“You live out what you think the most important person to you thinks of you”

Kris Vallatton (I’m probably butchering the quote but that’s the gist)

This is one of those times when I am going to write something that I really need to hear and live out. I love to hear what people think about me and I often don’t live for the things God thinks about me. This is a video from the same guy as the above quote that has changed my life. I think I have watched it at least 30-40 times

I believe if people knew, if they really knew that God loved them completely, and who they really are they would never act in the way that they do. All the stuff in your life that you struggle with would evaporate. From a child molester to a murderer, every single crime in humanity is rooted in two things: they don’t know that God loves them, and they don’t know who they are.

One of my friends asked another friend what it would take for them to live completely for God and they said “If I really knew that God loved me completely, unconditionally, then I could surrender everything.”

I struggle with that same problem sometimes, I forget what God thinks about me. It changes everything. If I knew how deeply God believed in me and wanted me to succeeded and how proud he was of me I can’t imagine ever wanting to sin or leave his loving embrace. I begin to look for acceptance and approval from friends and others in my life. When all the approval I need is in God alone.

Our biggest problem is in imagining God the same way that we see other’s in authority or even the same way we see our own fathers. I have an amazing Dad, likely the best in the world. He has been so faithful, so encouraging, and so loving. I couldn’t imagine life without him. But even so he doesn’t measure up in comparison with God the Father. God will never stop believing in us, never stop encouraging us, never stop loving us, He will always be there when we need him, and He knows us deeper than we can imagine.

I can’t see God though. Sometimes like today it’s hard to feel Him. Sometimes when things go wrong, it’s easy to feel like he doesn’t care. When the people closest to us die or go through deep tragedy it’s easier to think that maybe God hates us or is punishing us. Seeing God as He really is, despite the circumstances in our life can be the greatest act of faith. Believing in his goodness, when everything points toward His malevolence can be the turning point in our lives. Just look at Job.

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD.   Jeremiah 9:23-24