What I Want to Show You (in Your Story)
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Daughter, you can listen for Me. You can seek for Me. And you’ll find Me, right here.
I am right here.
You can work hard to find Me, search pages in your Bible, soak up my truth, study Scripture and memorize passages until you know them by heart. But I want you to know Me by heart, my love. I want you to know that the women and men in the Bible, my daughters and sons, were my children whom I loved and pursued and wanted to be with, just like I do you. They are not unfamiliar to you. Their stories, their mistakes, their trials, are yours, too. And that is why I wrote them down. For I want you to see Me and where I was and where I am and be encouraged.
But there are pages being written now, my love, pages of story with you as the protagonist. You are the center of the story I am writing with you. And you get to decide, so much, of what happens. You get to work with Me in the shaping of your story, the rise and fall of the details of your life.
No, you don’t have control over it all. No, you can’t change the setting sometimes, or the other characters with whom you interact. For sometimes I bring those people in and these events into your life, for you to see Me more, love Me and pour Me out a bit more. But you do choose how to enter into your story, or how to dismiss opportunities I bring, reject people you could love. You have a say in what you do within the story. You have a say in whom you love and whom you don’t love, in where you go and what you do with your time.
Oh, your story, my love . . . Do you see it written out? Do you see my fingerprints upon the page? I love looking at it, all the good that has happened, all the places in you where I want to bring hope, all the places in you that still need healing, still need freedom. There are places in you where you still need to see where I was, how I loved you in each place of heartache, disappointment, and pain.
So, let Me show you the story of your life through my eyes. I have some new things to show you, some rises and falls you have not yet seen. And it’s good. I will show you the places where I come, with my presence and my hope and my love, to make it good.
Does this sound good? Let’s look, together, at your story.
|| More Resources For You ||
The Bible has changed me like no other book. You probably would say the same thing! Which is why reading plans can be so helpful, especially when we’re not sure which book of the Bible to read through next. If you haven’t already, I recommend downloading Rapt’s free 30-day Bible reading plan. Each day features a relevant passage to the week’s theme, along with questions and space to journal. (I recommend going through each day’s entry with a strong cup of tea or coffee, or maybe a few lit candles and your favorite pen … anything to help calm your mind and focus on what God is saying to you.)
“Love is not authentic—love is not love—when it is not pure. And I am what is pure. And love is pure when it is given from Me.” This snippet from FLAG No. 66 teaches me that I can’t love sincerely and authentically apart from Jesus, no matter how hard I try. I can serve and give and try to please people all day long, but if it’s not flowing from a heart that’s resting in God’s unconditional love (which is full of mercy and grace), then it isn’t as true and pure as it could be. As it should be. This isn’t a condemnation; it’s a call, an invitation to something that is within our reach. Because Jesus is never far from us. Amen? How can you release control today and allow Jesus to simply love you?
C.S. Lewis has a way of capturing the divine and human experience with imaginative, thought-provoking language that I can’t help but appreciate. Like when he wrote, “Actually, it seems to me that one can hardly say anything either bad enough or good enough about life.” It’s true—the joys and miseries of life are too complex, too deeply felt, to accurately convey them with words. But God understands. He knows our beginning from our end. And sister, believe me when I say it’s a good thing He doesn’t show us everything all at once. Instead, He gives us strength for today as we entrust the future to Him, as this article reminds us.
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