This morning I was reading from John 6 where Jesus, you were talking about being the bread of life. First off, these people just like many of us today, were looking for you because of the bread that you had given them and not for anything else. It’s amazing how many of us, including myself come to you firstly because of our needs. Physical, financial, spiritual, it doesn’t matter. The point is that we are drawn to you because of your ability to provide and meet such an immediate need. But the true joy and experience really comes when a person like myself realizes that meeting my needs is only the teeny tiniest of the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to enjoy in relationship with you. The comfort and peace is irreplaceable, almost indescribable. To know now that knowing you is actually the goal, how wonderful is that. I remember growing up and thinking it was all about making heaven. I used to think that eternal life was something to look forward to and that it somehow kicked in when we took our last breath. It was the afterlife insurance of some sort. But my Father, how wrong was I? To know that your true goal is to be known by me and to know me freely. Of course you already know me. David made that clear in his words that I cannot get away from you or from your knowledge of me. But there is a new depth that occurs when I freely let you in, when I understand that your love and approval is a constant in my life and not a requirement for your love. When strivings cease, life begins! Now that’s a tweet! That’s why you said to seek first your kingdom, your way of doing things. It’s not about what we can get. When you revealed in Matthew 6: 25-33, you were letting us know that it wasn’t about what we can get – food to eat, clothes to wear, shelter for our families. No! That is already taken care of in you. But to get a hold of that, we have to be IN you. We have to learn how to let you lead, you rule, you be the head of our lives. I have to be a yes person to your leading and your spirit. I have to let your kingdom come in my life. And then, all those other things (the food to eat, the clothes to wear, the shelter over my head), they will be added to me because you being who you are, already know that I need them. Wow! Abba’s Response: I enjoy loving you so much. That’s why my word says that I inhabit the praises of my people. I live in that place. When my love is accepted and received, my glory shines. Giving is who I am and my essence is in freely doing that, freely being good to my children. No strings attached. That is why I said in John 6:29 that “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” The only work I have given to my children is to believe that I am who I say I am and I am a rewarder of those who diligently seek me. I honor it when people recognize my existence and then desire and pursue knowing who is behind the very creation that they enjoy. If I already gave that much to you in my creation, if I gave it all to you in my Son, how much more will I give to you when you receive and believe me. My giving is not conditional on people’s reception. The whole world already enjoys my gifts, whether they believe or not. But there is a depth of life and rewards and gifts for those who choose to get to know me. The whole purpose is not to come for the reward but to recognize that I am a good God, I am a good Father, and my joy is in blessing my children. That’s what eternal life is. Imagine you leave a trail of gifts for your children at Christmas. At the end of that trail is a door. When that door is opened, it reveals your existence, the revelation that you are the source behind all the gifts. But what they haven’t even figured out is that behind you, you have prepared a room full of goodies that their minds cannot fathom. Your one desire is that the trail of gifts leads them to you so that you can love on them, take care of their every need, and just let them get to know you. The goal is about the life you have in store for them – together. The problem however is that some of those kids get stuck on gift 1, or 2, or 3 or 30. They never make it to the door. They stop looking because gift 5 is so cool and it takes so much of their attention and time. They indulge in it so much that they don’t even question or choose to explore where the gifts came from in the first place. They aren’t willing to stop playing and keep exploring to see who the giver behind the gifts is. They totally miss the purpose and point of the gift trail in the first place and sadly, they never even realize that there is a giver with a room full of gifts for them! They don’t realize that the gifts are only a reflection of the love that you have for them. The whole point of the trail is to demonstrate your love for them. Explore! Live! Keep picking up the gifts! Let it lead you to me! Let me love you! Let me show you the person behind the gifts. Let me show you that there is so much more to enjoy. But let me show
You are worth much more than you know!
Did you know that you are actually precious, worth more than life to someone out there? It’s so easy for us to feel like we are so small and not worth anything to anyone really. How many times do you think “I’m sure they only care because of what I do for them?” Okay, even if your self esteem is flying off the roof, it is still so easy to feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things. For example, there are estimated to be more than 7 billion people on this earth right now. I don’t know about you but maybe cause I am teaching my little ones numbers right now, 1 is sooooo very tiny compared to 7,000,000,000. The other day, my big girl asks me “Mommy, what’s the biggest number you can count?” What’s your answer to that question? Really think about it, not just theorectically, but practically, how far can you count? Okay, so 7 billion, but that’s just as of right now. If I go by the conservative estimate that the world is only a little over 6,000 years old, and people have been around since the very beginning. If we assume that the growth has been exponential since the very beginning, I think it will be easy to assume that there has been more than 14 billion people in existence since creation. Still feeling significant?! Psalm 8:4 (AMP) What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him? What I love the most is that all of that doesn’t actually matter because the Bible tells us that God’s mind is FULL of us. He knows the number of strands of hair that you have. That means that he knows when one falls out or a new growth begins. Do you even know that much about yourself? I know I don’t! Matthew 10:30 (AMP) But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. I know it’s easy to think that God might be too busy with everything else (ever wonder what that everything else is) that he doesn’t really have time for you but think again. He is seriously, desperately, madly in love with you and that’s the truth! Marinate on that today and hopefully, the obstacles that seemed to loom over you sometimes can shrink to the minute reality that they are!
You are loved…handcrafted!
I’ll confess. I loved Whitney Houston. I have loved Whitney since I was little, 5 or 6 years old. I wanted to sing because of Whitney. My whole desire to sing was born from watching her sing. I love the lyrics from her song, “You were loved”. The chorus goes like this: You were loved by someone Touched by someone Held by someone Meant something to someone Loved somebody Touched somebody’s heart Along the way You can look back and say (mm) You were loved (yes you were) Okay, this post is not really about Whitney (though I could talk about her for a while). That’s not really what this is about. For most people, there is some truth in those words. We can relate. We may have grown up in loving homes, or had a caring teacher. Mom and Dad may have been affectionate in showing their love for us, or not! Most of us have loved someone, even if we later thought they didn’t deserve our love. We’ve been there for someone and they’ve touched our hearts along the way. I grew up in a loving home. Of course, we had our own share of issues, but I knew my family loved me, especially my dad. I was a daddy’s girl. I was the first girl after two boys. I enjoyed my dad’s attention and affection. I enjoyed being doted upon. I was loved! For others, you may not have felt loved. I am very aware that life may have been hard and just difficult and void of love. I know there are people who did not ever experience any display of love, at least, not in the obvious way many may have experienced love. I sympathize and really wish I could change every sad story. My heart aches when I think of children who have no awareness of love being extended to them. If you ever want to get me to tears, all you need to do is show me some injustice or a situation where a child is unloved. It breaks my heart! But there is good news even for the one who feels unloved. There is someone who loves you more than you can imagine. You are loved! You are cherished! You are thought about constantly by someone who is completely taken by you! He’s loved you, loves you and always will. It’s Abba. He dreamed you up before he created you. I love reading the account of creation in Genesis. It talks about how God created everything by speaking it into existence. “Let there be light”, “Let the waters be separated”… and so on. But when it gets to the part where he decides to make man, he does something totally different. It talks about him first of all making us in his very own image! Wow! He wanted us to be like him, look like him, act like him! But the part that intrigues me the most is that when God made man, he got his hands dirty. He picked up the dirt with his own hands, shaped and molded Adam to be just the way he had envisioned. He didn’t speak man into being. Now the evidence is clear that it wasn’t a lack of ability as demonstrated from earlier creation. No! He chose to make man with his own hands. His own hands designed Adam’s arms, his ribs, his chest, his nose, his lips, his eyes, every last detail was handcrafted by God! Have you ever carved wood? I remember woodworking class in high school. I enjoyed it for all of 30 minutes. It is tedious work. It takes time, detail and care. You have to first saw out the wood (and we did not have power tools)! You then had to chisel slowlyyyyyyy. This was more tedious if you were making something curved! After hours or even days of doing that, then you had to sand it to make it smooth. I remember my teacher sending me back to sand at least 3 or 4 times because when I thought I was done, he apparently had higher standards for me. Then we had to polish the pieces to give it that shine of a finished product. See, I had to do all this to get a good grade. The thing is that God didn’t have to. Now, just put yourself in my shoes for one minute. If I had the power to speak my project to life, em, you may love woodworking and all, but I on the other hand, would have exercised my verbal creation powers. I would have run to the nearest bathroom and called my project to life like that! But God had that choice. He used it in other things. But when it was time to make people, he opted for the longer, tedious, dirty, labor intensive option! He wanted to enjoy the process. He wanted to be involved in every detail. He handcrafted us for his pleasure. I’ve got much more to say about you being loved but for now, I just want to soak this up for a while! Abba’s Daughter