WANT to forgive." 

What are some things that you need to call out to God about? Where are the areas in your life that you have not trusted in God's power to give you victory?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uu2RDZdaxc

To Have Courage

A good friend of mine recently bought this picture for me because I told her how much I love it. I love the way that the word courage has broken out of the darkness into this beautiful bright color. I love the splatters and the random colors everywhere. Courage is messy. I wouldn't define courage as standing tall completely confident and unafraid. No, courage means taking one tiny terrified step of obedience after another. 

I love the word courage. Not that I have courage, but that always I've needed it. And God always provides it. Not that he provides courage by removing fear, but courage comes from knowing that He is holding my hand through everything. Knowing that the Lord of heaven and earth has a secure grip on me. A grip that neither living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable, or absolutely anything else will ever be able to loosen. Courage doesn't mean that you are never afraid. It means that while trembling in fear, you still do the thing you think you cannot do. 

Sometimes when I say, "God, I'm too afraid to do that."

 He says, "Then do it afraid. I'll be with you." He doesn't ask for absolute courage, just absolute obedience. 

When I say, "God, I'm afraid," He doesn't offer me a million reasons why I shouldn't be afraid and why my fear is irrational. He knows me better than that. All He says is, "I'm here." And that's enough. And He reminds me that there has never been a single moment in my life that He has EVER left my side. 

Looking at this art helps me remember that God gave me courage yesterday so I know He will give me courage again today. Looking back over every part of my life I remember He gave me courage then so I know He will give me courage now. 

I've learned a lot about courage. I've learned that courage means you dare to show your whole heart. Courage means you trust anyway, you try anyway, you love anyway. That no matter how many times the world tells you that you can't, you rise up because your God has told you that you can. Courage means trying even if you're afraid you will fail. Courage means choosing to see the good even when everything is falling apart. Courage means choosing to believe God's truth despite what you may be feeling. 

We need a lot of courage to live in the world today. Thankfully our God is an endless supplier of courage. Sometimes the most courage that we can manage is to be able to ask God for courage. And God loves when we come to Him, trembling in fear and ask to be made courageous. He loves when we bring our weakness and inability because thats when His power is made perfect. Sometimes courage means surrendering to God's will for your life. Sometimes it means forgiving someone, sometimes it means asking for forgiveness. Whatever courage looks like for you at this point in your life, know that we have a God who loves to encourage and strengthen us and fill us with His courage.

Joshua 1:9 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

Come to Me- Bethel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT_bj2qBfoI

To be made well

I have been thinking a lot lately about a certain woman found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, AND Luke. In that day women were not highly regarded, if they were regarded at all. But not according to Jesus, Jesus loves women. Anyone who says Jesus does not love women has not read their bible enough.

 This woman’s story was written about in THREE different gospels. And I have been thinking about her lately because I am reading the book of Matthew and I feel for this woman.

The Bible says that this woman had been bleeding for twelve years. Imagine the kind of suffering it would be to bleed for twelve years. Imagine the frustration, the shame and embarrassment, the hopelessness.

She had spent ALL of her money on doctors whose practices were apparently painful and for all of her money she grew worse instead of better. So she is broke and probably homeless and STILL bleeding, WORSE in fact!

Because of her bleeding condition, she was also an outcast from society, not allowed to participate in the religious ceremonies because she was considered unclean.

Considered unclean because of something that wasn’t her fault.

Here’s a woman, who, if she talked to God, spent a lot of time asking, “Why Lord?”

In biblical times illness was also commonly associated with sin. So this woman must also spend a great deal of time wondering what she had done to deserve such an illness. A lot of time must have been spent ignoring the gossip and the accusatory looks.

This woman must have felt so alone, thinking that no one could possibly understand her kind of suffering. But there was someone who did understand, and she was hearing all about Him.

She came up to Jesus in a crowd, not thinking herself worthy enough to even see Him face to face. The law stated that if an unclean person was to touch another person, they too would become unclean.  This woman had a lot of lose by touching Jesus, but she did it anyway.

All of Jesus’ goodness is bigger and more powerful than all of our dirtiness.

Despite everything that this woman had been through she still had faith that He could heal her. She said in Matthew 9, “If I only touch His cloak I will be healed.” Was He her last hope?

I wish that I had this kind of faith. When I made the decision to follow Christ, freshman year of college sitting on the floor of a large group setting during worship I was not one hundred percent sure of this God I was finally starting to really get to know.

As I prayed I said, “God, I don’t know if you can save me, I don’t know if you can fix my life. But I have tried everything else and You are my very last hope. I have nowhere else to go. You are it.”

Had any part of my life been any different, I don’t know that I would have been driven to my knees in such a desperate need for Jesus.

My life caused me to reach out for Jesus, aching to be made well. To be made whole. Wanting with all my heart to be redeemed and restored and renewed.  Hardly believing it possible, but wanting it so badly.

I wonder if she thought it all worth it, just to meet Him. That meeting changed her life. Not just because He stopped her bleeding, but because an encounter with God always radically shakes up our lives.

And He was already busy! He was on His way to raise someone from the dead. But He stopped for her. He stopped because He valued her enough to look her in the face and give her back her dignity.

And as she fell at his feet trembling in fear, she was made well. She was freed from her suffering. That is exactly what Jesus came to this earth to do, to free us from our suffering. Maybe not in all the ways we would like sometimes, but in His perfect ways.

He came to bring us the kind of freedom that comes from meeting Him face to face and knowing that you are saved and loved by Him as your heavenly father. Knowing that no matter what happens on this earth, Jesus has made you well.

And my favorite part of the story? He called her daughter.

No longer outcast, no longer unclean. No longer sick, no longer ashamed.

Daughter.