 |
| In San Diego last summer. |
When I started to get feeling "behind" on everything I wanted to get done, I heard a little voice say, "You'll never catch up." When I lost a few pounds and they found their way back to me, I felt discouraged. When I couldn't resolve a tricky technical issue, I started to think, "I've lost it."
But in my morning devotion time (I've been reading the Bible chronologically), I began to read Proverbs, written by the legendarily wise Solomon. The first few chapters share valuable reasons to embrace wisdom, reminding us to cry out for insight, to look for it as for silver and treasure it as the finest of rubies. Let me paraphrase: we are to search for it actively, pursue it passionately and practice it purposefully!
I thought how silly it is that I pray for wisdom and then run around trusting in other things, like popular opinion or cultural pressures... "You'll never get it. You're not good enough." How I have been missing the boat to listen to the lies of the world instead of the wisdom that God has carefully been pouring into me. I resolved to treasure the words of the Lord like the finest of rubies. I determined to let His words build me up, instead of letting other things tear me down.
I began, once again, to practice being confident in the Lord. Whenever a negative thought would enter, I would push it out by telling myself the Truth (something my counselor husband has often reminded me). As a result, what a strong, productive and wonderfully positive day I had! (I even resolved my technical issue!) As I drove home from work, the Truth poured out from my radio to me as I heard Jason Gray sing, "Remind Me Who I Am."
Sometimes when the world starts to mold us, we need a little reminder of Whose voice our souls long to hear from.
Lord, if I'm your Beloved, help me believe it and live it! I belong to you, I'm the one you love. That will be enough for anything I need to get through today. I will search for your wisdom and tell myself the Truth. I am a new creation, being transformed every day.
Have you been telling yourself the Truth?
Well stated, Marilyn. We are blessed to have Scripture and holy people among us to remind us where our focus needs to be.
ReplyDeleteํYes, I too am trying hard to focus on what God thinks of me. (Too often I'm judging myself on performance and unrealistic expectations.) I recently was reading "By Searching", an autobiography by Isobel Kuhn, the well-known missionary to China. She was giving a memorized speech at graduation, and while trying to pour out her soul instead of just reciting, she forgot a line. Someone prompted her quietly, and no one knew, but to her it was a catastrophe. She ran to her room and "fell on my knees in an agony of humiliation and failure. ... and then suddenly the Lord was there with me. I felt His love folding me around. 'Never mind, dear,' He was saying. 'Failure or success it is all over now and My love is just the same'."
ReplyDeleteThat experience of Isobel's struck me, and I tried to remember those words. The next day I was feeling pretty productive, and actually rather proud of myself, and then the words came back to me: "Never mind, dear. Failure or success, My love is just the same." His love for us is not conditioned on what we do, He just loves us. We still strive to serve Him in all that we do, but not to earn approval, rather to express our love and obedience to Him. That takes the pressure off, and allows us (especially ones of us who focus too much on failure or success) to experience the truth of His love, and then keep walking, to share that love with others.