God Thinks You Are Wonderful!
Most of us understand that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to die for the sins of mankind. (John 3:16). But how much harder it is to grasp that He loves each one of us as individuals. Yet it is by understanding and realizing how much He loves us, that it finally becomes clear to us that He is interested in every aspect of our lives. His desire is for a deep personal relationship with each of us and not just our adherence to a set of Biblical rules and rituals. It is only then, we can know for certain that faith is not about religion but relationship with Christ.
Recently, I heard of a young mother, who was being tortured for her faith, in a country which does not accept the Gospel Message. Her captors ordered her to recant and deny Jesus Christ. Although this young woman had everything to live for, and had no desire to die at that moment, she bravely told them she could not deny Christ. “In fact,” she said, “He lives within me and if you kill me you actually send me home to be with Him.” These men did kill that lady, but she knew that “for her to live was Christ, and to die was gain.” (Philippians 1:21). After death, she was immediately in the presence of the Lord, who loved her deeply and whom she had grown to love too. It takes the knowledge of being loved personally by God to be able to stand firm under such pressure.
We shared in a conference last week with many people from nations where it costs to take a stand for Christ, where they live with constant threats of death and other dangers. I was impressed not so much by what they said, but by how much they love! It shines from their faces, they love not only God and their fellow man, but they are happy in their own skin. Instead of being glad to be in a place of safety and freedom, with plenty of food provided both physically and spiritually, they were missing home, looking forward to being back with their loved ones and their church folks. One man who was supposed to come could not as he was forced to go into hiding just a few days earlier.
Many of us as believers, have accepted Christ and are sure that we have escaped eternal damnation and will one day go to Heaven when we die. But what about now!! God does not promise only to give us life abundant after we die but right now!! If we get our relationship sorted out, it makes every other aspect of Christian life so much easier, and we can know and show the joy of the Christian life. Yes, we will go through the same trials and temptations, have some of the same problems and hurdles to get over! But, accepting that because He loves us personally, and has a perfect plan for this life He has given, helps us tremendously to cope in difficult circumstances. We know then that God is standing right by our sides and going through with us. We know we have the power of the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us in all truth and we know Jesus loves us with unconditional love and indeed He thinks we are wonderful!! (Psalm 139:14)
So promise me you’ll never forget… that you aren’t an accident or an incident…
You are a gift to the world, a divine work of art, signed by God.
You were knit together. You weren’t mass produced.
You aren’t an assembly -line product.
You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted,
and lovingly positioned on this earth…by the Master Crafts-Man.
This poem was written by Roy Lessin of Dayspring