Recently, I was asked this question, “Why do we still worry when we are not supposed to, because our God knows what will happen tomorrow or in the future and prepared everything for us?  But, we are just humans.  Or do we still lack faith?”

Hmmmmm … when impromptu questions come, it really makes me think deeper and see what is in my heart.  I avoid answering just for the sake of answering.  I also want to know and learn from what comes out from deep within me.

The very first thing that came to my mind was …. we really need to change the way we think about ourselves, who we are.  If we believe that because of our Father’s great love that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to save us, paid for all our sins by the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God, made us the righteousness of God in Christ, do we still think that we remain just mere men bound to be the same day in and day out?

He may have found us, received and accepted us just as we were, but I so believe that His will is never to keep us the same way He found us.  When Jesus paid the utmost price of going to the cross so that all that we have become His, and all that He has become ours, that alone is more than enough reason we can no longer see ourselves as the same when we believe and receive Him in our hearts.  Yes, we were once lost, but when we were found, He cleansed us and made us new creations in Christ, with a new heavenly identity and His divine nature deposited in us.  With this newness of life comes with our ability to see beyond the obvious and see ourselves just as He created us to be.

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished.  Behold, everything is fresh and new.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT)

With the finished work of Jesus Christ, how then can we see ourselves as “mere” men?  This is what the Word of God says about us, “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 NIV)  Furthermore, His Word says, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” (Acts 10:15)  

What is value?  It is the worth of something compared to the price paid or asked for it.   It is the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.

When the price that Jesus paid for you and me, His life that we may have and enjoy life and have it more abundantly, don’t you think this is one inexhaustible reason for us to see ourselves valuable before His very eyes?

“Look at all the birds—do you think they worry about their existence? They don’t plant or reap or store up food, yet your heavenly Father provides them each with food. Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they?”  (Matthew 6:26 TPT)

When I was meditating Psalm 139:1-18 TPT, oh how His Word melted my heart, and I pray that it will do the same to you, too.   When we know our worth by the price that He paid, it settles the opposing opinions of the world, of the enemy and even our own, that fight its place in our minds.  His Word is to be the final authority in our lives and let  every thing else be subject to it.

1 LORD, YOU know everything there is to know about me.
² YOU perceive every movement of my heart and soul,
and YOU understand my every thought before it even enters my mind.
^3–4 YOU are so intimately aware of me, Lord.
YOU read my heart like an open book
and YOU know all the words I’m about to speak
before I even start a sentence!
YOU know every step I will take before my journey even begins.
⁵ YOU’VE gone into my future to prepare the way,
and in kindness YOU follow behind me
to spare me from the harm of my past.
With YOUR hand of love upon my life,
you impart a blessing to me.
⁶ This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible!
YOUR understanding of me brings me wonder and strength.
⁷ Where could I go from YOUR Spirit?
Where could I run and hide from your face?
⁸ If I go up to heaven, YOU’RE there!
If I go down to the realm of the dead, YOU’RE there too!
⁹ If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, YOU’RE there!
If I fly into the radiant sunset, YOU’RE there waiting!
¹⁰ Wherever I go, YOUR hand will guide me;
YOUR strength will empower me.
¹¹ It’s impossible to disappear from YOU
or to ask the darkness to hide me,
for YOUR presence is everywhere, bringing light into my night.
¹² There is no such thing as darkness with YOU.
The night, to YOU, is as bright as the day;
there’s no difference between the two.
¹³  YOU  formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside
and my intricate outside,
and wove them all together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I thank YOU, God, for making me so mysteriously complex!
Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking.
It simply amazes me to think about it!
How thoroughly YOU know me, Lord!
¹⁵ YOU even formed every bone in my body
when YOU created me in the secret place,
carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something.
¹⁶ YOU saw who YOU created me to be before I became me!
Before I’d ever seen the light of day,
the number of days YOU planned for me
were already recorded in YOUR book.
^17–18 Every single moment YOU are thinking of me!
How precious and wonderful to consider
that YOU cherish me constantly in YOUR every thought!
O God, YOUR desires toward me are more
than the grains of sand on every shore!
When I awake each morning, YOU’RE still with me.

This is how He values you and me.  This is how He made us to be, His peculiar and special people.  Our experiential knowledge of this truth surely will birth peace in our hearts.

The next question was … because we worry, do we still lack faith?  Hmmmm … for me, the focus here is not the smallness or the bigness of our faith, because He said, if we have faith as a mustard seed which is the smallest seed, we will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for us. (Matthew 17:20)  But I believe it is our lack of knowledge on the truth of the Word of God that needs to change.  We need to shift our focus from our faith to His Word.   Indeed, people perish due to lack of knowledge, rejection of knowledge and forgetting the knowledge of the Word of God.

Knowledge is power.  How much more if we have the knowledge of the Word of God where faith comes. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17

The more of God’s Word we hear and meditate, the more faith comes.  Therefore, we put our focus more on us spending time in the Word and our faith follows.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)

The Word of God is the will of God.  The Word of God is the thoughts and ways of God.  And faith only explores when the will of God is known.  Faith only explores what revelation reveals.  When the Holy Spirit breathes into the Word and becomes illumined in our hearts, that is when our faith is fueled.

When we have a concrete knowledge of Who the Lord our God is, how faithful to His promises He is, how full of love towards us He is, how He is with us always, how He heals, how He provides, how He restores, how He comforts, how He counsels, how His presence go with us, then it displaces our worries and anxieties and sets our hearts to rest.   When we know who we are before Him as the apple of His eye, His precious possession, the object of His affection,  His beloveds, His sons and daughters, peace settles in our hearts.

Ultimately, it is our intimate relationship with God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ through our fellowship with the Holy Spirit being kept alive by our revelation knowledge of the living Word of God is what keeps us still.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and KNOW that I AM GOD.”  It is our ever increasing intimate knowledge of Him that is of utmost necessity.   If we want grace and peace be multiplied to us, be intentional in KNOWING Him by the power of His Word.

“GRACE and PEACE be MULTIPLIED to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:2-4)

He wrote down His will so that He could accompany His Word with signs following.  When He says, “Peace be still!”, we be still and the peace of God in our hearts becomes the sign that He confirms His Word in our lives.  His Word becoming flesh in us. He is the Word. His very Being as the Prince of Peace sits on the throne of our hearts revered as our Lord and His presence is what causes us to have peace that surpasses understanding.

Regardless of the evidences of opposition around us, we are moving forward to see the manifestation of His Word coming to pass in our lives confirming that the Lord our God is ALIVE and He is alive IN US.

 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You for opening my eyes to see myself of great value because of Who You have given me, nothing less than Your only Beloved and Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the utmost price of my salvation, redemption, restoration, preservation and justification.  Thank You, Jesus, that You did not withhold Yourself from going to the cross but fully obedient to the Father for the joy that was before You, seeing me coming into the intimate chambers of Your presence, You endured everything. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for revealing to me the truth of who I really am, how valuable I am, how greatly loved, blessed and favored I am.  Thank You for pouring into my heart the perfect love of God that casts out all my fears away and replaces them with righteousness, joy and peace in Your presence.  Amen!