Happy FriYAY friends! Friday is my favorite day of the week because the atmosphere is light and relaxed, I mean what’s not to love about the start of the weekend. I am starting a new series called Faith Filled Fridays where I can chat with you about things God is revealing to me during the week. Earlier in the week I usually share some fashion tips or trends that I am loving so while you are looking good on the outside, on Fridays I want to focus on what’s happening on the inside.
Recently I have been working through a new study – The Answers to Your Deepest Longings: 40 Days Through the Bible. It is a resource from Proverbs 31 ministries that focuses on how Jesus fulfills particular longings we have as humans. I am currently on week 2 and plan to share more about it after a few weeks of diving into it and studying. One of the action items in the study this week was to read Psalms 139 and reflect on how it speaks to God’s role within our lives.
The way this chapter is written highlights on how intimately God made and knows us. Everything he does is with intention and purpose. When I reflected on that, it was a huge mindset shift. Verse 14 says – I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. Think about the most beautiful landscape you’ve ever seen: the mountains, a beach, maybe a sunset. God created that scenery and he also created you, so he knew what he was doing. To fully embrace his intent in your design is powerful and special.
I can quickly find myself negatively focusing on something that happened to me or wishing I could change something about my appearance but there is freedom in realizing all of it occurred for a reason. Now I know it is easy to say that after the fact but faith comes into play when you acknowledge his plan in the middle of the fire, before the dust settles. He has a plan and purpose for everything and I need to remember to lean on that during the highs AND lows. It is so easy to default to my own thinking or desire to have complete control over my situations. How many times has something not worked out the way you planned and you’ve gotten upset, maybe even cried, then months or years later said thank you Lord that happened or didn’t happen… the number is pretty high for how many times I’ve felt that way. A friend shared this perspective with me that I want to leave with you, to marinate on: when we focus on that one situation we are seeing the 2 second clip of our life while God knows the entire movie because he wrote, casted and is directing it with His design.
The Bible I am using here is a She Reads Truth Bible and the version is the Christian Standard Bible. The verse listed in the text above is from this version. Check out Psalms 139 for yourself and let me know what you think, did it spark purpose and intention in your life?
-Warmly, Emily
