God is Good!

Ever have one of those moments where you just stand in awe of God? I mean He's so great!! He's blessed me in so many ways and there have been so many times recently where I just have to step back and say "Wow." We serve a seriously ridiculous God.

I've said this so many times lately, but I didn't know it was possible to love God this much. It is so permeating, so indescribable. At church we've been studying the book of Hosea. It's one of my absolute favorite stories!! God's love and grace are certainly manifested in that book. Today my pastor was talking about God's fatherly relationship toward Israel; how in the beginning when the nation was young and weak, God stood behind her and led her by the hands as she took her first wobbly steps out of bondage. But as she grew, she bacame more independent, more self-seeking. She turned to other gods for help. But all the while her father was standing with open arms and unhesitating grace, waiting for the day she would see her great need for Him.

So often we keep the lessons of the past hidden in the past, but this story is mine, too. The Lord has always been present in my life. He saved my family when I was five and has had His hand on me. But I became too independent. I didn't think God could love me, even though I'd seen it from my earliest days. But I was too weak to walk on my own. He came to me as I was broken and fallen. He lifted my shamed face out of the dirt. He picked me up into His loving arms. He taught me how to walk again. He showered me in undeserved love. He rejoiced over me, as insignificant as I am. And my heart had never known such freedom. I'd been in bondage to other masters. The Lord's love has set me free.

As I have seen all of this in recent weeks, I have fallen even more deeply and passionately and irrevocably in love with Jesus. Life hasn't been easy but His love carries me. Seeing His love and loving Him back is unlike anything I've ever experienced. I am in awe of His glory and of my insignificance to the grand scheme of things. But I am here, now, and I have a call to live out. His love enables me to move forward as a young woman of God whose identity is found as a daughter of the Most High.