Welcome back LE Family!
I hope you have been enjoying this blog series ‘The significant 12’.
If you haven’t already please read ‘The Love Embrace’- Delivered (Part 1) before this one, as it will pull all things together and make so much more sense.
This month I will be showing you how God’s love and desire to heal the wounded worked for me personally in 2022.
We will look at how God truly took the broken parts of my soul and made me whole!
-The Key Scripture-
This leads us nicely into this month’s scriptures: Psalms 147-3
– The Perception –
So it’s May, and here I am sitting in what’s supposed to be freedom, but not truly walking in the wholeness of who I am.
‘If I’m free why is my thinking still distorted’?
‘Why am I not seeing myself through the eyes of God as beautiful and lovely’?
We all know the following Psalm I hope:
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
(Psalm 139:14)
I quote it! I shout it! I snap my fingers and cock my head declaring it! But do I truly believe it…….do you truly believe it?
Well the truth is we are fearfully and wonderfully made, we are made in the image of God. However, our perception of ourselves can be very much altered by the things we experience, how people have treated us, and the negative things that people have said about us. And in all honesty, the things people might still be saying to us out of their own insecurities.
The world we live in is image-based, fast-paced, superficial, and outwardly focused.
Our finances, body image, status and lifestyle are governed by celebrities, the internet, cultural ideas of what specific groups (even churches) or individuals define as beautiful and the list goes on…..
The comments on our hair, our weight, our height, our makeup, features, to curly, to straight, too fat too thin, underdressed, overdressed, not enough, too much it’s endless, to say the least!
It can be so easy in the society we live in to forget that God made us unique, different and special.
During 2022 I realized that in all of my experiences of rejection, abandonment, feelings of hopelessness and influences of the world I had lost all sense of my beauty both inside and out.
I was no longer looking at myself as a whole person I had developed a pinpoint focus on the parts that I didn’t like very much.
Sadly for me, that was everything as all I saw when I looked in the mirror was my weight glaring back at me.
Nothing else existed just my weight!
The Enemy of this world was Winning!
At its worse my feelings about myself were that of depression, I would feel sad, and I would call myself horrible names.
How sad that we do this ourselves or that others think it’s ok to make unkind thoughtless remarks about us!
Let us not walk in this darkness as believers lets open our eyes to the truth of who God says we are, that we are made in the image of God!
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
(2 Corinthians 4:4)
-The Inner Healing-
One thing with God!
He is not boring and he loves to create….he is the creator of the universe ….and most importantly he created you and me!
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely
(Genesis 1:31)
So let me show you how my healing in creativity journey takes off.
My mentor presented me with paints, stickers, jewels and all fun arts and crafty bits. Alongside, a plain box with a scripture inside that was specifically picked out for me by God.
‘Now, this was not just any box, this was my box of how God viewed me she told me’.
I peeped inside the box and Inside were some jewels and a key scripture just for me!
How beautiful you are and how pleasing, my love, with your delights!
Songs of Solomon 7 vs 6
This scripture was so amazing to receive, as I never really viewed myself as beautiful with delights. I always felt like I was too much, that I had too many ideas, that I was a bit all over the place, a lot!
It was like a REVELATION!
God loves me and all my delights are pleasing to Him I realized, he actually made me this way to accomplish His purposes in me and through me.
He loved me inside and out!
So I decorate my box in my favourite colors, purples, and pinks.
My mentor told me to bring a picture to the session. I start looking at my picture and thinking about all the things that are amazing about myself and start to see the whole of me.
We then play a little game!
‘As you paint the box she says look at your picture, if you hear a negative thought pick up a card from the pile I have placed on the table’.
Every time I hear a harsh word I pick up a card, turn it over, and read OUT LOUD a beautiful scripture from God. Which literally focuses on key parts of my body or inner being.
They state how beautiful I am inside and out, and I can literally feel I am turning away any negative words that would come into my mind and replacing them with the truth of God’s words about me!
There are actually a lot of encouraging scriptures in the bible you know!
(Try Songs of Solomon for key scriptures’ on body image or Ephesians for the inner person)!
-The Results-
Well, what can I say? As a result of that exercise, God changed me deeply. I felt a deep sense of freedom as a result of those few hours with God, and as result, I have a box that I can keep forever and use whenever the enemy tries to bring his little box of tricks out (which of course he still does on occasion).
There is no room for the lies and the negativity that once tried to keep me in bondage!
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
(2 Corinthians 10:5)
Today I can post my picture which is a happy heart (and I don’t need any likes)!
Today I can tell you, God has healed me from the inside! and I can look and post this picture and truly embrace every part of me as a whole, a beautiful woman, who is fearfully and wonderfully made! I view myself with the same eyes as God, and I am whole.
DELIVERED, HEALED AND WHOLE!
Listen to this amazing song-Broken People-Israel & New Breed (Featuring DOE)
– Reflection and Meditation –
Now is the time when you can sit and reflect on what you have read from my testimony, the scriptures and what God is directly saying to you.
As you see, God’s heart truly does explode for us and he loves broken people like you and me. It is in His loving embrace that we are delivered, healed and made whole.
Ask yourself and God:
Are there parts of me that are weeping and need nursing by God?
Do I have a safe space where I can be listened to and get support?
What do I need to do next?
Personal Prayer:
Speak to God-tell him how you feel, ask him for what you need right now and ask him to provide it- whatever is in your heart to say, say it, God is all ears!
Reach Out:
Speak to a trusted friend or counsellor as well as reach out to your local church.
-Praise & Worship-
Listen to this amazing song- God’s Heart Explodes | Lucy Grimble worship | Music video
Below is a picture of my incomplete creative work that encapsulates the year and is based on two key scriptures; Joshua 3- Crossing the Jordan River the second being John 4-Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
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