ApprehendingGrace.com

When my husband and I started dating, I had a horrible self image. Yet (somehow – thank You, God!) Phil thought I was the most beautiful person in the world. He would tell me that I was beautiful and I would be embarrassed (because I certainly didn’t think it was true) and I figured it was just a line. He’s just a guy and it’s just a line he’s hoping will get him something.

But he kept saying it – every day…for years…and years…Even after we were married, he’d tell me how beautiful I was…until one day it dawned on me – this isn’t a line! Phil really thinks I’m beautiful!

And my self image began to change. And I began to become more confident because while I still didn’t think I was beautiful, there was someone who did. Someone important! Someone of value.

So I began to care not nearly as much what you think or what someone else thinks, because the most important person in the world thinks I’m beautiful. And you know what? Maybe, just maybe…it’s hard to admit it, but maybe it’s true…just maybe, I am beautiful!

And a revolution began in my heart and in my mind.

In my insecurities, I am that tall, gangly, dare I say ugly, teenager who didn’t know how to put on makeup or do anything with her hair, and I certainly didn’t know how to accessorize! I am the shy girl who has just moved to town and has no friends and doesn’t know how to make friends. I am the person who is afraid to talk to you because you might turn away from me and I’ll be humiliated. I’m the person who hates to make phone calls because I’ll be humiliated and won’t know what to say when you don’t remember who I am.

Let’s take feeling humiliated off the table! Let’s make it a non-issue! Let’s just decide “so what?” If I’m humiliated, I’m humiliated. God gives grace to the humble. Christ was humiliated. He understands. And He loves us. His opinion is the only one that matters.

Let the revolution begin in your heart! Meditate on these Scriptures – read them every day – over and over again! Listen for the voice of God saying them. Listen for the choir of angels providing background vocals as God sings them over you.

You are precious to me!

Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
Isaiah 43:4 (NRSV)

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight.
1 Peter 2:4 (NRSV)

You are my treasured possession!

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Deuteronomy 7:6 (NRSV)

You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.
Deuteronomy 14:2 (NLT)

I created you when you were in your mother’s womb – carefully designed and made (hand-crafted), perfectly suited to the roles I’ve called you.

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Isaiah 43:1 (NRSV)

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13 (NRSV)

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 2:10 (NLT)

You are beautiful, My lovely bride!

⁷Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. ⁸She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
Revelation 19:7-8 (NLT)

You are My delight!

No, the LORD’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Psalm 147:11 (NLT)

You are the apple of My eye!

⁹the LORD’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share. ¹⁰He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.
Deuteronomy 32:9-10 (NRSV)

You are My beloved child!

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Romans 8:15-16 (NRSV)

You are My friend!

¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
John 15:13-15 (NRSV)

I chose you! I chose you!

You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
John 15:16 (NRSV)

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2012 at 10:27 pm and is filed under God's Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.