I’ve been thinking a lot about how God sees each of us since my last post. I remembered a scripture prayer that I wrote about 3 or 4 years ago about that very subject. Unfortunately, I don’t have the scripture references that I used, but I’ll be referencing several in here. I wanted to post this prayer. It’s all scriptures (Amplified version, of course):

“Beautiful Father, I confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful, and I am full of awe at the wonder of my birth! Your thoughts to me are so precious and so many, God! The sum of them is so vast! You blot out and cancel my transgressions for Your own sake, and You will not remember my sins. You will not forget me. You have indelibly imprinted and tattooed a picture of me on the palm of each of Your hands. You rejoice over me as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. Father, before You formed me in the womb, You knew and approved of me as Your chosen instrument. Even before I was born, You separated and set me apart, consecrating and appointing me. You are with me as a Mighty One, a Savior Who saves! You rejoice over me with joy, and You rest in silent satisfaction. In Your love, You will be silent and make no mention of my past sins. You won’t even recall them. You exult over me with singing. As far as the east is from the west, is how far You have removed my transgressions from me. I am not called a servant or slave any longer, because Jesus calls me His friend. He has made known to me everything that He has heard from you. Everything He has learned from You, He has revealed to me. You have chosen, appointed, and planned me, so that I will bear fruit and keep on bearing. And my fruit will be lasting, remain, and abide, so that whatever I ask of You in Jesus’ Name, as presenting all that He is, You will give it to me. The Spirit that I have received is not a spirit of slavery to put me in bondage and fear again, but I have received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit producing sonship, and in that happiness, I cry Abba Father! Nothing will separate me from Christ’s love. Not suffering, affliction, tribulation, calamity, distress, persecution, hunger, destitution, peril, or sword. Since I am united with You, I have become one spirit with You. My body is the temple, the very sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, Who lives within me. I have received Him as a Gift from You. I am not my own. I was bought with a price and purchased with a preciousness, paid for, and made Your own. I will honor You and bring glory to You in my body. You foreordained me, destined me, and planned in love for me to be adopted and revealed as Your own child through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of Your will, because it pleased You and it was Your kind intent. I am no longer an outsider, exile, migrant, or alien excluded from the rights of citizens, but I now share citizenship with the saints, Your own people, consecrated and set apart for You. I belong to Your own household. I was darkness, but now I am light in You. I will walk as a child of Light, and I will lead a life as one native-born to the Light. I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me. I am ready for anything, and I am equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me. I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency. I am in Him, made full and, since I have come to fullness of life in Christ, I am also filled with the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and I will reach full spiritual stature. I fearlessly, confidently, and boldly draw near to the throne of grace, the throne of Your unmerited favor to me, a sinner, so that I can receive mercy for my failures, and find grace to help in good time for every need. I will receive appropriate and well-timed help that comes just when I need it. What an incredible quality of Love You have given, shown, and bestowed on me! Love that permits me to be named, called, and counted as one of Your children! And I am! I absolutely know that since I am born of You, and if I do not deliberately and knowingly practice sin, Jesus, Who was begotten of You, carefully watches over and protects me. Christ’s divine presence is within me and preserves me against evil. The wicked one does not lay hold of, get a grip on, or touch me. I am convinced and sure of this very thing: that You Who began a good work in me, will continue until the day of Jesus Christ, and even right up to the time of His return, developing that good work, perfecting, and bringing it to full completion in me.” I purposely underlined that part about honoring and bringing Him glory in my body. I needed that reminder!

The Bible is full of scriptures that show us how much God loves us, but do we really grasp the enormity of it? Do we really understand it? One of my prayers today is, “Lord, I want to understand and KNOW Your love for me. I want to walk in it, live in it, and know it every single second of every single day.” Someone once told me they never fully understood how much God loved them until they had children of their own. In fact, I’ve heard that more than once. I don’t want to have to wait until then to really know His love for me. I want to understand it now!

Of course, the most important outpouring of God’s Love was the precious gift of His Son, Jesus. I don’t know of any parent today who would sacrifice their child for the life of another. Probably the most famous scripture in all of the Bible is John 3:16. We all know it, and unfortunately, we have heard it so much, sometimes we just read/say it almost without thinking about it. But that is one scripture that needs to be pondered. Meditated. “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” But more than that, Jesus died for all of us. Not only those who loved Him, but for those who didn’t. So many through the years have felt that Jesus came as a judge. Someone to point His holy finger, but the next verse in John 3 says otherwise: “For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.” Grace! Amazing Grace that we couldn’t possibly deserve. Even on the cross, the soldiers and people mocked and hated Him, because they didn’t understand why He hung there. And in the midst of Him hanging there feeling more pain, anguish, rejection and agony than any human ever could in a thousand lifetimes, He asked God to forgive them! Why? Romans 5:8 – “But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.” LOVE. Perfect, agape Love. I heard a song recently, and I wish I knew who sings it. I don’t even know the title, but the chorus says something like “nails didn’t hold You to that cross. Love did.” I have yet to be able to catch the title and author of that song, but it is beautiful. And it’s true. He didn’t have to do what He did. He had a choice. That’s Love. John 15:13 says “No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.” Jesus didn’t die for just His friends. He did it knowing not everyone would receive His Love and His gift. He did it knowing there would be people who would hate Him, despise and reject Him. No greater Love, my friends…

It doesn’t matter what you have done. It doesn’t matter what you have said. Jesus Loves you, and NOTHING will EVER change that. Whether anyone accepts Him or not, He still Loves. He paid for OUR sins. He didn’t just die for the people who walked the earth with Him. He did it for ALL OF US. Another great song from a while back was titled “While He Was on the Cross, I Was on His Mind.” I believe that with all of my heart. Before He went to the cross, He prayed for His disciples, and for all of us in the future. John 17:20-23 “Neither for these alone (<– He is speaking of His disciples here) do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching, ²¹ That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. ²² I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: ²³ I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.” (underline and insert mine) If you’ve read the Bible or heard teaching on it, then you have heard the disciple’s words and teachings, which means you and I qualify for the underlined statement there. Think about that! Jesus was praying for all of us! You and me! And it didn’t stop there. He continues to intercede for us to this very day..this very moment. Romans 8:34 “Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?” Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them.” Again..Love!

God could have left me in my sin. He could have left me on the path I was on, but He didn’t. He plucked me out of the darkness that surrounded me, and He showed me His immense and unending love for me through His precious Son. It’s no accident He took me in this direction today. He knows what needs to be said and when. And He knows who needs to hear it. I need to hear it! Each time I post, my desire is that HE will write. He will lead, guide and direct , and He does. Why? Because He LOVES you. He can’t love you more than He already does, because He Loves you with all that He is. And He IS Love! I John 4:8 “He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.”

I would love for y’all to comment about whatever you feel. Please feel free to do that anytime! Comments, questions, testimonies, stories..whatever!

Again, be encouraged! Be blessed! God is in Love with you!

Your Sister In Christ,

April