Tag Archives: blessings

Invested

Oh, how blessed I am.

This has been a focus of my heart lately. I keep getting hit with such great realizations of how deeply I am loved by God. And the funny thing is, the times when I’m reminded of this the most are the times I’m feeling the least worthy of that love. It’s when I’m convicted of my sinfulness that I’m also reminded of His kindness towards me.

There’s so much selfishness in me, and bitterness, and pride. My decisions are often shaped by love for myself before love for others and for God. And yet, over and over again I find God seeking me out and walking alongside me. He’s faithful to me and patient with me, because He loves me.

I become aware of this truth when I see the amazing people and circumstances He’s blessed me with.

Or when He sits beside me through a hard situation, offering me the peace and strength that I would never find on my own.

Or when I look back in my life and see the connections between what God was doing in me then and what He’s calling me to now…when His purpose for me becomes just a little clearer.

Most of all, I recognize God’s desire for me when I read His Word. Whenever I feel him actively drawing my attention to the specific truth that I need in that exact moment, I see His consideration for me.

After all, if He didn’t love me, He wouldn’t bother to teach me in such a gently convicting way. But instead, God’s love is evidenced for me in the ways He intentionally grows me, challenges me, and pursues me. He is truly invested in me – how incredible is that?

But this is not just true in my life; God’s deep, inexhaustible love is for every single one of us. God has a purpose for each of us, if we will let Him work in our lives.

God desires you and is invested in you, and He has a good plan designed for you – do you believe that?

It can be hard at times to let this truth really take hold in our lives. We may feel worthless and unloved, anxious at the future, condemned by our sin, or held back by self-centered pride. Sometimes I lose my sense of joy at what God is doing, especially during the routine moments in my life. But regardless of where our hearts are, God is still our Father, and He is still full of love for us.

When we feel unworthy or unloved by others, we can remember that the holy, all-knowing God knows us fully and loves us fully. He took care to form us in the womb; He knew us before we were ever born. And He knows just who He wants us to become.

When we aren’t sure what’s next in our future, and we’re afraid of making a mistake, we can remember that God has a plan in store for us. He has set out good works for us to do and He will guide our paths; we must simply trust and submit to His will.

When we feel weighed down and controlled by our sin, we can remember that we’re forgiven and loved. Jesus knew every sin we’d ever commit, and He died for us anyway. He’s invested in us enough to not only give us eternal salvation, but to also give the daily grace and power we need to resist temptation and grow in godly character.

And when we fall into the trap of self-righteousness, we can remember the humbling truth that nothing we could ever do would make us worthy of God’s love. It is only because it’s in His very nature to love that we’re loved by Him. He loves each of us – not because of who we are, but because of who He is. And He commands us to cast aside our pride and to love others as unflinchingly as we’ve been loved.

When it’s hard for you to feel God’s love, I encourage you – and myself, while I’m at it – to think back on all the times God’s worked in your life (and to remember that He’s at work even when we don’t recognize it).

Any time He’s protected you from harm, given you the strength to endure a hard time, revealed His character to you through Scripture, blessed you with good, encouraging friends, or convicted you of sin – this is evidence of His love for you! This is proof that He looks at you with fatherly affection, and that He is invested in you.

So walk through today with the confidence of someone that is known and loved by God. Know that God is for you and not against you, and that He has a plan for you.

Related Scripture

Numbers 6:24-26

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.”

Psalm 31:19

“How great is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You, which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, before the sons of men!”

Psalm 34:8

“O taste and see that the Lord is good, how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”

Psalm 56:9

“…This I know, that God is for me.”

Isaiah 54:10

“‘For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says the Lord who has compassion on you.”

Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”

Jeremiah 29:11

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future.’”

Matthew 6:26

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Romans 8:28

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:38-39

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us form the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Ephesians 2:4-7

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:10

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

1 John 4:19

“We love, because He first loved us.”

Generous in Self

I’ve written before about being in a season of preparation and wanting to be intentional about learning and growth during this stage in my life.

I feel now that I’m beginning to move into a new season – a season in which I must step into what God has been preparing me to do. And I want to be just as intentional in this season as in the last. So, I’m considering the ways that God has taught and blessed me throughout this time, and how I can use what I’ve been given to serve Him.

I believe that God has blessed me in order to bless others. This is true financially, but also in other areas of my life. He’s given me stability, joy, spiritual gifts, and time and opportunities to serve. He’s placed specific callings on my heart and made me aware of needs that I can fill.

And in order to fill these needs, I am called to generosity. Not just generosity of my finances, or of my love and mercy, but generosity of self. I want to be generous with everything that I have and everything that I am.

In my last post I wrote about not being stingy with love or acting as if I’ll run out of it. This goes for my time and energy as well. I must be obedient with what I have and the ways God’s called me to serve, for the more of myself I give, the more of Himself He pours back into me. He will not fail to supply me with what I need to be faithful to His call.

So, in this coming season, I hope to be committed to generosity of self. To not simply be a consumer, receiving good things from God, from my church fellowship, from my relationships. Instead, I want to be filled by each these so that I can then pour into others.

So, I’ll be looking for the intersection of my God-given strengths and the needs of those around me. And I must no longer hesitate to pray for opportunities to serve; countless times my own fears and insecurities have caused me to shy away from this. So instead I will pray, in full assurance of God’s provision, and will be ready to obey when these opportunities arise.

Just as I wrote about “testing the limits” of God’s love, I want to “test the limits” of everything else that He provides.

This is not to say that I will ignore my own well-being and push myself to a place of burnout (“you can’t pour from an empty cup”, and all that), but that I will refuse to hold back out of fear of not being or having enough. When I hear God’s call to a particular person, action, or ministry, I will confidently and joyously give whatever it is He asks of me.

There’s a very short book by Bruce Wilkinson called The Prayer of Jabez. In it we read this concise and powerful prayer: “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

This is one prayer I want to keep in my life moving forward. I want God to bless me – not in the selfish, earthly-focused ways that I often desire, but in the ways that align with God’s will. I want Him to bless me with whatever will equip me to become who He wants me to be in Him.

I want Him to “enlarge my territory”, to increase the opportunities around me in which I can serve Him. To make me aware of those in need and the ways that I can help.

I want Him to keep His hand with me, so that I never fall victim to the temptation to work in my own strength. I want to be entirely, utterly dependent on His power in my life.

And I want Him to keep me from evil, from the temptation of sin and the pain that it causes. To protect me from anything that threatens to separate me from God’s will for my life.

By trusting in God’s willingness to bless me, to provide opportunities to serve and grow, to do His work in me, and to guard me, I can move forward into this new season with confidence. I can live generously, knowing that all that I am is supplied and protected by the Lord.

Related Scripture

1 Chronicles 4:10

“Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” (NKJV)

2 Corinthians 9:7-8, 10

“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully with also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed…Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

1 John 3:17

“But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?”

1 Timothy 6:17-19

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”

Proverbs 11:25

“The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.”