You Are Fully Known And Fully Loved ~ Day Three

This beautiful artwork by Juliet Jones found here

Welcome To Day Three In A 31 Day Series

"31 Days To Becoming His Pearl"

You are fully known and fully loved.

No matter what.

No matter what other people have said or done or how they may have tried to convince you otherwise.

You are fully known and fully loved by Him.

He adores you.

He has called you.

He has chosen you.

He has set you apart.

There is a beautiful phrase that I love written in a book titled "The Me I Want To Be" By John Ortberg,

that says this: "You can only be loved to the extent you are known."

Or sometimes people will phrase the same thing this way...

If they really knew me, they wouldn't love me.

Maybe this is true for the world. Because we are human and we are limited in our capacity to love.

But God.

He is unlimited in His capacity to love.

His love is not earned. It cannot be measured. It is not conditional. It is not performance based.

He does not withhold His love - or any good thing from us based on what we may or may not do.

He simply loves us. Fully.

When we begin to walk in that truth and in the magnitude of that revelation-

Our lives will change.

We can freely forgive others. 

We can freely love.

We can release all insecurities.

We can take the limitations and expectations and demands off of friends and loved ones.

We can saturate ourselves by soaking in His truth and His love and His presence every day.

From the moment of our conception the enemy of our souls works overtime to separate us from truth.

He works in and through other people and through circumstances and situations to keep us from wisdom and knowledge. To keep us from walking in the truth.

He does not want any one of us to know that we are fully known and fully loved by God.

Because in that truth there is power. There is breakthrough. There is freedom.

We no longer have to live life like we are orphans.

We are sons and we are daughters. We have an inheritance that rightfully belongs to each one of us.

There is more than enough in the kingdom. 

Ask Him to release your portion today.

He is faithful to pour out in the most beautiful ways at the appointed time.

I know from the depths of my soul how hard life can be when you become your circumstances.

When your life really and truly looks and feels like you are an orphan.

We can take on that mentality.

But that is all just smoke and mirrors.

A tactic the enemy uses to keep us from knowing Him.

To keep us from leaning in and receiving every good and perfect gift.

To keep us from knowing truth and from allowing the truth to set us free.

To keep us bound and broken and burdened with the hard things that life can sometimes bring.

His word says this...

You are daily loaded with benefits. ~ Psalm 68:19

I love this.

Our heavenly father, the God of our salvation, who fully knows and fully loves each and every one of us says that He daily loads us with benefits.

We do not have to live on last years portion.

It is a daily portion.

Daily manna.

Daily benefits.

Ask Him to release your portion today.

What do you need today?

Maybe you need an outpouring of mercy and grace and love.

Maybe you need to tangibly feel loved by Him.

Maybe you need Him to demonstrate that He sees and He knows and He hears you.

Maybe you need a financial breakthrough. A tangible hope that things are going to get better.

Ask Him.

He is a loving Father. He longs to woo us unto Himself and pour out His great love.

Just ask....

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12

To follow along with this 31 days series or to see all of the links to the posts, you can click here

Your Identity Is In Him {Day Two}

Welcome to day two in a 31 day series

31 Days To Becoming His Pearl

Here's the thing.

Identity is everything.

Everything.

If we do not know who we are and whose we are- we are missing the foundation that everything else in our life is built upon.

Every, single thing in our life flows out of the very core of our being.

If the core is out of order. Or broken. Or damaged. Or is even just really lacking in truth.

Every, single thing in our life will flow out of disorder, brokenness, damage or lack of truth.

Daughters tend to receive their identity from their Fathers.

Our Fathers are called to demonstrate on earth who our Father is in heaven. 

And who we are to Him.

And sometimes, this doesn't happen.

And so we are lacking in the area of identity and spend the biggest part of our life trying to gain identity in and through people, places and things.

His word says this....

You live and move and have your being in me.  ( Acts 17:28)

We live and move and have our being in Him.

In Him.

In Him.

In Him.

Let that soak in for just a minute.

So let's look at that truth this way ....

Here is what His word does not say...

We do not live and move and have our being by who our earthly parents are.

Or by who other people say or think we are.

Or by the choices we've made.

Or by the mistakes we've made.

Or by who we are married to.

Or not married to.

Or by how many degrees we have hanging on the wall.

Or don't have hanging on the wall.

Or by whether or not we are accepted and embraced by others.

Or what street we live on. Or what kind of home we live in.

Or by any sickness or disease that has tried to steal, kill and destroy us.

Or by the worlds standard of beauty.

Don't even get me started on that one. I will spin out a 7 day mini series within this series.

Or by the numbers on a scale, or the tag inside a dress, or the balance in your bank account.

There isn't a stitch of identity within any of the above mentioned.

Even though the world will try its best to tell us different and prove us wrong.

If we are rooted and grounded in Him.

If our identity is rock solid and connected and tied to the living God who tells us that we 

are His and that we are accepted and beloved and called and chosen and anointed and appointed and loved and adored and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Nothing can separate us from that.

Nothing can separate us from His love.

Know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Free from what?

Free from a life of feeling less than. Free from measuring and comparing ourselves up against every

one and everything else. Free from a life of striving and trying to earn His love and His good graces. Free from a life of being tossed every which way but Sunday. Free from a life of wanting to please everybody and their Mama and attaching our worth and our value and our identity to their response- or the lack there of.

This was never part of His plan.

His plan was always for each and every single one of us to be fully known and fully loved. 

To be rooted and grounded in Him and in His word.

His word is living and breathing and sharper than any two-edged sword.

It is living and breathing.

It is life-giving.

It is alive.

We have to read it and soak in it and relish in it and apply it for it to have power in our own lives.

There are pages upon pages in His word that address identity.

I know from experience that reading the bible can feel like a daunting task.

I know.

I can remember years ago, opening the bible and reading from the beginning and reading about how He spoke everything into existence and reading about how so and so begot so and so and how Cain and Able had some issues and on and on....

And I would close it.

And I would say this....

God, I don't care. I don't care about this stuff.

I can't pay my bills and my lights have been cut off for the tenth time and I have a beautiful baby girl and no wedding ring on my left hand and this trailer we are living in makes me feel like the trash that everybody says that I am and there is an ache inside my heart that feels like the worst physical pain I have ever felt in my entire life and God, I don't even know if you are real or if a Holy God could possibly even love a girl like me. Because by the looks of my life- I'm not sure if you even are real or if  you do really, actually love me.

Identity crisis anyone?

I can relate beautiful friends.

From the deepest part of me- I know.

I know that for some of you who may be reading this, there are tears right now.

And so, what I want to gently ask you and encourage you with,  is this...

Those tears mean something.

Those tears need to be replaced with identity.

There are places and spaces inside each and everyone of us that need truth.

Places that need the living God to speak and breathe and heal with His power and love.

Places within each one of us that can never be filled with food or shopping or jewelry or friendship or marriage or babies or family or money or status or power or influence.

Nothing but Him sweet friends.

So I want to ask you today to open your bible and soak yourself with truth.

And open your journal to day two and write. 

Don't worry about order or handwriting or if it the words make sense or flow or anything like that.

Just write.

Talk with Him. Ask Him questions. Wait and listen for the answer. 

Listen for His sweet spirit to gently whisper truth.

I promise you He will. I promise you. (John 10:27) 

We serve a God who is the author of relationship. He is all about relationship. You cannot have a relationship with someone who doesn't speak. Or who doesn't communicate at all. 

He is a highly relational Father. He doesn't give us the silent treatment. He isn't emotionally absent.

He isn't unavailable or harsh or angry or counting up and keeping a list of all of our wrongs.

He is El Roi. The God who sees you. (Genesis 16:13) 

Put words to the tears. Put words to the ache. Put words to the places that you've never shared with a single soul.

Words have power.

Words have life.

Choose life.

The enemy wants to silence you.

But the living God wants to speak to you and through you today.

And He wants to uproot every, single thing that has tried to rob you of your true identity.

And He longs to replace it with what has belonged to you all along.

Your identity is in Him alone.

Walk in that truth today......

If you want to follow along with this series, all links will be posted on the landing page. Found here. 

The Beauty Is In The Process {Day One}

Welcome to Day One in a 31 Day Part Series

Becoming His Pearl

"They shall become mine says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves Him. " Malachi 3:17

Today I want to share about the process.

We know about process, don't we?

We know about being formed and even transformed.

We know about beauty breaking forth after a few seasons of suffering.

We know that in the kingdom- to lose is to gain.

We know that there is a dying that has to happen, in order to truly live.

We know we must be willing to lose our life, in order to find it.

All of these things are part of His process.

And so it is with a pearl.

A pearl is the only gemstone that is actually formed.

A pearl must be born.

It is born out of suffering.

Did you know that a parasite burrows into the side of an oyster shell and that the oyster

releases nacre as a defense mechanism to protect itself from the intruder.

It coats and covers the parasite again and again and again.

And during this process of protecting itself and fighting the enemy and trying to defend

home base....

Something beautiful begins to form inside the oyster.

Something with tremendous worth. 

Something with great value.

Something with a high price.

Something very beautiful and very significant.

A pearl.

Unlike diamonds that already exist and must be mined....

A pearl must go through a process before its beauty can be revealed.

It can take up to eight years for a single pearl to fully develop.

Seasons upon seasons.

A season of suffering. A season of being hidden. A season of being alone. 

I know you can relate....

The hope is that during our seasons of being refined, we learn how to allow His perfect work. We learn how to worship. We learn how to magnify. We learn how to offer up a sacrifice of praise. We learn how to leave things alone. We learn how to humble ourselves and allow the Father to have His way.

Because His ways are always best.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Once a pearl is formed and brought forth "into His marvelous light" it does not return to the oyster shell again. Once it is brought forth, it is used for the displaying of His splendor.
It doesn't return to its shell. It doesn't return to the pit.

It is used for purpose. 

I want to encourage you not to despise the process.  If we attempt to cut the process short, by insisting and pushing and pressing our own way, we are ultimately telling God that we know what is best. That we know how to do things. That we've got this thing figured out. 

Despising the process is a form of unbelief.

If we can train our hearts and minds to be patient in affliction. To be grateful in all things.

To be still and know. To simply trust and obey and to believe that God is good- no matter what.

In His timing, He will bring forth a beauty that cannot be compared.

But we must submit to the process sweet friends.....

My hope is that you will read this post and feel encouraged and that you will lean into Him a little more when life hurts, as it sometimes does.

I want to recommend that you begin a 31 day journal and that you just begin to write.

Write your heart and your worries and your concerns and share those places and spaces with Him that could possibly be holding you back.

Areas of offense and wounds that never seem to heal.

Spaces inside where we may even be disappointed or angry with others or even with Him.

Places that want to keep us bound up so that we can never fulfill purpose.

Get it out and onto paper. 

Then just be still and listen.

Write down whatever you feel He may be speaking to you.

A scripture. A promise. A few words. An idea. A revelation. A truth.

Anything. 

He is always speaking....

You will be astounded at how much growth can happen in just a month of journaling and studying His word.

When we bring things into His marvelous light~ healing can take place.

And then we are positioning ourselves for purpose and for His glory to be revealed in each and every one of us.

"For the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in you."  Romans 8:18

31 Days To Becoming His Pearl {The Introduction}

Photos taken by Coleen Verner

Welcome to 31 Days To Becoming His Pearl Series

I've wanted to link up with The Nester's 31 Day series for several years now and finally decided to just leap and take up the writing challenge!

And although I absolutely love all things home and family and making things beautiful....

This topic is my passion and I have spent the last 9 years encouraging and teaching His daughters with the truths that I will share here over the next 30 days.

We serve a God who is longing to teach us and show us that we are more than enough...

He also wants to saturate our hearts with this truth,

We are not the oyster shell of our circumstances....

We are His.

His Pearl.

And in that truth there is power.

There is identity.

There is inheritance.

There is no comparison.

There is the ability to overcome.

There is absolutely no need to live life with an orphan mentality- ever again.

And so much more.

During the month of October I will share a little more each day to bring hope and encouragement and biblical truths to unravel and reveal the Pearl that has been within you all along.

So excited to walk with you and to watch Him display His splendor in the most magnificent ways!

Thank you for visiting and reading!

If you want to follow along with this series, this page will serve as the landing page and will host all of the links for each day in October.


Day 1 ~  The Beauty Is In The Process

Day 2 ~  Your Identity Is In Him

Day 3 ~ You Are Fully Known and Fully Loved

Day 4 ~ When Community Hurts and God Redeems

Day 5 ~ Grace Upon Grace

Day 6 ~ The Engraved Invitation

Day 7 ~ Your Gift Will Make Room For You

Day 8 ~ They Owe You Nothing 

Day 9 ~ Daddy's Girl

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