This morning, a precious lady shared hers from Isaiah 43:18-19. It starts: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past...." We could all just stop right there and grow tremendously in God if that was all we did today! But for me it was in a few of the earlier verses that really ring true to me. They are my life verses!
Is: 43:4
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
For a gal that never really knew she was precious, it was the most freeing thing I had ever read! It wasn't based on how I looked, or what I did or anything....He the living God, the Creator of the Universe loved me. Loved me with all my many incredibly dismal habits and traits. He even considered me worth dying for. I didn't have to do anything to get His favor. I had already found it at the cross of His precious Son. That love saved my life. Made my fake joy real. That my friends, is worth it all right there. For the first time in my life, I could be real and happy at the same time.
But we don't get to sit in the former things. I don't get to sit on the Father's lap a content and joyful child of God. Nope, I get to get off and grow and lay hold of the destiny that He has for me. That means work!!!! Work and letting His word change me and my stinky heart! It means the unexpected bumps in the road, get made straight by Him. It means, I get to trust Him and He will not lie or change His mind. Things will be okay and I don't have to fear the future!
Romans 5:1-11
The Message (MSG)
1-2By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. 3-5There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!
6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!
Once you read that, it kind of makes all the hard places okay. It makes them worth being thankful and full of peace, because He is always with us, always a step ahead making our paths straight! Blessings to you friends have a wonderful day in the Lord. He is good and He loves you. Just in case no one ever told you: you are precious in His sight and He loves you!
Hilltop Blessings,
Sheri
Thanks for sharing your life verse with us. All of us who are growing have a sermon inside us waiting to be heard!
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