So about two months ago I wrote a blog post about the way God was revealing to me the pride in my life and showing me my brokenness. I waited almost two months to look at the post again after I wrote it and as I was finally about to hit publish, I decided to let my dad read it, and receive his wise insight. His answer was something I did not expect, but was so profound and made me think and reflect on my writing. He looked at me and said, “Blair, do you really feel this way about yourself?” I began to understand what he had said as I read through my post again and looked at the choice of words I used to describe us as sinners including malicious, worthless, evil, and so on. My dad continued to explain to me that yes before we were saved we were evil, but that does not define our worth. As I thought about what he had told me, it was hard to comprehend the way I had labeled sinners. Looking back, I realize that though I was trying to make a point that Jesus found us in our worthlessness, I was dwelling on what our lives were like before Jesus, and not rejoicing in the worth that He gives us. So I have decided to switch that depressed, dwelling-in-the-past post around to the way Jesus looks at us now.
One of my favorite songs lately has been “Wonderfully Made” by Ellie Holcomb. The lyrics are personal and beautifully written to make a connection between the way God looks at us, so therefore how we can see ourselves. Some of the lyrics are:
What if I saw me, the way that You see me?
What if I believed it was true?
What if I traded, this shame and self-hatred?
For a chance at believing You
That You knit me together
In my mother’s womb
And You say that I’ve never been
Hidden from You
And You say that I’m wonderfully
wonderfully made
As I have dwelled and rested in these simple words over the last couple of weeks, My focus has changed from the person I was before Jesus intervened in my life, to the beautiful daughter that Jesus calls me. The fact that scripture says that Jesus is singing over us makes me get the chills.
One of the most intriguing parts of this song is when Ellie Holcomb describes how we were never hidden from God. In fact, we were and remain fully exposed to our creator. This might be scary in a sense if you recognize the sin that is within you. But, Jesus wants us to find encouragement in these lyrics. The reason being, we need and crave someone to see the depths of our souls, because we simply can’t fix ourselves.
With this knowledge, we can run to Jesus, letting go of our sin. We can look away from the past and be stripped of all the things that made us feel unworthy. Because Jesus is in love with our tender souls, we are called to a new name and a new, extravagant worth. There is freedom found in trusting what Jesus thinks about us, and God just wants us to rest in that freedom.
So friend, sister, brother, if you struggle with your past of pride and shame, be called into a new light, and recognize the love of the magnificent soul-seeker. Find beauty in the grace that has been granted to you. Let’s release whatever brokenness we still are grasping, and run straight to our creator’s hands and rest in the glory of the cross.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7
simplyblair 