The words seem to spill out of their own volition. My heart is overflowing. There is this awareness of so much goodness — overflowing abundance of goodness…
There is this insatiable hunger. I can’t seem to get enough of Him.
I met Him and became aware of His love for me, and I fell in love with Him… not the passionate selfish kind of one’s youth. Instead, it’s a love that makes me complete, content, overjoyed, awe-struck, captivated, inspired, strengthened, at rest.
Before seeing His love for me personally, I had a relationship with Him but it was distant, based on what I had heard or read. It was built on a lot of “theories” and “head” knowledge.
My worship was related to what I knew about Him with my “head.” It sounded nice with many fancy-sounding words, but it was a worship of knowledge. Oh, I had my moments when there was some heart to it…
I was His after all. Yet, something was missing, and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t even know really for awhile that something was missing — how can you when you haven’t had it before?
Then life happened, and with it came pain, hardships, and the ever seeking for a new sense of being. I tried to be something alright. I tried to be the most “godly” daughter I could be. I thought I could be more acceptable to Him if I was more. I thought He wanted my performance. Later, I would find out He wanted my heart.
I knew I wanted Him. I wanted His approval, but most of all, what I was really seeking was His love. I wanted to feel loved. So I did or tried to do all the right things. I was the “good girl”.
What I didn’t realize was that my “godliness” was only “godlified-moralism”. I would discover that godliness isn’t something you can put on or wear. True godliness is from Him.
I didn’t realize that every time I tried to be godly I was doing it in my own strength, with my own ideas and perceptions. I carried a heavy weight of guilt because I just could never be “godly enough” on my own.
I had trusted Him to be my Savior from my sins, and I knew He loved me enough to die. My love though was based more on a past-tense event then on a present-day awareness of love. I didn’t fully realize that He didn’t just die for my sins (which was more than enough) but that He also wanted to take the sinner and transform her to become like His Son. I didn’t realize all my “inheritance” as His daughter — all that I have in Him.
As the years passed, I became more and more hungry to experience fullness of life in Him, but all I knew was this endless struggle of trying to be godly and falling short.
Then came the day when it all changed.
I remember those moments like I am watching a Cinema movie. I can recall myself trembling as I awoke to God’s Spirit convicting me and telling me what needed to change — that I needed to find my identity in Him.
I remember crying out to Him and begging Him to tell me what He thought of me because I was forever trying to prove myself to Him, trying to win His acceptance — even though I already was His child.
Then, I remember. I remember standing there singing those beautiful words to the song “I’m Overwhelmed” by Big Daddy Weave and then it was as if He was singing them to me.
I remember getting up and leaving in the middle of the song to go to a private spot where I could pray. I remember those gut-wrenching sobs as I began to cry out to God. As I began to cry out to Him, He began to answer me.
I “saw” that I was no longer running after Him, begging Him for His love. I saw that He was running towards me.
It was then that my heart ran smack into the heart of God, and I truly came home.
I have never been the same again.
I have this sense of completeness, strength because I have experienced His love for me — so perfect, complete, unconditional. I no longer live to prove something. Life no longer has to be a struggle. It is instead a surrender. As I surrender to a God I know personally and can trust because He loves me completely, I find all of His gifts and resources at my disposal.
Godliness is not something I achieve. It’s something He gives/bestows on me as I simply abide in Him.
Godliness comes from being in His Presence. Godliness isn’t something I produce. It’s something He produces in me.
He just wants me — me yielded to Him so that He can transform this broken vessel into something out of which His glory can spill.
My heart yearns to forever be in His physical Presence. I can’t wait to behold His smile and to look into His eyes and to be lost in them.
I can’t wait to dance in the Presence of the One who made me.
I can’t wait to sit at His feet and to simply soak up His Presence.
I can’t wait to walk with Him and talk with Him… to see the nail prints and to know they are an eternal symbol of His eternal love for me.
His love has changed me.
I wish there were adequate words to describe the depth of my gratitude for Him.
I wish I could help all to see and recognize His love for them — for each and every one of His creation.
With every waking breath, I can’t seem to restrain myself from wanting to share the wonder of this with everyone. Think me strange or something else, but what I know is once I was “blind” but now I “see.”
I personally see His goodness, His glory, His grace, His love, His transforming truth, His life… I see Him!
Job 42:5
5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
And this…
Grace In The Moment 