Some days we need that reminder that God loves us.
Life! It is so fascinating.
The victories, the losses.
The ups, the downs.
The laughter, the tears.
One moment to the next, the sudden change that can come.
Positive moments, negative ones.
Our minds race, often away from the loving Father that He always is. We run to times of our own despair, disappointments, losses. We easily grasp the idea that God has stopped loving us. We lean toward thoughts of God not having the time to think about us in his busy day because we don’t believe we are important enough. Many ask if he is punishing them.
Yet, those thoughts of God are all incorrect.
God is love, always and forever!
There is not one moment that goes by that God doesn’t have you on his mind. And all of his thoughts about us are good, lovely, and pure. He will always love you even if you don’t love him for God is love!
I have had the privilege of sharing the following through the years. I start with Psalms 139: 15-18. I encourage you to read all of the chapter, but this portion I want to highlight.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
This little portion of scripture is packed with His love for us. God is always thinking of you, every single moment. If our minds could just grasp and remember this, our lives would be changed forever.
Every thought is precious! Precious means of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly. Stop and think about that meaning. All God’s thoughts are filled with your value. The value of your life is exceedingly great.
I know. We all do it at times in our lives. We discount our worth based on all the times we fail other or ourselves. However, God is looking at who he fashioned in the womb you were placed. He is looking at the gifts and talents he placed inside of you and the plans he desired for you before he ever said, ‘Let there be…”
God cherishes you and desires to bless you, keep you, protect you, and love you through it all!
The following intrigued me! This analogy of God’s amazing thoughts of each one of us in correlation with the sand on this planet led me to do some counting.
As I was digging into this scripture, I happened to be sitting at the beach. I brought some very fine sand home. I laid out a sheet of black paper with 1-inch grids and dropped a pinch of sand. I was going to count this beautiful white sand. I hope you have started to laugh! I am! I began to count and realized Google was going to save me time and agony!
It is said in a handful of medium sand, you would find approximately 400,000 grains. A handful of sand measures around a ¼ cup.
In one year of your life, you experience
24 hours every day
8760 hours every year
525,600 minutes a year
31,536,000 seconds a year
You would need just under 79 handfuls of sand to match up a grain of sand for every second of a year. 79 handfuls would be close to 20 cups of sand.
Go and stand on any beach or river bed and I can assure you more than 20 cups of sand surround you.
Now visualize all the oceans, shores, desserts, and rivers, there is quite a bit of sand on our earth. Even the Sahara Desert is larger than the continental United States.
God’s thought for you outnumber the grains of sand. No matter how long you live there is more sand on the planet in seconds than you can live. God doesn’t have time to ever think a negative thought towards us. Oh, how vast is the sum of those amazing thoughts, precious thoughts he has for each of us.
We tend to quickly turn to the many distracting moments in life. We ponder things that are bad, negative, disappointing, of bad report, and on and on. We stay too long there in the dark places without realizing that time spent dwelling is reshaping our thoughts of who God really is. We often blame God. We replay the wrong events, playing out scenarios to the bitter ending.
We need to take our thought captive! This is not just a religious cliché. We must choose to examine what exactly going on inside of us. What we are really thinking? How are we truly responding to any incoming news? Asking ourselves if our thoughts are the truth. Are these thought patterns leading us in the right direction? If it is not the truth, then we need to make those corrections and renew our minds.
It is a choice. I have had to make that choice. I can say it is a process which takes some time and discipline. This choice is pleasing to the Father and he will help you navigate the journey. It’s results are life changing bring such freedom.
Where we spend our time reflects the direction we are headed.
KNOW God loves you!
God loves you!
God loves you!
There is NOT ONE petal on the daisy that says, “He loves me not!”
He is for you! He desires us all to be whole, well, strong, happy, and joyful!
Just think one handful of sand represents 4 ½ days of precious and constant good thoughts God is thinking of you!
Pick up a handful the next time you are standing amidst some sand! Then imagine what all those precious thought are!
