February will hold a slight change of post content. March 1st is Self Injury Awareness Day and it has been laid on my heart to do a sort of "awareness campaign". Every week in February, I will be sharing stories of girls that I have met who struggle with self harm. Not only their struggle, but their victory in overcoming it. I will finish off on March 1st with my story, and how you can make a difference for those around you struggling. I think it will be good!
Now that we know what's going on in my life, I am excited to be starting a theme of devotionals to put up here. As I was thinking on this post the past few weeks, I wrote down an idea in my notebook. I completely forgot about it until I found it the other night.
I always talk about God, His goodness, the hope He gives, and the love that never ceases. However, I realized that some of you who may read this have no idea who God is. I find that not very many people know who God really is. It would take centuries for me to list and discuss all of the things God is, but I can take some time to talk about a few. Later on, I will get into more detail of certain characteristics, but today we will cover a few. God is so wonderful, and without Him I would be nothing. It breaks my heart that few know who He is. As a Christian, as one who has basked in the love of God and who has also taken it for granted, I am compelled to tell as many as I can about His wonderful love, and many other attributes. Once we know these, we understand why we must turn to Him and give Him our all.
I found these verses, and they have so much in them. It's beautiful. Read with an open heart, and let God use this scripture to work in you. Maybe you have already given Him your heart, but you're struggling with something, surrendering a certain part of your life to the Lord, or maybe you are simply forgetting His goodness.
Now grab your favorite mug with your favorite coffee/tea and let's read about God together.
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Joel 2:12-13
Gracious
It is defined as 'showing divine grace', but what does grace mean? 'The free and unmerited favor of God'.
The Lord is gracious. God, the Almighty, the Alpha and Omega, the one Who created the universe finds in His heart to bestow His favor onto us, the undeserving ones. He looks past our sins, our denial of Him, our rejection, our lies, our cruelty, and He favors us. Not only those who have trusted in Him, He favors those who do not know His name. He favors those who out rightly degrade and blaspheme Him. He favors you, the broken and weary, the strung out and tired, the angry and hurt.
God is gracious. God favors you.
Merciful
Mercy is to forgive when it is within one's capability and rights to punish. God has the right to punish us, the right to send us to an eternal death for our sins. Yet, He paved a beautiful way to mercy and forgiveness. God sent His only Son to die a painful death, to suffer in anguish and be beaten, to have His beard ripped out and to bear all of the world's sins. A death that you and I deserve. However, all me and you have to do is accept the mercy that God is full of, and walk the paved way to Paradise.
God is merciful. He will forgive you instead of punish you.
Slow to Anger
How holy and worthy of our respect is the Creator. He desires for us to give Him honor, glory, praise, to follow Him unwavering, to obey always, to never falter in our faith in Him. Do we? Rarely ever. Does He deserve those things from us? Always. The anger that should be bubbling up from Him because we do not love Him as we are told to should be massive. Yet, He is slow to anger. He does not send fire and brimstone down from heaven when we say we hate Him. He looks down on us with a broken heart and calls us to Him.
God is slow to anger.
Of Great Kindness
Too many people on earth have the idea that my God is a big mean One, Who looks down on us and scoffs at our stupidity, a God Who will send you to hell without blinking an eye, a God Who hates and wants to destroy. A God Who makes rules that are impossible to keep just so He can watch us fail. How unfortunate are those who think that. The God I know is a kind God. He is One that provides for me, Who feeds me and clothes me and knows the number of hairs on my head. One that blesses me with people and things I do not deserve. One that guides me through life and picks me up when I fall.
God is kind. He is kind to the forgiven, and to the sinner.
Repents Us of the Evil
Repent means to literally turn away from. Me, you, your mom and dad, your boyfriend, your husband, your girlfriend, your grandmother, we are all walking down the road to evil. Not purposefully always, but we don't know that there is another way. Our Creator, the One who paved the New Way, will take us and turn us away from the evil, and set us on the way to Holiness. We must be willing, though. He is only waiting for you and I to say 'Lord, please! Turn me away from this life, give me new hope!', and after that, He will put us on that Way to Paradise.
God will turn you from the evil. He will set you on the Right path.
Now that we know these sweet and beautiful characteristics of God, what are we to do about it? It is simple:
Turn to Him with all of your heart.
God wants you. He wants your heart, your desires, your dreams and passions, your sorrows, your brokenness, your sadness, your anger and hatred. Once you give it to Him, He will make your heart whole and fill you with love.
Turn to Him, that's all.
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