The lyrics say, “I’m already loved. I’m already chosen! I know who I am. I know what You’ve spoken. I’m already loved, more than I could imagine, and that is enough!”
These truths are from the Word of God. They are all in the Book! There are probably people like me that go through life feeling miserable because we think that we are never enough.
I was a chubby baby. I never grew out of it. It didn’t bother me until other kids began to notice it. When they brought it to my attention, I didn’t know what to do about it except to feel like I was ugly crap. I never grew out of that.
My parents loved me. Even my big sister! They took me to doctors and tried diets with me. It would go, and it would come back. It wasn’t many years before I considered myself a loser because when I made up my mind to do something, it got tough and I quit. I didn’t know that life was a little tough and we had to get used to it. I also didn’t know that I had my own identity, even if it looked different from other people. It was easier to let myself feel like a loser.
As I grew up, I was invited to learn about Jesus. It was great! I met a new community and I studied a lot to try to learn the Bible enough to catch up with them. So what could go wrong? Well, junior high and high school happened. I wanted intimacy. I wanted to be one of the popular kids and to have a girlfriend. What I got was rejection. I wasn’t right. I wasn’t enough. I wasn’t like the “in” people. I wasn’t cool. I told myself I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t loved. I was rejected.
Rejection comes for so many reasons and from so many places. Sometimes rejection comes from people that are supposed to protect us and respect us. Sometimes rejection comes from people and places that are bad for us but we want them anyway. Sometimes it is just a lie from hell. It’s so easier to feel rejection. Rejection cuts and bruises us. It hurts. It bleeds. It gets infected and it kills.
Pain sends us scrambling for first aid. Wounds make us afraid and angry. Trouble makes us fear, fight or fly. Everything pain or grief or humiliation cause us to do can take us to dangerous places. It becomes easy to make bad choices and often we wind up hurting ourselves even worse and damaging others along the way. We might multiply our bad experiences and lose our ability to care about who we hurt or wether we live or die. Even if you are like me, and you know Jesus. It is possible to be a Christian and suffer in pain. Just like an addiction, our need for more increases and it becomes impossible to fix it enough.
Guilt, pain, shame, isolation can’t be fixed with a bandaid. Nor do they help anybody to heal. People that hurt people are suffering bad pain somewhere. Healing comes from changing our mind. Changing our mind means repenting. Accepting that we hurt and that we need help is the first step. Changing our mind is up to us. We have to look at our wound and honestly figure out where it came from. We are going to have to choose to forgive the source.
The past happened; it’s gone. It’s over and done. We get to choose to dump it and move on. Forgiving is deciding to drop what we are holding and move along the path of truth and hope. When that baggage is no longer holding us in prison we can build a new house or highway. We have cleared the land for a new, solid, healthy foundation. God has all of the plans for this thoroughly covered!
I love the lyrics to the song so much because it contains a revelation for us: we ARE already loved! When it feels like and looks like we are suffering and bleeding and mad, we ARE already enough to God and we have a Father to talk to. We can cry to Him! We can yell at Him! We can take it all out on Him! We can complain; we can argue! This is how we throw our pain at the bottom of the cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ! God said that when we unload at the cross He will carry it and we can move on!
Hard to do? Right! It’s hard to build a building, also. It’s hard to build a highway! As my dad always told me, if it’s worth doing, do it right! He also said, clean up your mess; the job ain’t over until you clean it up the way that it is supposed to be. Author, Rory Vaden, said it like this: “Take the stairs!” The elevator is not always the best path just because it’s easy. Doing the right thing usually takes some work but it turns out so, so right after it’s done.
God loves us! God is love! He’s not a biblical monster like hell is trying to teach us. God is the proper kind of Father and Jesus is the best kind of Brother! Read the Bible through the eyes of a child learning from the best kind of parent! And read it all. We have to really know God and what He has provided to us. It’s good news! He is Jehovah Jireh, which means, God our provider, and so much more! “ I know who I am! I know what you’ve (God) spoken!” His words over us are fantastic and that is our reality! We are fabulous the way that we are as we are following His guidelines and living His plan!
We can do it! Fair enough? We know it takes hard work, but I am working through it at the same time as you! I am throwing out the bandaids that I used just as I’m asking you to do. Here is an analogy: my bandaids are soaked with blood. I traded in my blood for the blood of Jesus! The blood of Jesus washes away my sin and wrong-doing! That is salvation! The Apostle, Paul, blogged in his post a long time ago, that salvation means we can work on it day to day. God never planned for us to become perfect in an instant. God wants to see that we are trying and that we are asking for His help day to day! Praise Him with songs! Praise Him with other Christian’s. Praise Him in the streets! Talk to Him every day. Talk from your heart. We can do this!
Pray like this: Jesus, You were right, I have been wrong. Forgive me, and I promise to look for You with all of my heart every day. Father God, I am really hurting and angry. I can’t carry on like this. Take my load and show me how to change my mind every day. Give me the strength to forgive every one (call them by name.) Thank You for loving me. Help me to feel Your acceptance. Help me to understand that You made me, personally and that You don’t make mistakes! I love You, God, and I want to love You more every day. Help me to help others that have been suffering like I was. You are the greatest, God! Amen!