Let's pick up where we left off yesterday, loving ourselves as God loves us. First, let's pray:
Father, we are so blessed to have Your Word. There are Christians in this world who don't have access to a bible, who might be imprisoned or killed just for reading Your Scripture, yet here we are openly sharing our faith, and our desire to know You more. Let not one of us take this privilege for granted, Lord. I pray you will astound us with Your presence today so that we will have an awakening of our spiritual selves, may be for the first time. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, Lord. Give us an undeniable sense of You, in us. In Jesus' name, amen.
I shared with you quite a few scriptures showcasing God's love for each of us, you included. I want you to be immersed in the evidence of His concern for you, no matter what has happened in your life. The reason I do this is that before we can even get into who you can be in Christ, or what you can do in His strength, we have got to get a solid foundation in who you are in your hearts.
Why? Because change starts in the heart.
Read Proverbs 23:7
Right there, plain as day, it says as you think in your ______, you are.
See, change doesn't start in the head, it starts in the heart. That's where we live and die everyday, when we're walking around hurting and pretending we're not. When we're saying yes when we mean no. When we are trying to be our idea of the perfect spouse, parent, employee, communicator, rescuer, whatever label people have slapped on your forehead and you are trying to live up to, but always feeling like you don't measure up.
You don't. Know why? Because that's not the mold you were made from. It's not you and that's why it doesn't feel right on your skin.
Dr. Howard Thurman started the first inter-racial church in the United States. He deeply influenced Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. Thurman said, "We were all born originals. The tragedy is that most of us die copies."
Your DNA is unique only to you.
Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you."
Psalm 139:13-16 says
"Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day." The Message
Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, wrote, "Your parents may not have planned you, but God did." Albert Einstein said, "God doesn't play dice." He doesn't do anything by chance.
If you get even a tiny glimpse of how much God loves you, that is when you will begin to value yourself. How do I know? Because people who value themselves arrange their lives to be pleasant and stress-free. It becomes a priority to live in peace and with joy!
Let's pray:
Father, I want everyone reading this to begin to value themselves, the way You value them. I shout this prayer to heaven, in the name of Jesus, amen!
Love, Karen
Photo by Gary, courtesy of http://www.photoxpress.com/
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