What God thinks of me

As I continue to make my meditation toward God each morning, renewing my relationship with Him and listening for His still small voice my spirit is inspired with words of Truth from the Holy Scriptures.


At times through my life I have had thoughts about myself such as, I am a hypocrite, a liar, fat, ugly, stupid, mean, can not do anything right, keep falling backward, continually make the wrong choice, lazy.... on and on the list goes. I heard someone say one or more of these things about themselves and I immediately thought... God does not think that about you! That made me come the Word, and the Word says the following about God's thoughts toward me:

First of all - He loves me & you -Rom.5: [8] "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Second- His thoughts are good -Jer.29: [11] "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

Third- We will have times of weakness but His power is always toward us - 2Cor.13: [4] "For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you." (I have the power...do I believe that?)

Fourth - He thinks of us and loves us as His Child - 1John.3 [2] "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."


That being said He knows what we shall be....What we shall be is what He thinks about us, so no matter what we think of ourselves, if we could just believe what God thinks of us!

Lord Help us to believe what you say is true for those that have chosen to believe on the name of Jesus and are now the sons of God! (Gal.3:[26] "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.")

In Jesus Name
Amen
Phil.4:[8] “ Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Today's Thoughts continued..

Yesterday morning this thought came to me and really has blown my mind... God sent Jesus to Earth to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:[10] "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.") Jesus suffered and died, was buried & rose again the third day, according to the scriptures (I Corinthians 15:1-4)

Jesus returned to sit at the right hand of God. When Jesus left the Earth we inherited the ministry of preaching the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.... Mark 16: [15] "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

God has trusted us to carry the same message that He sent His Son here to die for!!!! I am again reminded of just how valuable God views us, even when we do not see ourselves as valuable! God has trusted us to proclaim His message, how often do I choose to proclaim my message and not His?

Today's Thoughts

Constantly I find my self going up and down this mental/emotional rollercoaster of being very confident of my relationship with Christ and no wavering of my God & that He is real and really working all over all the time. Then I find myself wondering if God is real and wandering away from my Jesus… not talking to Him & not reading the Word, then God allows something to come across my path that causes me to KNOW He is who He says He is!

This morning I found myself in that doubting phase again, and believing I have no self worth. God gently reminded me of the value that He placed on my life and the lives of EVERY human in existence, past, present, & future IS so high that it cost God the life of His only Son. That makes EVERYONE’S worth of VERY HIGH PRICE! Can you believe that God values you SO much!

The next time I start to doubt my worth for any reason in this world or the worth of ANY other human being, I must remember the HIGH price that God has already paid for the WORLD.

John.3 [16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

1John.4 [11] “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

Peru Day 3 Broken!

This day started out on the edge. I was EXTREMELY tired & had a difficult time getting out of bed. One of my eyes was irritated, red & watering.
As I went through my individual devotional on this morning God reminded me that He is THE promise keeper! I needed to be patient on seeing what it is that He brought me here to see. The revelation of this brought to memory a few scriptures,
Revelation 1:8 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
&;
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"

Isaiah 54:1-3 Has been my promise, God will give me so much my house will be bursting!
Isa 54:1 "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD."
Isa 54:2 "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;"
Isa 54:3 "For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."

Philippians 4:13 Reminds me that the God who gave us Christ will use the power of Christ to give me the physical and emotional strength to carry out His work that He began!
Php 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

I broke inside with the flooding back of all that God has said to this morning. On this trip up until this day I have felt like God was being silent.
NOT ANY MORE!
Today my service project was helping dig a hole for rubble, we like to make believe it's the "Swimming Pool!" Thanks Beth... Ha ha ha!
I worked with Dakota, Dawn, Anessa, Eli Beth, Fernando, Richard & Max the resident dog did his fair share of work too! As we dug God brought to my mind the
parable of the "Sower & the Seed"(Luke 8) The ground we

was soft & easy to move on the surface and as we got down about 3 or so feet it got hard and rocky, that made me think about the sinners heart & how some have to plant the seed, others water and it is God that gets the increase. First the ground must be broken & pliable for that seed to be planted!
I had a great time watching Eli & Max dig the hole, Eli used his laser pointer on where ever he wanted Max to dig and Max sure worked up a thirst diggin!!! Good times!
That was the morning, after lunch the VBS team prepared supplies and practiced our skit for the Lost & Found Puppy.
This second day of VBS was much more orderly than the first day, all praise to God! Experience is a great teacher! I was able to spend more time with the kids & little Nerida stole my heart!

As we colored with the children she ran to her Casa (home) & she with her friend Gabriela returned with gifts for me! That nearly broke my heart!!! Nerida gave me a bracelet of her own & Gabriella a sun jewelery charm. Nerida never left my side the whole time she was stuck to me like glue! I was LOVING IT!  The whole experience was terribly humbling for me because I know so many times I neglect to give of what I have when I can easily go out and replace my things. These girls live in villages where the floors of their hut type homes don't even have floors. You can get a small glimpse from these three photos of their living conditions.

These children don't have the resources that I do and they are giving me gifts that are more than likely very precious to them!  As we played together I asked Nerida if she had Jesus Christ in her heart and she told me YES! She asked me if I had children and wanted to know when I was coming back to see her! Without even considering asking the Lord if that would be something He desired for me to do, I immediately told her I would be back in 12 months! I want to keep my word, I pray I have not made a promise that I can not keep...(Proverbs 3:5-6)
I had continually asked this precious girl her name over and over, my darn mind just could not contain it, she asked if I had a pen so I gave her my Sharpie PERMANENT marker pen, not knowing what she was about to do....
She wrote her name on my arm, so I would not forget her! That was so incredible. Our time together was so short and the kids were mobbing all of the team as we tried to collect everything &  get on the bus, I hugged Nerida SO tight and absolutely broke into tears like I was leaving my heart behind, I buried my head into the back of the seat in front of me on the bus & wept all the way back to our hotel. I pray I never forget this first full experience of VBS. Thank you Lord for your kisses. I have no children of my own but has saw fit to bless me so richly in way just like this! Nerida's name remained on my arm for the entire trip and even for a week or so after I returned home, this just might make a great TAT some day!!! Oh yeah! Not on my arm of coarse.....!