To Love the Truth Day 22: He Restores

Today's truth is another that is precious to me.  It goes along well with what I shared yesterday.

God likes us. He delights in us. We are precious to Him.

So He doesn't just tolerate us and roll His eyes at the mention of our names.  He doesn't get annoyed by our prayers and requests.  He gives us so much more than our salvation and he doesn't do it begrudgingly.

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom."

Our God is a God of restoration.  He brings wholeness to every area of our lives.  He doesn't leave us in the rubble in which He finds us.  He returns what's been taken and lost.  Wrong is made right.  Things are brought back to the state He intended.

His promise is this: "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten....never again will my people be shamed."

And this, one of my favorite verses since the summer of 2005.

Isaiah 51:3

The Lord will surely comfort Zion

and will look with compassion on all her ruins;

he will make her deserts like Eden, 

her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her, 

thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

My God is in the business of making piles of ruin into a glorious garden, full of life and beauty.

To Love the Truth Day 21: He Delights in Me

A lot of times before we can love the truth and walk in truth, we must acknowledge and confront the lies we so often believe.  Lies we think are the truth.  Lies that can easily destroy.

Here's one lie I believed for a long time: God doesn't like me.

Sure, He loves me.  Sure, He sent His Son to die for me.  But like me? Not a chance.  Somehow I was sure that He barely tolerated me.  That I annoyed Him.  That when I asked Him for something, He'd roll His eyes and say, "For crying out loud, Allison! I already gave you eternal life! Would you shut up and quit whining and leave me alone?"

I tiptoed around Him for years....desperate to make myself more lovable but with every year feeling more and more ugly and undesirable.

Enough is enough.  There have even been days in the last month that I've started living according to that lie.

And so I must tell myself the Truth over and over.

Psalm 18:19 "He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me"

He delights in me.  He doesn't tolerate me.  He doesn't "just" love me.  He delights in me.

Let's define that word, shall we?  To delight is to please someone greatly. I please Him greatly?!?!  To delight is to take pleasure in.  I bring Him pleasure.  Synonyms include: to charm, to enchant, to captivate, to thrill....

Can it be?  I charm Him. He finds me charming.  He's captivated by me.  I thrill Him.  He finds me enchanting.

Wow.

This truth is sometimes almost too wonderful to even believe.  The King of the Universe, the Creator of all things is wowed by ME.

Surely I am precious.  "You like me! You really like me!"

If I believe His words are truth, these words must be also.

Zephaniah 3:17 "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

I bring Him great joy.  He smiles when He thinks of me.  And He thinks of me often.

Oh, to live every day as if I loved the whole Truth!

To Love the Truth Day 20: He is Good

God is good. A simple statement but a truth worth repeating over and over.  Sometimes it takes a while to believe it.

He is good.....all the times.
He is good.....in all things.
He is good.....in all he does.
He is good.....in His love.
He is good.....when there is nothing good in me.
He is good.....and is enough.
He is good.....to me.
He is good.....forever.


“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

He is a good Father.

I heard this song earlier this month and found the words so comforting....Truth worth repeating when it's hard to believe.

You're a good, good Father

It's who You are, It's who You are

And I'm loved by You

It's who I am, It's who I am

To Love the Truth Day 19: I have nothing to fear

I am a worrier at heart. I find myself thinking about all the things that could go wrong and play "what would happen if" scenarios in my head all the time.  I suppose you could reframe it and say I am always prepared, but the root of my worry is fear.  What if I can't handle this? What if I find myself alone? What if God can't even handle this?

The Truth is that as a daughter of the King, I have nothing to fear.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Take a look at that list again.  It includes everything we could possibly fear.  Paul says in all these things, we do not have to fear because God's love is bigger and stronger.  We live in His love.  And John tells us, "There is no fear in love."

We have nothing left to fear.

Even death.  Death plants us even more securely in His love because suddenly we are with Him and see Him forever.

Paul went so far to call death a rescue -- something to be welcomed, not dreaded.

"The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom."

And so we remain, in His love, with Him as our refuge, with nothing to fear.

To Love the Truth Day 18: Sunday Song

Today's song echoes many of the truths I've talked about this week.  Nichole Nordeman has been one of my favorite singer/songwriters since high school and her new EP did not disappoint.  She is, in my mind, a truthteller.

Happy Sunday!  Here is "Name"