#everywomanc3dfw

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  His love endures forever. // Psalm 136:1 

Have you ever lost sight of God’s goodness?  Have you doubted that He’s working on your behalf? Have you ever thought that God is withholding something good from you?  

Consider Eve, our very first lady.  In a perfect environment, the Garden of Eden, she doubted God’s goodness.  She was tempted to eat from a forbidden tree, thinking God was withholding something good from her.  She saw the fruit and saw that it was good (makes you wonder how many times we look at something as good but it really leads to sin).  Her trust in God’s character was compromised.  She no longer believed that what God gave her was good enough and lost perspective on his commands as actually something that was meant to protect her.  So, she ate.

It’s so easy for us to lose sight of God’s goodness.  The root of our doubt in this faith walk is that we don’t trust in God’s character.  We doubt God’s goodness in our lives or the lives of our close family and friends and so we lose trust in His good and perfect plan.  Circumstances may cause you to wonder if God has your best in mind.

Let me tell you today, that we can’t doubt God’s goodness and character and be thankful at the same time.  One displaces the other.  

If you are doubting God’s goodness in your life, if you find you have a bad attitude (talking to my pregnant self here), if you’re worried or if you’re stressed - start being thankful – somehow it has the ability to make us whole.  Gratitude is powerful.  We enter into God’s presence with praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4). Thankfulness has a way of healing what is wrong with us.  Often times, our prayers that begin and end with thanksgiving better motivates all the other forms of prayer (our confession, repentance, supplication). Thankfulness changes our perspective, widens our view and allows us to more clearly see God’s goodness in our lives and even more than that…it is God’s will for you.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. // 1 Thess. 5:18

Who do you say you are? What we call ourselves, the messages we speak over ourselves have a way of skewing our identity. So many of us do this without even realizing it - we are one person at work, one person with one set of friends and someone completely new and different with another set of friends or our family. For much of my life I unknowingly allowed a fear of being too much to put me into a type of hiding. I didn't want to be too analytical around my carefree friends, too girly around my techy guy friends, or too quiet and shy around my close girl friends. I was so afraid of being too much for anyone that I wasn't fully me to anyone really. This fear bled into other areas of my personality and began to limit my horizons - I allowed it to keep me from pursuing goals I knew were God breathed. I let one wrong message, one lie from the enemy to overwhelm who God called me to be. Isn't that we all do? We trade a lie for the truth. It's never an obvious lie though, the enemy is clever enough to use facts against us. In my own life he would remind me of times where I was rejected or fear kept me from achieving a goal. The devil likes to tell us facts, but God fills us with the truth. Facts told me that my fears were insurmountable, but the truth told me all things are possible... You see, facts and the truth are mutually exclusive; they are not the same thing, though we so often think they are. And the devil likes to use the facts of our circumstances or our past to confound and cripple us, but Jesus is a revealer of the truth - John 8:32 tells us we "will know the truth and the truth will set [us] free." The Bible also tells us Jesus is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. So we must ground our identity in Christ, we have to seek Him to find ourselves. We need Him to confirm who we are in Him, we need to know who He says we are. And we need to be reminded that He knows us, every part of us; He chooses us; and He calls us by name. In fact, throughout His Word God confirms just how much He knows you, that He calls you by name, and He can even change who you are!

"I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart." - Jeremiah 1:5a

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." - Isaiah 43:1b

"And you will be given a new name by the Lord's own mouth... Your new name will be 'The City of God's Delight' and 'The Bride of God.'" - Isaiah 62:2b & 4

And in Revelation 2:17 Jesus tells us, "I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it." This reminds me of being in high school and finding out your crush knows who you are. That amazing guy you thought didn't know you existed - He knows you and longs to be known by you! He never thought you were too much, in fact, he created and loves every part of you! Doesn’t that just fill you with joy?! The Creator God, the King of kings, the Lover of your soul knows you, He says who you are, He calls you by name!