Tag: God

Woman of Faith: How God Sees You

1transparentchristian

As women in today’s society, we are bombarded with images of the ideal woman through pictures in magazines, movies, TV and the internet. There are ads for hair color, perfumes, products for clear skin and wrinkle reduction, weight loss and exercise equipment to help us achieve society’s image of the perfect woman. This will make the average woman feel ugly, old and fat. In a nut shell we feel inadequate.

Many of the things available to us to look pretty or to have healthy bodies are very useful but we need to be careful not to fall into the trap of making our bodies our number one priority. We also need to be careful that we don’t let these feelings of inadequacy consume our thoughts causing depression. There is a healthy balance for caring for ourselves that will help us become all that God wants us to be. The following scripture is one commonly used when speaking about the wonders of a pre-born child but we forget to apply it to ourselves. It is very relevant in understanding how God sees us.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-16 NIV

You are fearfully and wonderfully made by God! Before your mother even knew she was pregnant, God saw you and made a plan for your life. You are unique and designed by God. Woman of Faith you are fearfully and wonderfully made!

The beauty of being made by a loving Creator is that He loved you before you even knew who God was. It is quite mind blowing to think about. In fact, God knew that we were going to mess up again and again in our lives. He knew we had sinful hearts and were going to sin but that doesn’t change His love. In fact, God loves you and me so much that He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins so that one day we can go to Heaven to live with Him and others who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 NIV

God demonstrated His love for you when Jesus died on the cross. He knows our hearts; the good, the bad and the ugly. He knows about those thoughts that we have in our head that no one else knows. He know about those ugly words that come out of our mouths sometimes. He knows when we are hurt and don’t feel loved by the people around us. He knows our past, our present and our future and loves us so deeply. Woman of Faith, you are loved unconditionally!

God’s love is greater than any love we can experience. It is unconditional. It doesn’t go away, it is always there. It offers forgiveness when we call on Jesus.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding. Ephesians 1: 7-8 NIV

We have redemption, we have forgiveness of our sins. None of us are perfect. We are all a work in progress throughout our lives. We all have areas of weakness. God is merciful and will convict us and forgive us of our sin. Woman of Faith you are forgiven!

God has many ways to speak to us and teach us. Many times it is during Bible reading and prayer, other times it is through a sermon, a worship song or even other Christians. His purpose is to draw you closer to him.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT

This verse says we are God’s masterpiece. Wow! When I think of a masterpiece I think of an artist creating a beautiful, one of a kind piece of artwork. Are you allowing Him to paint your life’s journey? Are you making your heart pliable to God’s touch? Allowing your heart to be like a soft piece of clay that God, the Master Potter, can shape into a vessel to be used by Him? You can trust Him. You are God’s Masterpiece!

We need to frequently remind ourselves and each other : God loves you unconditionally. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are forgiven. You are God’s masterpiece!

God Bless you sisters,

~Catherine

Potato Chips and Faith

1transparentchristian

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV)

Sometimes, we joke about the sin of gluttony during church dinners or around the holidays as we enjoy some very tasty foods and indulge in portion sizes we would not normally eat. Maybe you look forward to loading up on Turkey and all the trimmings at Thanksgiving or Mom’s frosted sugar cookies at Christmas time. There are certain times of the year that in the American culture we cook for hours and enjoy delectable meals with family and friends. To my shame, my favorite foods are available at every holiday and to make it worse, any time during the year. I confess to you now that my greatest food weakness is a bag of rippled potato chips alongside my favorite brand of French onion dip. I have watched TV alone with a bag of chips beside me and 30 minutes later wonder how all the chips disappeared. I don’t think I am alone in this because the slogan for Lay’s potato chips used to be “Betcha can’t eat just one”. I have concluded that I have very little self-control around chips! I must stay away from the bowl of chips and only buy them for a special occasion. Self-control in our spiritual lives can be very similar. We may need to stay away from certain things, places or even people to protect ourselves from giving into a weak area of our lives.

The topic of self-control is a huge territory to think about. The above scenario is a little silly but quite honestly who wants to blurt out to the world what their sinful weaknesses are? Take a few moments to think about one area of your life that Jesus is telling you to have more self-control. If you don’t know right away, then ask the LORD to open your heart to hear how you can become closer to God. What sin area are you dealing with right now? Is it alcohol, smoking, swearing, watching dirty movies, sex outside marriage, wandering thoughts or violence? Or are you in the stage of your Christian life where the LORD is pointing out the subtler sin areas? Do you get easily sucked into gossip or think judgmentally about others? Does the computer have more of an appeal to you than reading your Bible or praying? The Holy Spirit is so kind to only convict us of our sin areas one or two areas at a time. If He showed us all the areas of our lives that need refinement I don’t think we could bear it. The great news is that God loves you so much that He wants to help you remove the barriers that keep you from living an effective and productive Christian life.

“For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep your from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” (2 Peter 1: 5-9 NIV)

Here is a suggested prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your great love for me. I know you are a holy God and my unconfessed sin prevents me from being close to you. Please forgive me for the sin of ________. Help me to have self-control in this area of my life. Please give me wisdom and open my eyes to see the ways You want me to work on this. I can’t do it in my own strength and I need you Jesus to lead, guide and encourage me. Amen.