Series: Renewal
Isaiah 61:11 ESV
Matthew 5:45 ESV
Zephaniah 3:17 ESV
Consider this:
You enter a room filled with mirrors in a maze. As you walk from mirror to mirror you begin to notice different views of yourself.
You do not see pictures of anyone else. In that place you ONLY see reflections of yourself. Soon, you choose one mirror image and you sit comfortable in front of that mirror with your legs crossed.
You turn and realize God is there (God HAS been there all alone but by turning and being aware you realize the presence of God.) No one else is present…just you and God.
Every view you see in every mirror is uniquely you. One view is not better than another…just different.
Now, imagine God loving you.
Which one does God love. Does God only love the on who is smiling? Or does God love the view of the one frowning? Does God love the one who makes a mistake? Or does God only love the one who doesn’t make mistakes?
There are times we believe that God loves us when we are good and make good choices and God doesn’t love when we make a bad choice. Some of us (myself included) have been been led to believe that since God cannot look on sin when we sin God turns away from us.
But, consider this…
In Isaiah 61:11 we are told, “For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.”
I came to a point where I believe that I am not so powerful as I previously thought I was. I think scripture points to that fact.
Matthew 5:45 tells us, “be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Just as God causes righteousness and praise to sprout before the nations, God makes the sun shine and brings the rain.
In truth, God loves creation.
God loves all of creation.
God may be sad because He misses being in fellowship with us (all of us) all the time but when we instantaneously turn Jesus made it possible for us to realize God shines on us.
So…what if God really is closer than we think?
John Ortberg wrote, “My grandmother said it better, I think. When anyone asked her which of her six children she loved the most, she said love for your children doesn’t work that way. She said it’s as if when each child is born, another little room gets added to your heart. And no one else occupies that room. It doesn’t have to be bigger or better than any other room. It’s just theirs. “In my Father’s house are many rooms,” Jesus said. One of them was added on when you became his child. That one is yours, and no one else can ever occupy it. It is secret to you and him. It’s your own private Sistine Chapel.” (God is Closer Than You Think, John Ortberg).
In the same way, God does not only love part of you…God loves every frame in the maze of mirrors. God cherishes every image of you.
We (myself included) need to realize that just as God loves every silly crazy part of us, God wants to spend time with us.
I’ve known people who have told me that they “hate to bother God with their silly requests.”They think they should only go to God with the really important problems.
The truth is, God receives our requests (no matter how silly they are) but that is NOT even the point.
The point is that God loves you.
God loves every part of you.
God wants more than anything to spend time with you.
So…whether we have requests or we just want to sit in God’s peace, THAT IS THE POINT.
That is what God wants. However, whenever, or why God wants to sit with you…all of you.
Consider how much you think God loves you and multiply that by 1 Billion. You’d be close, but you can actually continue to multiply that into a number that surpasses infinity and you would still need to add more numbers.
We simply cannot begin to fathom how much God loves us.
Zephaniah wrote in Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Today, recognize God in your midst.
God saves.
God rejoices over you.
God quiets you with His love.
GOD…Almighty Holy God exults over YOU with loud singing.
Every every every image in the mirror is part of you, and God exults over every part of YOU.
Spiritual Practice: Receive
Listen for God’s song for you. Receive the song.
In God, Deborah
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