How much does God love us? How much do we actually believe that God loves us? If we really, really believed He does would we live our lives differently? Would we think and act differently? Would we have more self-confidence and assurance in a good future? Probably.
Psalm 139
"You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me."
and you know me."
God has complete and full intimacy with us, because he has complete and full knowledge of everything that we are. He knows our whole being from the inside out. There is nothing that you could tell God that would surprise Him. There is no sin that you have ever committed that He does not already know about. And yet he STILL loves you! Did you know that? No matter what you have done, he still loves you, a lot!
"While we were still sinners Christ died for us." "For God so LOVED the world that He gave His one and only son."
We do not, by any means, deserve for Him to love. YET HE STILL DOES. Isn't that incredible?! That is why the song amazing grace is called AMAZING grace, because it is completely amazing!
"You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar."
Every single thing we do, EVERY single thing, God sees. He is always, always watching us. He knows every single thought that passes through our heads, lol, so watch what you are thinking about. :) He has full knowledge of everything we have ever done, are doing and will ever do!
"You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely."
Before WE even know what we are going to say, God knows. He knew the end at the beginning. He knew how everything would play out before it even did. He knew that Adam and Eve would fall when he created them, and yet He still created them. That baffles me sometimes. And he knew every sin we would ever commit, but He STILL allowed us to be born. Thank God for that! :) He knew that his son would have to die for all of our sins, and yet he STILL created us. Sometimes when people ask, "Why would God create us when he knew that we would fall?" I respond with, "Well why do people continue to have children when they know full well that their kids may hate them someday?" It's the same thing. Because you cannot have the good without the bad. In order for someone to be capable of fully loving you, and for that to really mean something, they also have to be fully capable of hating you. And that is how it is with us and God. He knows that we are free to either love Him or hate Him. He would hope that we would love Him, but He GIVES US THE CHOICE. So do you love Him or hate Him? It really can't be both. It is one or the other. Jesus said, "You are either for me or against me."
I pray that we would all choose to love God, because He deserves our love, more than we even know or realize.
"You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me."
As another well loved psalm says, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." God is ALWAYS protecting us. Even though bad things happen to us, He is always there watching over us. As the poem "Footprints" says, it is in the hard times that God carries us. As in the story of Job, God does allow Satan to cause pain in our lives, sometimes to mature us, sometimes simply to bring him, God, glory when we prove faithful to him despite the hardship. He WILL allow us to go through hard times, but he NEVER LEAVES US. He is always, always there. Believe it, because it is the truth. :)
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain."
The fact that God cares for us, us who "hurt" Him, who sin against Him and disappoint Him time and time again, is truly amazing! We do not deserve His love by any means! A psalm says, "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you should care for Him?" Amen, what are we, really? We are no more then dust. Our lives are a wisp on the wind. We are here for such a short time and then we die. Why does God care about us? We will never fully comprehend why or how much He does, HE JUST DOES. He loves us more than our words could express or our minds could comprehend. Think of the love a parents has for their child and multiply that times 100. That is how much God loves us. :) That is how much God loves YOU! :) Believe it. lol :)
"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast."
your right hand will hold me fast."
There is no where that we can go that God is not. HE IS EVERYWHERE. God is not a physical entity like we are. He is in ALL places at ALL times. He is not just in heaven, so then He is not here. No He is both in heaven and here on earth. He is everywhere, at the same time, completely and wholly. That is what it means that He is omnipresent.
"If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you."
There is nowhere that we can go to hide from God. We cannot commit a sin in the dark thinking that He will not see it. He sees everything. He knows everything. Nothing is hidden from God. No knowledge is hidden from God. No act, no thought, no feeling. He knows everything about everyone ALL the time.
" For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb."
The miracle of life forming inside of a woman you would think would be enough to prove the existence of God, but for some reason it is not for most people. Think about it, how is it that something can come from nothing? Essentially that is what happens. A baby starts as a tiny egg and tiny sperm and grows into a fetus. How is that possible without a God??? It is not. God creatED in the beginning, but he is STILL CREATING EVERY DAY, thousands of new lives, all across the world! He did not speak the world into existence and then step back from it. He is still creating NEW things, every time a baby is conceived. Psalm 139: "For you knit me together in my mother's womb." And we thought we as humans got the credit for creating a new life, quite funny. :) No it is still God creating new life everyday inside of any woman who gets pregnant. What a cool thought! :)
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
Many people talk down about themselves. They say negative things about themselves. Do we realize that when we do this we are actually insulting God himself because He made us? We are made in the image of God. We are "fearfully" made, meaning God put A LOT OF EFFORT into making you! If you made something "fearfully" would it be haphazard or sloppy? No. It would mean He made us with acute precision. Like a skilled surgeon, He knew exactly what he was doing. He was very, very careful when He made us. Like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, probably fearfully making sure that every thing he painted made sense, that is how God made each of us. He paid CLOSE attention to detail. So do not EVER think that you are not pretty or that you are not as God wanted you to be. YOU ARE! God knew exactly what He was doing, and HE THINKS YOU ARE STUNNING! I'm serious. Beauty is such a relative term anyways. What one culture says is beautiful another says is not. In India, overweight women are considered most attractive. But in America, if you are not a size 0 you are not considered attractive. But WHO CARES what our culture says! lol God loves you NO MATTER WHAT OUR SOCIETY SAYS ABOUT YOU! You are absolutely beautiful, or absolutely handsome, to God. When he looks at you, he says, "Wow! I made that huh! Man I did a good job!" lol. :) When he created everything in the beginning what did he say? "It is good." There is nothing not good about any of us. "Good" is a subjective term really. We are made in God's image by a God who is PERFECT, therefore we do not have "flaws." We are his masterpiece. So believe it! You are a masterpiece! :)
"Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well."
David in writing this did not say, "God I don't like what you made in making me." No, what did he say? "Your works are wonderful, I KNOW that." He is saying THANK YOU GOD FOR HOW YOU MADE ME. How often do WE say that? Or do we always just complain that God didn't give us what He gave someone else? This should not be. We need to be grateful for how "fearfully" HE made us. We need to say, "Thank you for doing a good job in making me! I appreciate how you made me." Joy comes when we thankful. How God made you is one of your blessings to be thankful for. :) Believe it. :)
"My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth."
I am not sure why David says this, as our bodies are formed in our mother's womb. This is a mystery indeed.
"Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be."
God knows how long our lives will be. The Bible says our days are numbered. We do not know when our end will come, but God knows before we are even born when we will die.
"How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—"
God has MANY thoughts about us, good thoughts, all the time. We are ALWAYS on His mind. He thinks about everyone on the planet ALL the time. That would be exhausting wouldn't it? lol For us it would be, but nothing is exhausting or impossible for God. :) He can do anything and everything. :)"Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."
This is a dangerous prayer to be sure. Even though God already knows every thought we have this is giving Him permission to reveal ourselves to ourselves. We often do not REALLY SEE ourselves. We run from ourselves. We hide from ourselves. We do not want to know our "anxious thoughts" so we stay busy. We distract ourselves. We take up many diversions; shopping, reading, sports, TV, work, relationships....all in an attempt to hide from ourselves. But what about ourselves are we hiding from?
I used to have dreams that I was being chased by someone. I was running away from someone. I believe I have come to realize that I was running from myself. The relationship we have with ourselves is the most important one, besides God, because wherever you go, there you are. lol :) If you know a difficult person you can always leave their presence. But what if you yourself are the difficult person? What if you don't even understand yourself? This is the case for many, many people, even though they don't realize it. They do not know themselves or have control over themselves so in their frustration they try to dissect and control other people. Intresting isn't it? "When one does not have contol one becomes controlling."
This is why meditation is so crucial, so that we can slow down long enough to REALLY SEE ourselves. :) The first person we should seek to understand and control, is ourselves.
I recommend taking some time to meditate. Music helps me in this. Music brings things out from deep within my soul, things I did not even know were there. Music is the best catalyst, I believe, for meditation and self-reflection.
Here are some good songs for meditation:
Jesus Lover of My Soul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSeMY-Hdgg
Who Am I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU_rTX23V7Q
Speak to Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGf1_QqPji4
Oh How You Love Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HQJkNe9pvI
Meditate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waVI9FY_mOg
All To You, I Surrender
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkf0gOH2p9A
Majesty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNGdcq0pAuU
It Will Be Worth It All Someday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CqPcKys2MU
How He Loves Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FxaUYjRtkc
You're Beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGlTzH9xkXQ
May God bless you! Ask Him to reveal yourself to you more and more. I recommend journaling whatever he reveals to you as you listen to these songs or as you sit in silence with Him. :)
Ask Him to hold up a mirror to yourself so that you can truly see yourself instead of looking at others all the time and trying to change them. Ghandi said, "He who would seek to change the world must first start with himself." Amen? So ask God to reveal yourself to yourself. God bless! :)
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