You AREN'T a Mistake

   
    The Lord says, 'I will guide you along
    the best  pathway for your life. I will
    advise you and watch over you.'
    Psalms 32:8









You ARE NOT a mistake, you were handcrafted by God Himself. You ARE loved and you ARE special, regardless of what people say or how you're treated.

You deserve better than that.

God doesn't make junk. God doesn't make mistakes.

YOU are special.

Father, help us to to see ourselves through Your eyes instead of the image that we have in our minds based on what ppl say about us or how they've treated us. We are precious in Your sight. Help us to receive that identity in You and wear it. In Jesus’ name, amen.

God Has Not

God has not given us a spirit of fear and
timidity, but of power, love and a sound
mind. 2 Timothy 1:7










God hasn't given us a spirit of fear ... He's given us peace, strength and courage to face our enemies and defeat them.

Those who rest .... are trusting.

You DON'T have to run in fear any more.

Father God, replace our fears with peace by trusting in You and in Your ability to work through our circumstances to bring about right results. We need You now more than ever. Shoot, I need You now more than ever. Be close and let Your presence bring peace. May we enter rest through putting our trust in You. In Jesus' name, amen.


FYI - Picture is yesterday's sunset.

The Lord's Plans

The Lord’s plans stand firm forever;
His intentions can never be shaken.
Psalm 33:11




If God's said something about you, it doesn't matter what you're seeing right now ... if God said it, then IT IS.

God didn't bring you this far to leave you here, He has awesome things working on your behalf.

Father, thank You that Your love never fails, never gives up, and never runs out on us ... You're love is the ONE THING that will ALWAYS remain. May Your will be done in and through our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.

Peace and Rest on Every Side

Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with you, O God? You have allowed me to suffer much hardship and severe troubles, but You WILL restore me and revive my life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You WILL restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again. Psalm 71:19-21

The psalmist had seen 'great and severe troubles' (Ps. 71:20). Yet hovering in the back of his mind was the thought that God would 'revive' him again. The literal meaning of this phrase is 'bring him to life again.' He elaborated: 'You shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth [the grave]. You shall increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side' (vs 20-21). If the troubles didn’t end in this life, certainly in heaven they would.

This thought - that someday we shall be in God’s presence and enjoy Him forever - crowns many of the psalms and is an assurance that helps life’s present troubles fade away (see Ps. 16,17,49,73).

Perhaps no one but God knows the trouble you've seen, but this is not all that shall be. Someday, your Father will 'increase your greatness' - you will be clothed with unspeakable glory. There will be comfort 'on every side.' His presence and love will bring perfect peace and rest.

The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies. Joshua 21:44

Richard Baxter once wrote, 'O what a blessed day that will be when I shall stand on the shore and look back on the raging seas I have safely passed; when I shall review my pains and sorrows, my fears and tears, and possess the glory which was the end of all. When all my labors and trials are over, and I am safe on that beautiful shore, just to be near the dear Lord I adore will through the ages be glory for me.'

Father, I pray that You wipe our tears away and cause our sorrows to give way to comfort. Defeat our enemies, put them to shame. Draw us close to You and help us to depend on You. Give us peace and rest on every side. In Jesus' name, amen.

You CAN Trust the Father

My times are in Your hands ... Psalm 31:15






Throughout the Psalms, David acknowledges that he chose to put his life in the hands of the Lord. In the verse above, he was in essence saying, 'I trust You God, because I know You are good - my times are in Your hands.'

Are you willing to release every area of your life to the Father? Are you willing to trust Him with the times and seasons of your life? You may be in a situation right now that you don't fully understand, but take heart - God is a good God, and you CAN trust Him.



I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]. For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.] John 16:33

God is working behind the scenes on your behalf. If you'll keep your heart surrendered to Him, you'll begin to see things change in your favor. As you continue to trust Him, He'll open doors for you. He'll take what the enemy meant for evil in your life, and He'll turn it around for your good.

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. Genesis 50:20

Keep standing, keep believing, and trust Him. Your times are in His hands.

Prayer: Father, today I choose to trust You. I trust that You are working behind the scenes on my behalf. I trust You with my whole life - my times are in Your hands. Help me to stay close to You today so that I can hear Your voice. In Jesus' name, amen.



 see also: AFTA Blog - Trusting God
                AFTA Blog - Yep, We're Going Thru
                AFTA Blog - You Want Me to Do What?

Don't Self-Harm

I waited and waited and waited for God. At last He looked; finally He listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud.  He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. Psalm 40:1-3
 

DON'T hurt yourself in any way ... for any reason ... that's NOT the answer.

Being a Christian or committing yourself to someone doesn't give a person the right to treat you like a doormat. You don't owe that person anything. Commitment and relationships take TWO people working together.

You're a person with feelings. You count. And you are somebody. You're just as important as the person you're with. You deserve to have a good life and be happy.

STOP searching for ways to die, and START searching for ways to fight to live. Ending your life WOULD NOT be a good witness to those around you, DON'T do it. LIVE I say, LIVE in the name of Jesus.

No matter what problems you are struggling with, hurting yourself isn't the answer - JESUS CARES - call on Him.

God's NOT going to give up on us and there ISN’T so much bad that we've done in our past that He can’t forgive us, He CAN and He WILL. He cares for you and loves you, whether you are a Christian or not, whether you're male or female, whether you're gay or straight, whether you're black or white ... He simply LOVES YOU.

People can't always give us what we need, they can't always be who we need them to be ... BUT GOD. People aren't always equipped with love and care to give out, 'cause they never had it themselves.

Don’t you give up, honey. It may not always feel like it, but YOUR life matters. Don’t become a statistic … stats show that 3,000 people A DAY commit suicide and approximately 20% of young adults self-injure/self-mutilation or starve themselves to the point of anorexia :-( 

It's all about what YOU think about YOURSELF ... you ARE loved and you ARE special, regardless of what people say or how you're treated and those voices in your head that say no one cares and no one would miss you are LIES, stop listening to 'em. 

You matter to God. Take time out for yourself if you need to. Maybe let some things go. Things can wait. You MUST survive.

DON'T HURT YOURSELF ... put the knife, scissors, blade, pills, gun, etc DOWN. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT driving yourself into a tree or driving straight on a curve to end it all. DON'T starve yourself, thinking you have to be skin and bones to be attractive, because you don't ... you're beautiful just the way you are. Any emotional 'high' or release from harming yourself is only TEMPORARY. If you actually ended your life it would hurt a lot of people, whether you believe that to be true or not, including jeopardizing your own soul. Ask God to help you find others ways to release the emotions, feelings, anger, etc that you may be feeling ... including talking to someone you can trust to talking to God and laying it all at His feet. Whether other people understand you or love you or not, JESUS CHRIST does. There's no pit so deep that He can't reach in and lift you out.

JESUS IS THE ANSWER, to whatever you're going through and whatever you're feeling. Ignore thoughts of shame and embarrassment. Reach out to Him. Go to church. Call a neighbor. Call a friend. Send a text, tweet, or facebook it. Call a helpline (like the number in the above picture). Just REACH OUT ... and LIVE.

Father, touch Your people. Take away the urge to self-harm. Take away any 'charge' that might be received from it. Help us to relinquish that need for controlling our self since we can't control others or our life and give complete and total control to You. Quieten the voices of the enemy that tell us to do things to ourselves that will hurt us. Give us the hope, will and determination to live. You came to give us a full life. Lift the depression. Give wisdom regarding relationships. Give peace. Lift burdens. Remove the shame and feelings of unworthiness. Lord, show Yourself strong where we are weak, mighty where we are lacking. Meet the deep needs of our hearts, our Father and enable us to get through the difficulties we're facing by Your grace. Put godly people in our lives that we can talk to. Thanks for being our Friend and we can ALWAYS trust You. In Jesus' name, amen.







see also:  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK
                Suicidal Teens: Teen Depression and Teen Suicide
                Self-Injury Hotline 1-800-DONTCUT
                Do You Know Jesus?
                AFTA Blog - Do You Hate Yourself?
                AFTA Blog - Contemplating Suicide?
                AFTA Blog - Prescription for Depression
                AFTA Blog - You're Worth So Much More Than That
                AFTA Blog - Encourage Yourself in the Lord
                AFTA Blog - God HATES Abuse
                AFTA Blog - Don't Look Back, Enough is Enough!
               

The Unconditional Love of God

God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:9,10






One of the biggest struggles many people face is a feeling that the Lord couldn't possibly love them. Yet the Bible clearly tells us He does. Far from just saying so with words, God has also given us ample proof. Creation itself is an expression of His awesome care for us. He designed this earth as the perfect habitation for humanity and provides us with the necessities of life. But the highest expression of His love is manifested in His provision for our eternal needs. He sent His Son to redeem us from sin so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God - and then live with Him in heaven forever.

So why, with all this evidence, do so many of us still doubt His love? Perhaps the reason is that we are looking at it from our own limited perspective: since we can't love others unconditionally, we doubt that the Lord can. After all, human logic considers it reasonable to be loving towards people who measure up to our standards - but to hold ourselves aloof from those who don't.

We've been hurt way too many times and have had so many inappropriate role models that can't show love because they weren't shown love either. It's hard to feel safe to trust God enough to let our guard down and love Him.

Maybe we just feel unworthy of His love. Well, I have news for you: no one is worthy. God's love is not based on whether we're deserving or not. We don't have to earn His love, it's not by works. He already loves us, just the way we are, for God IS love.

Divine love is conditioned not on our performance but on God's nature. It's like the ocean's tide. You can stand on the shore and say, 'I don't believe in waves,' but that doesn't stop them from coming. Likewise, nothing you do or feel will stop the Father's love from washing over you.

Father, I pray that You wrap Your arms around us. Tell us how much You love us. Show us how much You love us. Help us to believe how much You love us. Help us to love You back. In Jesus' name, amen.