So think about it. He is the God of tiny details, as well as the God of the big picture. He knows each bird. He knows each hair on your head. And the Bible says that you are infinitely more precious to Him than a bird!
Beth Moore, in her book “Believing God,” quotes Ephesians 1:3-8 [HCSB] to show us how very precious we are to Him: blessed, chosen, holy and blameless, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, and most of all, loved as a beloved child.
“Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved. We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” Ephesians 1:3-8 [HCSB]
(Think of a beloved child in your life, if you can. Yes, they can drive you nearly crazy trying to keep them safe, but oh, the love that you have for that child. And if you, a human with all the faults that all humans have, can love a child so much, how much more will our Father in heaven?)
So, about being afraid for your future, the Bible says that if you are afraid, it denotes a lack of trust—that you are afraid of what God has in mind for you, which shows that you don’t really believe Him when He says He loves you [1 John 3:18, TLB].
Thinking of that verse, while reading Matthew 6:25-26, reminded me of an interesting quote from The Shack, where God is speaking to Mack: “Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around…. You were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around…. Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly [emphasis is mine]. Not something [God] wants for you…. Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly…. And if [pain is] left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place…. Humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the intentions that I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in My image….Love is not the limitation; love is the flying.”
My takeaway from all this is: Don't be defined by your limitations, but by God's intentions. Remember what it was like to fly! Live loved!
(C) L.F. Haynie, Nov 2015
Matthew 6:25-26 [MSG] “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.”
1 John 4:18 [TLB] “We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.”
The Shack, William P. Young, 2007, Windblown Media, pp 97-100.
Believing God, Beth Moore