“For Now...For Always”

"There is no freedom like not having to impress everybody." ~Joyce Meyer.

I love this quote, but impress everybody??? Even better, how about if we don’t live to impress anybody? : ) Could we, would we dare to believe that I am who He says I am, that I am accepted and loved  because He fully accepts me and unquestioningly loves me...and that that is enough...For Now...For Always?     

This sounds so simple, so basic, but Oh Lord, help us get this truth down to the depths of our spirits! Give us multi-layered rest from every side! Set us free from trying to be "all things to all people", from performing to be valued, from laboring for the acceptance of an unwilling person, when You dear Father are ready, willing and oh so able to fully love and accept us RIGHT NOW-no strings attached! (Jeremiah 31:3)

Papa You become more precious to me as the years increase! For 43 years I have loved you! Of course in the beginning it was just a “little girl love” : ), but now I pray it has become my greatest, my most enduring passion. Everything, even everyone that I treasure pales in comparison to the greatness of who You are! My heart swells in gratitude and devotion for the love that You have offered and yet it amazingly, wondrously is a love that is not only offered, but it is a love that pursues us through the length and depth of this our earthly existence!

How about you dear friend? Are you living today for the audience of One or are you merely existing in a daily, useless trap of performing to be valued, to be loved, when the God who formed you...when the Creator who tenderly fashioned you with His very hands is waiting with open arms? Would you dare to listen to the gentle voice who longs to whisper to your disenchanted heart; “You, my dear one are enough because I say you are?” He earnestly desires for you to recognize, believe and most of all experience; the fierceness of His love through the unfathomable depth of His great sacrifice...all for YOU!

When we masquerade our true self to “fit in” we may well be condemning ourselves to a lifetime of shuffling mask after mask in a vain attempt to achieve “acceptance”, only to realize that those who “receive” us are only giving the nod of approval to our facade and not the real us, which only serves to increase our feelings of isolation, which can in turn force us into a wearying prison of performance! Think about it precious friends! We end up living our lives on a stage where each day showcases our feeble and yet desperate attempt at perfection; a useless exercise that will assuredly drain the very life that God so lovingly created.

Each heart was given its very existence to be loved...every being was formed to flourish in affirming relationship, yet regrettably this life that was purposefully created to be fully known and loved, now expends it greatest efforts in trying to earn those graces that its Creator is waiting to lavish freely upon it. How it must grieve the heart of our Father when we hide His matchless treasure behind a plastic veneer; and so descends the genuine beauty of the cherished masterpiece, which quietly slips beneath a sea of the artificial.

Oh that we would grasp and treasure the opinion of the One who sees our every flaw, who fully knows each failure, who perceives our every doubt and yet stands ready to embrace our weary hearts. One who looks into the deepest levels of who you are now and who He longs for you to one day be and declares with arms open wide that our seeking hearts have found a home...in His>>>For Now...For Always!

Papa, You created us to be in affirming relationships that give us value and a place of belonging; please help us to see that in Your heart ours has found a place of acceptance and worth. Please set us free to be the person You created us to be, not striving for perfection but gladly wearing Your robes of righteousness; a signal to our weary hearts that all striving finds its end in what You have already done for us!. Help us to love you more deeply and receive Your unconditional love more fully. In Jesus name, Amen  

Consider checking out this song linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF5CjtrIl_c&feature=related “Someone Worth Dying For”~Mike’s Chair