Redeemed, Chosen, Loved & Healed

I’ve struggled my entire life with wanting to put my trust, and my faith, and my confidence in people.  Because I can see people.  I can reach out and touch people.  I can audibly hear people.  I can wrap my arms around a person and hug them or reach out to them and hold their hand.

And I’m so glad that God gave us people.  Relationships were His idea, and how sad and boring would it be to do life alone?  

He gave us husbands to love us and cherish us and raise our children with.  Husbands are the head of our households and God created marriage to honor Him and to show a picture of the gospel.  There is not one more precious relationship in my life than my relationship with my husband.  He is my literal earthly rock, and I lean on him hard.  He makes me laugh, and he makes me a better person, but I couldn't be more proud to be his wife.

He gave us children to remind us of the simple joys in life.  My three kids absolutely drive me nuts, but I don’t know how I would survive this crazy life without them.  Through being a parent, I’ve learned more about the love of the Father.  To think that He loves me more than I love my kids is something that is just hard for me to wrap my mind around.

And He gave us each other.  He gave us the church and He gave us friends to walk beside us.  We need the church.  We need good, godly friends.  We need people that can make us laugh and we also need people that don’t mind when we just need to cry.  We need people that remind us to “just keep breathing.”  We need people that we know we can always call upon to pray for us.

BUT… guys, more than anything else, we need Jesus.  And if we place any person in the place of our heart that was created for Him, and Him alone, we will be helplessly miserable.  God created a “God-sized hole” in our hearts.  And we can try to fill it with any person or any thing, but He is the only thing that will fit that hole.  That hole was made by Him, for Him, and for Him alone.

When you’re working a puzzle, you can try all you want to make a piece fit, but if that spot wasn’t made for that piece, then it’s just not going to fit.  It doesn't matter how strong you are.  You can "force" the piece into the hole, but ultimately forcing it will break the puzzle.  It doesn't matter how smart you are.  You can try to manipulate the piece into fitting, but if it won't fit, then it won't fit.

The hole in our hearts was made for God and God alone, and no other pieces will fit. Period.

You can try to put your husband in that hole.  I assure you, he’s not big enough.  He's not strong enough and he's not loving enough.  You can try to put your job in that hole.  It’s not reliable enough and it's not stable enough.  You can try to put your friend in that hole.  She’s not dependable enough.  You can even try to put the church in that hole.  And even the church will never EVER fit.  That hole was not made for the church to fill.  It’s a big, big hole, and only God can fill it.

One thing that God has taught me is that once I fill that hole with Him, I have to rest in Him and rest in who I am in Him. I have to believe what He says about me.

I am not who this world says that I am. I am a child of God.  I’m His child.  And who knows us better than our parents do?

Jaxon is my oldest son.  He is eight (well, he will be eight tomorrow).  He is the most sensitive kid and is totally aware of everything that is going on in the world around him.  If something is wrong, he picks up on it.  If I'm upset about something, his dad might not immediately pick up on it, but you can bet that Jaxon will.  He is a happy kid, but he is a serious kid.  He’s a little bit of an old soul.  He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.  At eight years old, he shouldn’t have a care in the world, but he worries about things that are far beyond his control and things that eight year olds shouldn’t have to worry about.

This summer Jaxon was playing baseball and one of the parents of a kid on his team made the comment that he was such a sad kid.  She said that she had never seen a kid look so sad all of the time.

It almost instantly brought tears to my eyes to hear someone say that.  As a parent, it’s hard to think about your kid being sad.  But then I got to thinking.  Who knows my kid better?  That woman, or me, his mom?  He isn’t sad.  That boy doesn’t have anything in the world to be sad about.  But he is sensitive.  And he is serious.  And he is aware.  And I’m HIS MOM.  I know him better than anyone in the world does.  I know who he is.

God is that way with us.  The world around us tries to label us.  The world tries to define us by our past.  The world tries to define us by the mistakes that we’ve made.  The world tries to define us by a number that shows up when we step on a scale or an amount that is shown on our bank accounts.  The world tries to tell us that we are a mess, that we are a failure, that we are unworthy, that we are divorced, that we are an addict, that surely God can’t use us.  The world tells us that we are a bad mom.  That we are a bad wife.  That we are a bad friend.  That we are a bad Christian.  The world tells us that we are just not good enough.  But God knows us better.  He’s our parent.  Who on earth knows us better than our Father does?

I’ve made mistakes.  You have too.  But thank God, He’s redeemed us.

There’s things about my past that I wish I could go back and do different.  You wish you could change things about yours too.  But thank God, He’s chosen us.

Some days I’m a bad mom.  And a bad wife.  And a bad friend.  And a bad Christian.  And some days you are all bad at all of those things too.  But thank God, He loves us.

And some days, I hurt.  I hurt bad.  My heart hurts and I long for Heaven when everything will be made right and new.  If you have Jesus, then you have those longings too, even if you don’t necessarily recognize that Heaven is what you’re longing for.  But thank God, He heals us.

So, do we believe the lies that the world shouts in our ears day after day?

Or do we believe the truths that God whispers to us moment by moment if we will just be still enough to hear Him?

I’ll be honest with you.  Too often I listen to the world.  It’s louder.  It shouts and it screams.

But the world doesn’t fill that spot in my heart.  God does.  So, I need to be more intentional about slowing down, and being still, and staying quiet and listening to the truths that He has to say about me.  Because He is my Father, and He knows me better than anyone else does. 

So what does God say about me?

He says I'm Redeemed.

Friends, He redeemed us.  Your ugly past?  He redeemed that.  That mistake you made as a teenager, or last year, or yesterday- yea, it’s been redeemed.  We are made new because He bought us back.  He recovered ownership of us.  That makes us His.  And if we are His, really nothing else matters.  Through redemption He has made us free.  Free from listening and believing what the world says we are.  It doesn’t matter what the world says we are because we know Whose we are.  We belong to the God that filled up that hole in our hearts.  We are His.  And He not only redeems us, but He restores us.  How comforting is that?  Everything that Satan has stolen from us and that the world has taken from us, He can restore.

 

He says I'm Chosen.

He chose us.  You may not have been chosen for many things in life.  You may have always been the last one chosen for games at recess or the one left without a partner in class when it was time to team up.  But friend, you aren't His last choice.  When Jesus chose to die on the cross (and yes, He chose to die on the cross), He saw YOUR face, and He chose YOU.  He could have called 10,000 angels to come and save Him, but instead, He chose you.  You belong to Him.  You are His.  And not only did He choose you, but He purchased you at a really steep price.  You are worth so much to Him.  Believe it.



He says I'm Loved.

You may not have felt loved by anyone in your entire life.  Believing that Jesus loves you might be something that is completely foreign to you because you don’t feel that you are worthy of that kind of love.  But friend, you are so worthy.  You parents may not have loved you the way that they should have.  Your husband may not even come close to loving you the way that Christ loves His church.  And you might even feel unloved and used by your friends.  But rest assured, Jesus loves you. 

At least once a day when I’m holding my little girl, I sing “Jesus loves me…” to her.  Because if she can wrap her heart around that and REALLY believe that, she can face whatever life throws at her.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me.  Why?  Because the Bible tells me so.  Believe it friend.  Believe what He has to say about you.  He says He loves you.  And He treasures you.  And He cherishes you.  And He thinks you’re beautiful. You are so deeply loved, friend.  Believe it.

 

He says I'm Healed.

We need some healing, don’t we?  People all around us are hurting.  They’re hurting bad. People are dealing with big things like cancer, and chemo, and infertility, and sick kids, and sick spouses, and sick parents, and hurting marriages, and making funeral plans for their kids, and big things that make my problems seem so small. Our hearts need to be healed.  We need to be the hands and feet of Christ to one another, but the only one that can truly heal us is Jesus Christ.  And we will never be truly healed until we allow Him the space in our hearts that He made that only He can fill, and until we refuse to listen to the lies that the world wants to tell us.  Let His whispers drown out the shouts.  Believe what He says.  We are His!

 

Redeemed.  Chosen.  Loved.  Healed. 

That’s me.  And that’s you.

Listening to the voices of the world will leave you feeling scared and insecure.
Listening to the promises of God will leave you feeling safe and secure.

I would rather feel safe and secure.  Satan will daily try to steal our joy and our peace by constantly lying to us.  The less we know about God and about His Word, the more we will believe the lies that Satan and that the world tells us.

If we belong to Him, then let’s believe what He says. 

But I also wanted to add, because I don’t want you to think too highly of yourself, that we are all rotten sinners. I'm a rotten sinner (one of the rotten-est), and you are rotten too. Apart from the grace of God, we are nothing.  But my friend, if you are still beating yourself up over your past failures, which have been nailed to the cross, you are denying the work that Christ has done for you and the work that He is doing in you.

Did you hear that?  Maybe you need to read it again... Your past failures have been nailed to the cross. 

That’s why I’m begging you to believe Him.  And that’s why I’m begging myself to believe Him.  All of our worldly labels and all of the lies that Satan shouts at us, they mean nothing anymore because they have been nailed to the cross.

The blood of Christ makes us worthy.  Know who He says you are.  And then believe who He says you are.  

You are redeemed.  And chosen.  And loved.  And healed.

And He's so good.