Celebrating Me

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Don’t you love a celebration?

Happiness explodes while loved ones bring honor to the one celebrated.

God celebrates you. While He is in your midst, meaning with you, He saves you.

Not only does He save you, but He rejoices over you with gladness.

Repeat after me: God celebrates me!

Rejoicing over you with gladness can mean only one thing: God cheers you on. He is your biggest and loudest cheerleader.

His love quiets any storms within your heart. Any doubts. Any fears. Anything less than the goodness He has for you.

He delights in you. So much so, that He sings over you.

Can you picture yourself singing over something? You’re usually in a pretty great mood over something to sing about it.

It’s like you can’t help it, but break out in song when something is just pure delight.

And that’s how God thinks about you.

And the best part is we don’t earn any of this love. God’s love is not for sale. Not earned. And not taken away.

Genesis reminds us God created us in His image (1:27).

And many verses declare we are also God’s child (1 John 3).

God delights in you because you are His. Do you act like it? You should! Wear that crown!

God delights in you simply because you are His creation.

God, who created all things, notices and celebrates little ‘ole you. Someone throw me a pom-pom!

Photos by Samuel MylesNathan AndersonEliza Diamond, & Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Your Crown

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

Why do we allow others to reduce us to tears?

Why do we allow another’s insecurities to confirm lies in our heads?

Why do we allow another’s foul moods to bring us to our knees?

Why do we let others affect us negatively?

Because we are human.

Flawed, too.

We mess up, going back to that lie we believed about ourselves.

That lie that seems so real such as “I’m not worth it” or “I’m an absolute failure”.

I’m amazed at how immature I am.

Even when I know better.

Instantly how pitiful I can become when reacting to another’s very flawed actions.

It’s in those moments we must stop and straighten up, or our crown will fall from our head.

Remember your crown?

Meaning, remember your place in this world?

You are a child of the Most High God.

THE God. The One who created all things.

The One in charge of your past, present, and future.

The One who causes the sun to rise and set in the evenings.

The One who gave you your quirks, desires, and personality.

The One who gave you dreams and talents to fulfill them in His timing.

Do not let the opinions of others negate who God says you are.

God says you are His daughter. His son. His beloved child worth dying for.

He gave His everything to capture you for eternity.

That means you are priceless.

The next time you find yourself in a less than stellar situation, do not allow yourself to stoop for another’s crumbs.

You are worth more than crumbs.

But if your crown falls off, please stoop to pick it up.

Its place is on your precious little head.

Photos by Ashton MullinsNathan McgregorJametlene Reskp, & Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Redeemer

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

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To regain.

Recover.

Exchange.

God is our Redeemer.

He exchanges our sinful selves for a pure soul worthy of heaven.

Nothing we can do on our own merit.

It’s through trusting in His saving grace.

He redeems our souls, but what about life here?

Does He redeem our situations?

Can He?

Is He able to pick up our mess and exchange it?

Does He make all things new in His timing?

Absolutely.

God is not only the Redeemer of our souls, but He is also the Redeemer of our lives here on earth.

He recovers lost years.

He helps us regain our strength.

Our trust.

He exchanges our brokenness for new life.

When tragedy strikes, He is more than willing to redeem our situation.

How?

By trusting Him.

By placing everything back into His precious lap.

By remembering His goodness and believing He has the very best for us.

Redeem.

To me, it means new life.

New breath.

New opportunities.

He has exchanged my sadness for joy.

Ask Him to do the same for you.

Photos by Maria Oswalt & Олександр К on Unsplash