Ephesians 1:4-5, New Living Translation

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Life can be so challenging, it either drives you to God– or away from God. My prayer is that we all would be driven closer to God. It is in the difficult moments of our lives where we see God show up and watch the Gospel come to life in our own lives. It's in the difficult moments that we learn to trust God. We learn to let go. We learn to pray and talk to our Father. We learn to rely on Him because He is the only one with a solution that is better than our own, God has a perfect love that no one else could give.  

Our Lord is so beautiful. He can make beauty from ashes if we let Him, if we trust Him, if we embrace Him and embrace the truth of His word. I want to emphasize the importance of being in God's word. This is vital to our relationship with our Lord and Savior. How else will we know our Savior? How else will we know what we are submitting to and if it is good for us and how good for us it really is? How else will we gain the confidence to be who God says we are?

I was in a place in my own life where I was lacking. There were a lot of things in my life I didn't like. Like many others, I shoved it down and put a smile on my face and did the best I could when being around other people. Nobody was allowed to know how broken and hurting I really was. Nobody was allowed to see the ugly side of me, because they might see me as I really felt I was – a fake. But this is not who God says I am. This is not who God says you are. There is healing, not just physical, but emotional healing that comes when we put our hope in the Lord and embrace His word as true. When we choose Him, because we want Him more than anything else.  

Through life, we all get hurt by the people closest to us. Those things we may carry for years or maybe only a few weeks, or perhaps just a couple of days. These wounds can cause damage and affect how we see God and how we see ourselves and how we see others. I have recently learned two things that every human desires. They desire to be loved, and they desire to be affirmed. Unfortunately, many of us will look for love in all the wrong places. We try to fill a void in our life that only God can fill. These things can lead us to feel empty, even more hurt, and disappointed. But God has a perfect love that does wonderful, beautiful, amazing things! We must come to truly accept the love that He has for us. Not just accept it but believe it with all our heart. It is difficult to accept love from someone you cannot physically see or experience real life with, but we must embrace it. When we do, our eyes are opened to the truth. We begin to see all the ways that our Lord showed us love that we never saw before because we were blinded by the lies of the enemy. Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT) says, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” There are many scriptures throughout the Bible that talk about God's love for us and Him calling us His children. When I had the revelation and was able to say with absolute confidence, "I am a child of God" so much changed for me. Somehow, I realized that He does love me, and because of my position in Him as a child of God, I didn't have to take all the negative thoughts, feelings, emotions, all the doubts, all the confusion. It all came from my enemy...from your enemy. And as a child of God, you don't have to take it either! Christ died so that we could be free! Scripture tells us, " So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free." (John 8:36, NLT) In life, we must be able to walk through forgiveness and healing for ourselves. This will bring freedom from our emotional distress. The second thing I had mentioned earlier was affirmation. Instead of looking to others for affirmation, because humans don't always get it right, we must look to God to be affirmed. Here are some affirmations for you from God's word, from His heart to you.

1. You are passionately loved.

“Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” Isaiah 43:4 (NLT)

2. You are valuable.

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” (1 Peter 1:18-19, NLT)

3. You are chosen.

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession...” (1 Peter 2:9, NLT)

4. You are a conqueror.

“No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (Romans 8:37, NLT)

Let these truths sink into your heart, into your soul. Let God minister these truths to you and build you up in them. Embrace them and search for God in them. You will find Him when you are seeking Him with all your heart. He will be faithful to provide all that you need and more. He will walk you into the abundant life. My dear sister and our brothers, we already have an abundant life. We just have to reach out and embrace it. Embrace God. Embrace truth. Embrace freedom. Do not let the enemy take any more from you. Life is short and it is precious. We only have one life to live. I want to live it to the full and love others well. I know that this is your desire as well. With our little hands in God's big hand, we cannot go wrong. I hope and pray that God will reveal to you that you must do to receive the healing you need in your soul and the freedom you need to be who He always intended you to be! Blessings my brothers and sisters!