"I Smile" - 04/15/15 - Psalm 7, 27, 31, 34, 52

 

 

"I trusted in the generous Mercy of God then and now. 

I thank You always that You went into action.

And I'll stay right here,

Your good name my hope,

in company with Your faithful friends." (52:8-9)

Last evening we stood on the back deck, dusk bringing in the shadows to the woods below and around us. My sisters were gathered to dig into His Word through our weekly Bible Study.  We have just started a new study, "The Missing Commandment - Love Yourself", How loving yourself the way God does can bring healing and freedom to your life.  With the study we have added a new element, worship in singing before the book.  

There was such a haunting beauty in the stillness of the woods as the sound of Kathy's flute wove through the air with our voices. I found my heart catching in the profoundness of His Grace and Mercy.  Knowing He was surrounding us in our worship of Him.  Knowing He was delighting in us more than we delight in Him, as I stood "in company with my faithful friends", my sisters in Him. 

I stood looking through the trees and thought about how He has transformed my life.  my heart.  Bringing me to this place where all I want to do is worship Him through all of my actions.  my words. my thoughts.  my all.

I smile, realizing the times are fewer when I do forget where He has brought me through His "generous Mercy". Those times when I will physically cringe. Those moments when my path comes across someone from my past and I pick up and again dress myself in the garment of "shame".

I smile for there are far fewer moments when I allow "shame" to cover up the transformation ABBA has taken and clothed me in.  Much like a ratty, dirty, old bathrobe. 

I smile for He has taken my mind from being focused on the mistakes I made, rather than on His face.  Those times when I focus more at the places of sin I wallowed in, the missed opportunities when I could have been a Vessel for Him and being instead a vessel for and of sin. 

I smile for He has taught me to have less of focusing on me, and more on my Savior. 


My Savior.
who was hung on the cross
and took upon Himself

the
all
of
my
sins. 


the
all
of
my
shame. 



He did this so I could be ABBA's.  So I could live my life intimately "in" His world. 
Eternally. 
My Savior has taken that old bathrobe and cast it aside. 

I smile, knowing there are less moments of forgetting I have vowed to "stay right here, Your good name my hope, in company with Your faithful friends".   I love knowing there are less and less  situations where I go back digging through the decay of garbage, retrieving the bathrobe of sin, and putting it on. Picking up "doubt" and believing the words of lies.  Believing I do not belong with His faithful company.

I smile, hearing when my ABBA begins to speak and I believe.  Softly I hear His Voice, coming from within my heart where I have buried His Words. 

I am cleansed from "shame", from "sin".  I am covered in His Blood. 

I am His. 
I am His Beloved.

He has gently taken my face into His Hands, leading my eyes into His, where I drink in His Truth.  He surrounds me with those who are "in" Him, who see me in love.  Who see me as His.  Who have given me the gift of mercy, as they have been given mercy.  He has placed me "in company with His faithful friends".

And in those moments when needed, He again removes the bathrobe of shame, casting it aside, revealing me still clothed in His Truth.
He leads me back to my place, right there in the company of Him. 

"His good name is my hope".


"Now I won't deny
The worst you could say about me
But I'm not defined by mistakes that I've made...
Because God says of me

I am not who I was
I'm being remade
I am new
I am chosen and holy and I'm dearly loved
I am new
Who I thought I was
And who I thought I had to be
I had to give them both up
Cause neither were willing
To ever believe
I am not who I was
I'm being remade
I am new
I am chosen and holy and I'm dearly loved
I am new
I am new
Too long have I lived in the shadow of shame
Believing that there was no way I could change
But the one who is making everything new
Doesn't see me the way that I do
He doesn't see me the way that I do
"I am not who I was
I'm being remade
I am new
I am chosen and holy and I'm dearly loved
I am new
I am new
I am not who I was
I'm being remade
I am new
Dead to the old man, I'm coming alive
I am new
I am new
Forgiven, beloved
Hidden in Christ
Made in the image of the Giver of Life
Righteous and holy, reborn and remade
Accepted and worthy
This is our new name
This is who we are now..."(Jason Gray)