God isn't Like the World...

He is so much better!

He is full of love, mercy, grace... He does not seek to harm His children, He plans the best for them.

Jeremiah 29:11: "'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.'"

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That is a verse I have held onto for the last couple years as we have worked to improve our circumstances. Some verses stick with you for a season and are replaced by new ones when the season changes. This one has become our "home", so to speak.

In every endeavor, at every crossroad, when we had to make decisions or take leaps of faith, we would go back to this verse. Or rather, it would come back to us. We have had so many different people call us or tell us that this verse is for us, without knowing anything about what we were walking through at the time. 

Jeremiah 29:11 has been a constant reminder that God's plan for us is good, even when we don't know what it is and can't begin to see the outcome of it. Now, more than ever before, this verse is being sown into our souls. I don't think that this verse will ever leave us. This verse, I feel, will be the testimony of our lives.

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I have found that it is in our times of struggle when we find ourselves caught up in a battle between what the world wants us to believe and what God wants us to believe.

The world has told me that we are not only prisoners to our circumstances, but it has shown me that we deserve whatever bad befalls us. Every time I have found myself in a valley, people have told me that all of it... all of the mess, is somehow my fault. I have done something wrong somewhere along the way, or not done something good enough and all of the resulting strife is a burden that I created simply by being... me.

God tells me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That His creation, mankind, myself included, is not just good, but very good. He says that I have a purpose for which I was created and that only I am uniquely equipped to fulfill. He tells me that He has great plans for me and that He will prosper me so I can bless others. He says, that in the end, my life will glorify His name, not bring it dishonor.

God is not like the world. 

He does not beat us up over all of our mistakes. He does not hold us hostage to our failings and short comings. Instead, He lifts us up out of them. He brushes us off. He cleans us up. He carries us when we cannot walk. He crushes the lies and judgments, of the enemy and of this world, in His mighty hand as if they were dust. He gives us a new name, a new identity, new truths that tell us who we really are. 

We don't have to be defined as the world sees us, we can be as The Creator of everything GOOD sees us.