But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.  Isaiah 64:10

My husband and I are a blended family and when our children were young, if you asked, I would have told you that the depths of my love for our children was endless. Those kids were loved and adored.

Looking back, I realize now that the love that I had for them (prior to knowing Christ as Lord of my life) was so insufficient and flawed.

If you looked at the way I raised them, in public, you would think that I was selfless, self sacrificing, adoring and a mom who raised her children with good structure and discipline (because they were GREAT kids).

But if you looked at my parenting at home and in my heart, you would have seen that my children were well behaved out of fear. My “selflessness” was motivated by a desire to be needed and to keep my children in bondage, by making them need me for everything, so they couldn’t live without me or leave me.

I have asked my children to forgive me and PRAISE GOD, they have shown me grace and forgiveness. I have also asked God to forgive me and He too has shown me grace and forgiveness. Part of me still wishes that I could take all of that back, but God has shown me that He uses it as part of my children’s testimony and mine own. Romans 8:28 “The Lord turns all things good to those who love Him and are called to His purpose.” The good that God turns things to, is often His own glorification and advancement of the Kingdom, through our testimony.

My childhood was not perfect. My children did not have a perfect childhood. But God brought all of us through. He used our brokenness to draw us into a relationship with Him, because we are Loved and Adored

Through that brokenness and those trials, God desires to use us to minister to others who are experiencing or have experienced similar issues and brokenness. He comforts us, blesses us and then uses us to comfort others, bless others and glorify Himself. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Think about the magnitude of what I just said….The God of all creation, created and chose you and I, to minister to specific people, to comfort them the way that He comforted us! Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

How honored and grateful should we be?!?! We, the sinful, self centered, self promoting people that we are, have been chosen by God to be used by Him to glorify Himself and minister to others! How our Heavenly Father can turn such damaged and broken people into instruments that reveal His grace, mercy and love never ceases to amaze me.

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice and the cleansing that your blood provides. Thank you Father that you have created us with ministries, gifts and purpose! Thank you Father that we are loved and adored by you.

I pray that today we would recognize how short this life is. I pray that we would realize that our sole purpose in this life is to bring God glory and to perform the works that He has prepared for us. I pray that we would cease to listen to the whispers of the enemy that say “you don’t belong”, “you can’t do that”, “that promise is for everyone else, but not you”, “you are inadequate, insufficient, too damaged and/or broken”. I pray that we would embrace who God says that we are…Justified (Romans 3:24), no longer condemned and set free from sin and death (Romans 8:1 & 2), in Him, we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30), we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), we have boldness and confident access to God (Ephesians 3:12), we are equipped with everything good thing, that we may do His will (Hebrews 13:20-21) . In light of all of this, I pray that we would be motivated to (through the testimonies of our lives and what God has done in them) glorify Him, that we would minister to those whom He gives us divine appointments with and that we would advance the Kingdom of God.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, and you feel too bad to be forgiven or that those promises that we spoke of were for everyone but you, I pray that you would recognize that you are loved and Adored. I pray that you would go to our life preserver page (https://forgiven-n-loved.com/life-preserver/) and pray the prayer that is outlined there. Once you have prayed that prayer, please reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know. I’d love to pray for you and help you grow in your relationship with and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Precious Savior.

Luv ya!