I’ve Earned It?

Luke 12:34  “For where your treausure is, there your heart will be also.”

Everyone wants to feel worthy of something; to have value.  But almost as if we have earned or deserve it.  Ironically we can never earn “value.”  So why is it that we feel we must try, that we have something to attain?  Why do we push ourselves towards a goal we could never reach? 

Value is described as “the quality or worth of something that makes it valuable; to regard very highly.”  We are valued because we are loved.  We are spoken for.  The Lord of all creation – rocks, trees, clouds, rain, sun, moon, starts, grass, soil, water, bugs, animals, microscopic cells, the human body, the galaxies – values me.  He finds worth in me.  My Creator, the One who knit me together in my mother’s womb, the One who knew my name before it was even a thought in anyone’s mind, the One who knows my future and all that it holds, He loves me.  Wow.  How could I ever earn such a love?  I can’t.  It’s not possible.  Which is why it is a gift. 

 A gift is not something you can earn.  It is something that you simply have to accept.  With this acceptance comes great freedom!  I don’t have to do anything or pretend to be something I’m not!  I can be me, full of value and worth and fully loved to the uttermost by my Savior.  This gift is a treasure, something to last for all of eternity.  Keep it near and let it take you forward.  “For where your treasure it, there your heart will be also.”

Gotta Have Faith

Gotta Have Faith

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

     What is faith? I love it when the Scripture gives you an answer straight out and you don’t have to interpret anything, it is just there and you can soak it in.  Faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Webster’s dictionary describes sure as “firm and steady; being impossible to doubt; inevitable; not liable to fail.”  Can you imagine having something that is impossible to doubt and is not liable to fail?  I can be sure of what I hope for!  Certain is described as “being very sure of someting; without any doubt; inevitable; not mentioned but assumed.”  Again we have something without any doubt, and to top it off it is something we can’t even see!  Inevitable, which is used in both defintions, is described as “not able to be avoided or prevented.”  The things that we hope for and the things that we can’t see are the things that are “not able to be avoided or prevented.”  Go back and read those definitions again.  Let them sink in.  I am SURE of what I hope for and I am CERTAIN of what I do not see.  Wow!

      Faith is what keeps me holding on.  Faith is what helps me wake up every morning knowing I don’t have to have all the answers, which works out well considering I never will.  Faith fills my life with hope and purpose.  Faith is best understood when my eyes are closed, and I stop trying to figure everything out.  Faith like a child, holding tight because the Lord has asked me to and not wondering why.  Just a knowing that He would never do anything to harm me.  I have nothing to worry about. 

    If you look up faith, sure, and certain in a thesaurus you will find they are very often intertwined.  Faith – dependece, trust, reliance, creed, loyalty, confidence, constancy, fidelity, religion, belief.  Sure – confident, fixed, inevitable, certain, positive, trustworthy, reliable, unquestionable, convinced, steady.  Certain – definite, assured, fixed, inevitable, sure, undeniable, positive, confident, particular, special, indubitable, secure, unquestionable.

You gotta have faith.

I Promise

I Promise

 2 Corinthians 1:20

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.  And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

 

   It was the last day of school and I had just finished third grade.  Laura was my best friend and I was to be home schooled the next year.  We promised to be friends forever.  My fifth grade year I came back to school and Laura was there, but I was no longer her best friend.  Parents, friends, people make promises all the time.  In fact I have promised myself many things over the years.  I promised I’d be a better student, that I wouldn’t procrastinate anymore, or that I wouldn’t eat sweets for a week.  Some of these promises are small, but some are big and come with a deep pain when they are forgotten, avoided, or intentionally broken. 

   Every promise God has made to me is “Yes” in Christ; not maybe, not hopefully later, not maybe someday, but YES.  It applies to me.  I don’t have to wonder if it includes me, because I know that it does.  Wow!  What freedom!  What cause for celebration!  Life is full and worth living.

   But what are those promises?  What can I cling to and know that it is mine?  In Genesis God promises to never flood the earth again and leaves a rainbow as a symbol to Noah, his family, and everyone else after that.  He promises to never completely destroy the earth again.  In Jeremiah He says He has a plan for my life.  He promises to fulfill that plan, a plan where I will prosper, a plan full of hope and a future.  In Psalm 37 He promises to “give [me] the desires of [my] heart” if I will only delight myself in Him.  He promises to sustain me and to never let the righteous fall (Psalm 55).  He promises to take care of me and to preserve my life (Psalm 119). 

   In Christ, God’s promises are “Yes.”  So to the glory of God I can say “Amen!”  Thank You Jesus!