10 Things God Wants You to Know
There are sailboats on the water today, and I know this season won’t last much longer. I remember where I was last season at this time: suffering quietly in what felt like a never-ending valley of despair. Maybe you’ve been here, too. Perhaps you know how it feels to wonder about the things God wants you to know when life is hard, when you can’t hear his voice.
Sometimes the quiet valleys of suffering are the most difficult of all.
They’re the valleys no one sees, the ones no one understands, or even worse, the ones you’re just expected to endure.
Regardless of whether you’re sailing beneath sunny skies or walking through a dark valley of suffering, God longs to speak into your circumstances.
There are things God wants you to know.
These truths will carry you when the chaos around you makes it hard to hear his voice.
The Things God Wants You to Know
I leaf through the Bible with the frayed edges. A breeze marks the flat water like it might be some echo from heaven reverberating here on this green earth, and I write the words of the Maker on torn paper.
10 Truths God Wants to Speak Over You
These are the truths God wants to speak over my life on this day, and they are 10 things God wants you to know as well. I encourage you to read these words slowly. Savor them as if they are cherished words in a letter from a loved one. Let them shape you, sink into you, and change you . . .
1. I delight in you.
Zephaniah 3:17 tells us God delights in us so much that he dances over us with singing.
Friend, just as a mother delights in the miracle of her child, God delights in you.
He delights in you even when you feel stuck in life.
He delights in you even when you have been ignoring him.
God even delights in you when life is bleak and you’ve wandered far from him. He delights in you so much that he calls you to return to his loving arms. Today. Here. Now.
How will you respond?
2. I’m not holding anything against you.
Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Do you know how to be found “in Christ”?
Humble yourself.
Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins. Believe in your heart that he died on the cross to pay the penalty you deserve for sinning against God. Tell him you will follow where he leads, and receive his gift of salvation. (For more on how to know you are going to heaven, join me here.) If you have taken these steps, God is not holding your sins against you.
3. I like you just as you are.
God genuinely likes you.
He knit you together in your mother’s womb (see Psalm 139), and he does not make mistakes. He thinks affectionate thoughts when he thinks about you. We know God loves us, but let’s pause to appreciate the truth that he sincerely likes us, just as we are.
4. You captivate me when you pause to glance in my direction.
Song of Solomon 4:9 teaches us that when we stop what we’re doing and look toward Jesus, we captivate his heart.
Another translation says we ravish his heart. The King of Kings is undone when you simply look his way. Sit with this for a moment, friend. This is an astonishing truth.
Pause what you’re doing and glance in God’s direction, and you set his heart on fire with love for you.
5. I won’t leave you.
Just as God promised the children of Israel that he would not leave them on their own, God has promised never to leave you or forsake you (see Deuteronomy 31:6).
You might not feel God today, but he hasn’t left your side.
You might have turned your back on God, but he has not turned his back on you. If you return to him, you will find him there waiting for you (see Jeremiah 29:13). (If you feel like God has turned his back on you, join me right here: The Lie You Might Believe about Your Greatest Struggle.)
6. You can trust me.
Most of us are good at coming up with our own solutions to life’s troubles.
We turn to our own understanding and seek to carve out our own paths.
God wants to make your paths straight. He wants to direct you. There is just one prerequisite: Trust him, and don’t lean on your own understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6).
7. You don’t need to fear your weakness.
God’s power is made perfect in your weakest moment (see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Don’t fear your weakness. Your weakness is the necessary ingredient for God to show up in his strength.
8. These boundaries are for your protection.
God’s guidance in Scripture can be taken as a list of rules to follow.
This is not his intention. The boundaries God sets through his written Word are for your protection, not to stifle your fun. He is a good Father, and he wants you to live the fullest, most abundant kind of life.
9. I want you to know me more deeply.
Jesus redefined eternal life when he prayed in the garden before his death.
He prayed these words, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
Eternal life is more than the promise of heaven when we die. Eternal life begins the moment we step into a relationship with Jesus, and eternal life is defined by knowing Jesus deeply, experientially, and personally right now. He is waiting for you to draw near.
10. Come to me with your weariness, and I will give you rest.
The words of Matthew 11:28 are a promise for every season of life.
Are you weary? Do you feel overwhelmed? Are you suffering? Are your burdens heavy?
Jesus is calling. Draw near to him, and he promises to draw near to you. He wants to replenish you with a kind of rest that covers you and carries you. He offers it today. It is yours for the taking.
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I sit with the Words of Life for a long time by the water. I’m reminded of what it means to come away with Jesus and find rest. Jesus invites me to stop trying to figure out every mystery in my life. He invites me to rest in the middle of the mystery.
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