Is there a discrepancy between the names by which Jesus calls you and the names you give yourself?
Are there circumstances in your life to which you are giving undue power, power that rightfully-and in reality- belongs to our sovereign God alone?
There are discrepancies by which I call myself and what I know Jesus calls me. I tend to call myself fat, ugly, dumb, unqualified, worthless, and so many other things that I let the world tell me I am when Jesus is telling me that I am loved, blessed, beautiful, chosen, wanted, forgiven, and above all His desired daughter.
There have been circumstances in my life that I have given power to that was not rightfully given. I just decided to not serve God in China because of this very reason. I was giving the situation and circumstances of going and serving the power instead of giving God the power to raise the money needed to go. My heart was in the right place for me to go, but God was telling me that I put too much power into actually going instead of power into Him who deserved all the power to work in the circumstance that I was facing. Since then, I have been giving God all the power to work in my life and relinquished any part of my situations and circumstances that I was holding onto into His hands. I am currently in the process of switching from a job to a career since graduating college and considering graduate school. These are huge changes for my life yet again and I have felt no power in them and no control over these thoughts. When I realized the truth behind my wants to serve in China and then gave it to God, I became free and now I am growing more than I have in a while. Being stuck is not where I am and it is all because I gave God back the power of my circumstances.
As women we tend to let others get to us because we have hearts that are emotional and caring. We want to find the good in everyone. Sometimes we let others’ words get to us so much that it is hard to hear what we think of ourselves because what we are thinking is what everyone else is thinking about us.
The voice that matters most is Jesus’! He chose us to be his daughters. He handpicked us from all the people in the world… He wanted us to be the daughters who would share His love with everyone we come to encounter in our lives. We have to stop worrying about the world and keep our eyes focused on Jesus. The moment we take our eyes off the cross, we put all the focus back on ourselves and become selfish and non-repentive sinners. God pulls our head back up from ourselves and says “Daughter, I want the focus on me and my work! NOT your work and your life. You need to stay focused on the cross no matter how hard it is and how tempted you are to look at the world and your own desires. I have chosen you for my work and I will give you the desires of your heart as you seek to know me each day!”
Through the study of Ruth so far, as a single woman, has helped me to realize that I am patiently waiting not on what I want, but what God wants. I have been praying for a humble heart and an obedient heart. Through this study, I have even started praying for my future husband which I should have started doing long before now, but now that I am at the point in my life where it is a constant reminder and thought from myself and others as a 23 year old, I am praying for the man I know who is a man of God like Boaz and who imitates the law and seeks God above all else! This has opened my heart to know that even though I face lose and tragedy on a daily basis as a human, I am never alone and God never turns His back to my needs or my wants for that matter. It might feel like it at times, but it is not true. The truth of the gospel can get fuzzy and become unclear at times, but through consistent time in the word that God has provided, we are able to keep a clear image of what God tells us and what is really the truth! Read God’s truth! Know God’s truth! Memorize God’s truth!
Learning to Stand 