He knew you


Jeremiah 1:5     Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah 29:11-13     “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Job 33:4     The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Isaiah 64:8     Yet you, LORD are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.     

John 15:16     You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give you.

Ephesians 2:10     For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

2 Thessalonians 2:13     But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

 

Many folks, including myself, wonder what we are doing here?  You must have a purpose for me, Lord.  What can I do?  How can I serve?  What specifically, did You design me to be, to do?  Your word says, “I have a plan for you.  A plan to prosper and not to hurt.”  It’s straight out of Jeremiah.  I have requoted it to You often; but have not heard back.  Have I not heard back because I have something blocking Your voice?  Is there a hidden sin, a continuous sin, I am not spending ANY time listening to You when I pray?  What?  Please what?  

So long before we were created, God had a plan for us.  He picked us out, designed us for His purpose and watched as we navigated through life, with our ability to make free choices, which He gave us, and made our mistakes.  He knocked at our door, He placed people in our lives to plant seeds of His care and love, He made all sorts of things happen so we could see, He is the only safe and sensible choice to make.  But that is not always the case.  Many choose not see Him as omniscient, Creator, ever present, Deliverer, and Infinite.  Because He is an incomprehensible entity, we cannot imagine His kind of love and forgiveness.   He loves us so much, without us loving Him one iota initially, and yet He wants us.   He gave His Son for us…with our independent and arrogant freewill. 

How scary to not believe based on your limited misunderstandings.  That grieves my heart.

But God has a plan for each of us.  He designed us for His plan while living our lives.  And that delivers the best of both worlds—His plan and design and our own wants, needs, and dreams blessed. 

It’s amazing how different my views and thoughts are since I learned God loves me and sent His Son to accept all my sins and rottenness, to die in my place.  He did WHAT?  FOR ME?  But, no, that can’t be.  No one would die for me, how absurd to think someone would suffer in MY place!

So even though I felt the jump and awe of being chosen, I did not fully believe.  Maybe this was like a carnival roller coaster and that feeling, that thrill would disappear.  But, is this for real?

I enjoyed a euphoric feeling for a couple of days and wanted to learn more.  But where to begin?  I began reading the bible on my own; that was not so successful.  I found much of the Old Testament to read as ‘blah, blah, blah.’  I truly needed some guidance and was not attending a church that offered any education or help.  I began following a female tv evangelist who began successfully teaching me things and connecting some dots I didn’t even realize I needed to connect. 

This was the start of an awesome journey for me.  From this teacher, I found another church which offered biblical teaching via the sermons, as well as bible studies and small bible study groups.  I initially was a green bud on a rose stem, then opened enough to see some color at the edges.  Hmm, cream, pink, pale yellow or what?   But slowly, the bud unfurled, more color was shown, and the bud fully opened to reveal a beautiful blossom.  And because I was attached to a bush, suddenly there were more buds and blossoms in varying degrees of openness, and the bush was thriving.   I was and continue to learn!

I needed to read and learn more.  The more I read, the more I learned, sometimes questioned, and in all honesty, as I wrote various questions down that I did not fully understand, I often got answers in a sermon, in a small group, and in other ways—once it was in a dream, and looking up two verses, my question was answered.  WOW!

One needs to read, attend a biblically based teaching church, spend time with a group of folks who are in varying stages of bible learning—new Christians, older, more read Christians, and those who have had many of their questions answered, their minds opened. . . but we NEED the teaching, the experience and testimony of others, the learning each and every time we open His living words.  God wants to teach us, He wants us to know Him better, He wants a RELATIONSHIP, a sharing.

I believe everyone who finds the Lord, and realizes that Jesus agreed to sacrifice His life on a cross for YOU, for ME, for ALL, are humbled, grateful, and overwhelmed.

 I have many verses I can quote, not always so I can state verse location, but in this day and age, that is easy to find  by typing in the verse in my phone, it will spew out the results…some of my favorites are Phil 4:6, Romans 12:12, Psalm 27:14. . . the ones I love are pertinent to my needs.

I feel we should all have verses we pull when we need.  Those are some of my favorites, but again, I usually have to type in the verse to find the location, or pull out my 6 page list that I’ve typed my favorites on.  My knowledge continues to grow with reading each year.  I follow a plan to read the bible in a year’s time, and use several different methods—chronological, reading OT, Psalm, Proverbs, and NT.   Reading chronologically has made my history understanding more prevalent.  But I find each time, I discover more and deeper words to further my relationship.    It took several years for me to realize He CHOSE me, I didn’t choose first.  l do believe He calls many, but many choose not to follow.  That’s sad.  But free choice…

So, I want to thank You, Father, for choosing me, for pre-ordaining me to be one of your chosen and  Your loving words.  Certainly, they have thankfully, changed my life and that of ‘mybellaviews.’

 

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