How can  knowing our position in Christ change EVERYTHING?  

As we walk around in a world that tells us we are not enough, God’s Word tells us what our true worth is in Him.

As believers in Christ, we KNOW WHO WE ARE when any person or the world tell us who we aren’t measuring up to.

We were CHOSEN before the world was created, even when we feel last to be remembered.

We are FORGIVEN in Christ, and washed white as snow, even when our past tries to tell us we can’t change.

We are CLOTHED in Holy beauty instead of rags of our own self-righteousness.

We are ADOPTED AS ROYALTY instead of being left as orphans.

and last but not least,

We are SEATED WITH THE KING OF KINGS, reminding us that we are his daughters.

“For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We are not stepdaughters, left out of the will with no inheritance.

I’m always reminded of this when people ask me if my adopted daughter is in fact MY DAUGHTER. I don’t hesitate when I respond, yes! I am proud of her, and claim her as if she were my own flesh and blood.

My daughter feels secure and has blossomed since she has realized our love is forever and her position in our family gives her full membership as  our daughter.

Knowing this has made all the difference to her. It should make all the difference for us as well. Knowing we are seated with Christ, a daughter of the King of Kings should change

EVERYTHING.

It should change our outlook when all seem hopeless. Because no matter what is going on down here on earth in our lives, our God has seated us beside him, in honor because we BELONG to him. I hope this encourages you as it does me!

Our Love Letter From God:

Our Love Letter to God:

To download the bible study we are discussing, click below:

To order a copy by mail, click below:

God created you to be extraordinary, to fulfill plans you can only imagine in your wildest dreams.  His love for you reaches to the heavens, and his plans for you reach that high, too.

We are going to need a confident heart, like David had in the psalm below to keep reaching for these dreams:

 

Psalm 57

7My heart is confident in you, O God;
my heart is confident.
No wonder I can sing your praises!
8Wake up, my heart!
Wake up, O lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn with my song.
9I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
10For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
11Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
May your glory shine over all the earth.

How high does the love of God reach?  Today I want to encourage all of us, his word says it reaches to the clouds.

As I prayed through this verse today, God reminded me of how BIG he is.

He reminded me to dream far up, BIG DREAMS.

He reminded me to REACH for the stars.

I want His GLORY to SHINE over all the earth.

 

When David pinned these words, he was hiding in the cave from King Saul.  God soon sent 400 men to come and fight with him.  David could have stayed hidden away, praying small prayers for God to simply keep him hidden and help him live a quiet, safe life in the wilderness.

But God had other plans.

And David knew he had a BIG GOD.

I want to look up into the sky and be reminded that His love and faithfulness are as HIGH as the heavens and REACH to the clouds.

I want to believe he has BIG PLANS for me, because he does.

And he has BIG PLANS for you, too.

Sometimes those plans seem small to us, but they have a large, immeasurable impact in God’s eyes.

After adopting our daughter from Africa, I came to remember that the day to day mothering and homemaking in my home was just as important to God as the orphan rescuing.

What dreams are God stirring in your heart?  Is your motive to shine His GLORY over all the earth, and to spread his love?  Then pray about it, and go for it!

Keep looking up to the heavens, remembering his high love for you reaches places you cannot imagine!

<<<<<To download a copy of the “Love Letters From God” study, click below!>>>>>

<<<<<To order a copy by mail, click below!>>>>>

All we have to do to remember how high God’s love for us reaches is to simply look up.  Up, to see the expanse between the ground and the clouds.  He doesn’t write the answers to our questions out in thin air, but he gives us a passage to remind us that he’s got his reasons…

Isaiah 55

5“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
12 You will live in joy and peace.
The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands!
13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;
they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

We can’t understand or see his plan, working together for our good, but we can choose to trust that his perfect love for us knows what he is doing.

For my letter to God today, I chose to illustrate the concepts to give a deeper understanding and ability to memorize it easily.

Illustrating is a popular concept for college students studying any subject these days. On Pinterest, there are tons of links to ideas for illustrating information for the sake of understanding and retaining it.  I have been doing this with my bible studying for  awhile now, just simply sketching out doodles that show God’s word in a personal way.  Here, I used “anchor” illustrations for this passage to remember the meaning behind the words so that I can apply it to my thinking and my life.

Anchors:

Think cloud:  God’s thoughts higher than mine.

Arrows:  God’s ways go far beyond what I can see in either direction, past present, or future.

Rainbow:  God’s good plans surpass anything I can IMAGINE.

Airplane banners:  I think of banners the planes pull at the beach, with God’s message, “I know what I’m doing, trust me,” written on them.  🙂

The earth:  My understanding of all situations is far below and skewed compared to his clear view from above, of all the pieces of the puzzle fitting together according to his perfect plan.

 

After grasping how HIGH his perfectly understanding love is for us, we have a choice, to trust Him or not.  This is where we come before him honestly in prayer, committing to trusting him, and asking him to meet us in our doubts and fears.  Asking him to create faith where we want to be the one  in the pilot’s seat, flying the plane with our own banner of plans streaming behind us.

 

He is good and worthy to be trusted.  Our understanding is so small compared to his.  Simply trust.

<<<<<Walk in the Love of the Most High today!>>>>>

To download a copy of “Love Letters From God Study:”

Or to receive it by mail:

  

To download the “Love Letters From God” study we are discussing, click here:

Or to buy a copy by mail:

Today is our last day studying the LENGTH of God’s love for us!  We focused in on Psalm 39 and settled on the fact that the length of time God will love us in heaven will far outlast the short amount of time he is loving us on this side of eternity.

Psalm 39

“4, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath.” Interlude
6 We are merely moving shadows,
and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it.
7 And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
My only hope is in you.”

I cannot tell you how mush a LOVE LOVE LOVE verses 5 & 6.  I love them so much, I had to write a reminder on my hand about how short my life is.  (A hand model, I am NOT, but I loved this illustration.)  Life is so short, isn’t it?

  

And I am the worst at rushing around busily.  I am late to almost everything.  This was such a good reminder from the Lord to keep storing up my treasure in heaven with Him, because all this treasure we are running around to secure is not going to last very long.  So where do we put our hope?  In Him!

Our Love Letter to God:

  

We contrasted the amount of time our lives on earth are to the amount of time our lives in eternity with Jesus will be!  And the Lord’s steadfast love, which we know endures FOREVER will be manifest, fully glorified in heaven.  We will finally know what this agape love we can only imagine will be like there.  FOREVER.

Our Love Letter From God:  Happy Valentine’s From Him!  What a gift!

  

I hope you all have a very LOVE filled weekend over Valentine’s, knowing you are LOVED by the King of Kings now and for all eternity!

  

It’s not too late to download and print for Valentine’s Day!  It would be a fantabulous present for a friend or yourself!!!

<<<<Click here >>>>

Or to buy a copy by mail:

Before I sat down this afternoon I prayed and told God I was tired of writing.  He immediately sparked in me a motivation to make his Word beautiful!  I picked up this calligraphy marker ($2) at my local Walmart  and headed to Pinterest for some inspiration and step by step instructions!

  

I learned a secret. We can do this girls!  There are so many good links that all we need is a little time and a lot of paper to practice!

  

3 Pros about learning to Hand Letter Scripture:

1. It makes God’s word BEAUTIFUL!  God’s Word brings beauty to my life, so I want to see it look beautiful on the paper.

In the first bible study I wrote, “Refocused,” I directed us everyday to use the “Write it Out” method: 

Write it out directions: Make God’s Word look beautiful. You may write out only part of the verse, or the whole verse. Make some words bigger than others that stick out to you. Use cursive and print. Make it something you will look back on and treasure.

2.  It MOTIVATES me and my  daughters to write out his Word! Therefore, we are talking about it together and learning it together.

  

3. It helps us MEMORIZE his word.  Ya’ll, let me just say, I wrote this verse so many times today, I can quote it to you now.  Therefore, I can think about it anytime I want and the Lord will bring me hope and direction from it.  Not to mention, power against the enemy.  Can I get an amen?!

  

So grab your “Love Letters From God” Study, visit these links to help, and get started!!! It is so FUN!

Here are the links I used to create my Letter to God today:

Fancy cursive:

http://www.oneartsymama.com/2015/11/basic-hand-lettering-alphabet-practice.html

Cool manuscript:

http://www.smuug.com/font-friday-luna/

Vine around “God”:

http://www.oneartsymama.com/2015/11/basic-hand-lettering-curving-vine-embellishment.html

Banner for “people”:

http://www.oneartsymama.com/2015/12/basic-hand-lettering-drawing-a-banner.html

Here’s a link to my Pinterest Hand lettering page where I’m collecting ideas:

I’d love to see some pics of your work!

Today we are studying how long God’s love is for us, as we consider how long he will walk among us.  This morning I read this chapter, and thought about it all day.  All day while I homeschooled my kids, ran them to their different extracurricular activities, grocery shopped with all 3 of them in tow, and cooked them dinner.

The thing God kept reminding me was:  He was there among us, in our midst during all of this everyday stuff.

He was there this morning  when I felt like taking a day off the daily grind.  (Thankfully I persevered 🙂

He was there when I wanted to ask my daughter how she couldn’t remember how to add her simple addition problems.

He was there when I wanted to yell at their bickering, helping me take a deep breath instead and kindly direct them to “pick out of the get a long jar.”

He was there when I went over budget at the grocery store and helped me swallow my mistake with a gulp of grace for myself.

He was there when my daughter spilt milk all over my husband.

He was there in the fun times when we were writing out scripture together and smiling.

He was there when we were sitting around the table for dinner, laughing and joking.

(As you can see, my day got progressively better:)

The  point is, He was walking among us every step today, seeing the good, bad and the UGLY.  And he was loving us every single second.

Practice being aware of His loving presence!

Leviticus 26

9“I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you.

10You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest!

11I will live among you, and I will not despise you.    

12I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.

13I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.

<<<<Walk in His Love with your heads held high>>>>