Because God Loves Me

Happypizza: Here is a nice one! I came across this text in a book by Norman Wright called “Answer to Depression”. I thought this little segment was very encouraging.  It’s nice to be reminded that God is often not as hard on us as we are sometimes.
Cheers!

Yeah, even you...

Because God loves me He is slow to lose patience with me.

Because God loves me He takes the circumstances of my life and uses them in a constructive way for my growth.

Because God loves me He has no need to impress me with how great and powerful He is because He is God, nor does He belittle me as His child in order to show me how important He is.

Because God loves me He is for me. He wants to see me mature and develop in His love.

Because God loves me He does not send down His wrath on every little mistake I make, of which there are many.

Because God loves me, He does not keep score of all my sins and then beat me over the head with them whenever He gets the chance.

Because God loves me He is deeply grieved when I do not walk in the ways that please Him because He sees this as evidence that I don’t trust Him and love Him as I should.

Because God loves me He rejoices when I experience His power and strength and stand up under the pressures of life for His Name’s sake.

Because God loves me He keeps on working patiently with me even when I feel like giving up and can’t see why He doesn’t give up with me, too.

Because God loves me He keeps on trusting me when at times I don’t even trust myself.

Because God loves me He never says there is no hope for me; rather, He patiently works with me, loves me and disciplines me in such a way that it is hard for me to understand the depth of His concern for me.

Because God loves me He never forsakes me even though many of my friends might. Because God loves me He stands with me when I have reached the rock bottom of despair, when I see the real me and compare that with His beauty and love. It is at a moment like this that I can really believe that God loves me.

Yes, the greatest of all gifts is God’s perfect love!

True Love…

…suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is   not puffed up;
does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.*
…God is love.**

*I Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13
**1 John 4:8b

Have You Hit Rock Bottom?

The mistake:

There was a beautiful phrase running through my head yesterday, amidst the blackened spot of some major failure on my part at work.

To backtrack, I did something that was a seemingly harmless risk, that ended up being, well…..really stupid and having a terrible outcome and resulting consequences. Now I have to face the music and accept responsibility for my mistake.

I won’t get into details, but at the time of the mistake, I just couldn’t believe what I’d done and just so wish I could go back in time and do it all over again, do the right thing. It also seemed to have happened at just the wrong time in my life (as I was also already facing some very intense personal difficulty) and I didn’t feel any good reason for this situation and everything else I was facing to happen all at once, it felt like an emotional “perfect storm”. Even though it was something I did, it just felt it all was so unfair that things had to turn out the way they did since a lot of it was beyond my control–I honestly felt like I completely hit rock bottom.

After this experience I came to the realization that:

All Occurs For a Reason…….

“All occurs for a reason”, such a beautiful phrase but also seems to be one of the hardest phrase to personally believe or accept when facing difficulty, lost, and disappointment. To be honest I’ve been going through some personal heartbreaks of late, that are too personal to post here, but what I can say is that it’s been a bit like one of your worst fears coming upon you and then not really knowing whether it’s here to stay or it will pass, but all the while waiting in agonizing limbo.

It’s been a real struggling. Sometimes it’s hard—no, almost impossible, to keep on going, taking that next step to make it through the day. I feel at the best of times I’m just running through the motions–a zombie, sorta. Though I’ve heard that “there is always a light at the end of every tunnel” or “the darkest hour is just before dawn” it just doesn’t always look or seem that way in reality.

I think that if it weren’t for the love and mercy of God and His angels of comfort, and the promises in His Word—which gives me the faith and hope to meet these challenges, I’d just be overwhelmed by the weight, the negativity, and despair of it all. Now I don’t want this blog post to spread despair and hopelessness to you. I’m pretty sure that everybody has enough troubles of their own without needing to wade through someone else’s private negativity. So that’s why I wanted to post these beautiful lyrics that really put some interesting perspectives to disappointments and nonsensical occurrences. I mean if you look at troubles in the positive, the way the lyrics below bring out; it certainly takes the edge off the monsters of despair and hopelessness which try to undermine your happiness, faith, and sanity.

If you are going through any personal tragedy in your life right now, I totally feel for you especially after battling myself through some recent long and lonely trials. If sorrow, injury, loneliness, loss, heartbreak, tragedy, death, sickness, confusion, hopelessness, suffering, deprivation, or anyone of the myriad of difficulties of life are crushing down on you and threatening to take everything good away from you—don’t’ give up hope. There is Someone who cares for you and loves you–Jesus, the greatest and most wonderful, loving spirit of light, who loves you more than anyone else in the whole word can and will help you if you need Him. Call out to Him and He will answer you. Trust me He is there in your darkest night. Keep hope alive. Don’t give up the fight. I hope this poem below will encourage you in some special way. You can also listen to a the song at this link:

Rhyme of Life.mp3–Net Radio

Rhyme Of Life Lyrics

If every thought that came to mind came true,
What kind of world would it be?
If every promise sworn by man was kept,
What would divine words mean to me?

If every chance to succeed had gone my way,
What personality would I have today?
If my first romance had granted me life’s every passion,
Would I have ever crossed your way?

Looking through the book of my life,
Turning pages of passing years,
I see a perfect rhyme throughout my life line.
Through the good times I hold dear,
And through my heartaches, through my tears,
My life has moved in time to the Creator of the design.

If every kiss had promised something more,
Would I have ever felt let down?
If my every desire had ended in satisfaction,
Would I still be satisfied now?

If my every dream had become reality,
What would I be dreaming of today?
If every wish I’d wished had come to be,
Would I be happier today?

I take from life all it has to give, given by the One for whom I live.
All occurs for a reason,
And for this reason I live a life that was given to me to give.
Through the good times I hold dear,
And through my heartaches, through my tears,
My life has moved in time to the Creator of the design.
Music & lyrics: Andrew V., Katrina L.