The entry on my journal for February 14 starts this way: “8:17 a.m. The day has barely started and I already feel like a failure.”
Have you ever felt like a failure? Sometimes I do and it’s a horrible feeling. You look around and realize that things are not going the way they should and it’s pretty much your fault. At least you think so. You realize that you are not all that after all and are able to mess things up quite a bit! And in your mind you just disappointed a bunch of people you care for, even if they don’t think so. Sometimes they don’t even know you’re feeling this way. I so wish I never felt like that, but once in a while it happens, and well, February 14 it happened. And it had nothing to do with being Valentine’s Day. It had everything to do with being another day in this crazy sinful earth.
This morning as I was driving and listening to the radio a lady was sharing an experience she had at a church called Scum of the Earth. She said she was sitting between a drunken man and a homeless man and the smell that was coming from both was enough to make her gag. The mixture of alcohol and body odor was getting unbearable when she realized that to God that’s exactly what we were... and He still came to die for us. That’s what the Bible means when it says that while we were still sinners, filthy, dirty, smelly sinners, Jesus came to die for us. (Romans 5:8)
The thought that I am such a sinner and that God still loves me unconditionally was more than I could bear and tears forced their way out of my eyes. Incredible! How can it be? How? The Bible says that our good works, the good things we do, are like filthy rags. Filthy rags? Do you know what that is? Imagine a dirty rag, with blood, vomit and bodily fluids. That’s what my good works are. (Isaiah 64:6). Are you disgusted yet? And even so God loves me so much that He sent His Son to die for me. I just can’t comprehend such love!
As I poured my heart to God on the pages of my journal I asked God to pick up my broken me and make something beautiful. I didn’t like the way I was feeling and my self value was very, very low. I wanted God to restore me and make me beautiful. But just as I was writing those words, God said: You already are beautiful.
I couldn’t write anymore. I had to stop in wonder at the thought that God thinks I’m beautiful. What? Me? Even though I was feeling like a failure, the God of the universe saw me as beautiful person, because to Him I’m beautiful no matter what. Wow!
After that, all I could write were words of adoration and appreciation because even though everything else in life fails, God never fails and is always there to help us through our difficult times. And this is because to Him we are beautiful. He loves us so much He thinks we are worth dying for. To Him we are more than simply flesh and bone. We are His creation, His children. His all existence right now is focused on us, helping us as we walk with Him to our Heavenly Home. And as we come to Him, He transforms us into His likeness again, we are a new creation. And all the bad things we’ve done, He takes them and throws them into the depths of the sea to be forever gone.
The God who created the universe loves you. Yes, you! Do you know what that means? It means that you are all that matters to Him. That you are precious, beautiful. He wants to spend time with you, He wants you to share your life with Him. It means that because of this love you are a child of the King of kings! Royalty. He wants you to be happy and happiness in God is secure, not dependable on circumstances or people. And this God has plans for you. Does He ever! Not the plans you’re thinking of right now. Better plans. Amazing plans! To give you an abundant life full of hope and a future. A future forever by His side. You... His most treasured possession. His most beautiful creation!
"My servant David... kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes."
I Kings 14:8
"For God so loved the world...you... that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life."
John 3:16
