Today's "Grace Inspirations" by Joseph Prince is an excellent encouragement for beginning this new year!
YOU MATTER TO GOD!
John 10:3 …he calls his own sheep by name…
Do you sometimes feel like you are just a face in a crowd or a number
in a system? You are identified by your social security number. Even when you
see the doctor, you are called by your queue number. If you feel depersonalized
and dehumanized, that is exactly how the devil wants you to feel — that you do
not matter much to anyone, especially to God.
But you do matter to God! He calls you by name. He knows exactly what
you are going through and where you are hurting. He sees you and cares for you,
just as He cared for the people when He first walked on earth.
My friend, He will do for you what He did for the woman in Samaria. The
Bible says that “He needed to go through Samaria” to get from Judea to Galilee.
(John 4:4) Now, any Jew of His day would have taken a different and longer
route to avoid going through Samaria because they hated the Samaritans, though
the way through Samaria would take much less time. But Jesus deliberately took
the shorter, avoided route, just so He could stop by Samaria to speak to the
woman who had been searching for something in her life to satisfy her.
This woman had had five husbands and the man she was living with was
not her husband. Clearly, things had not been going right in her life. She was
probably looking for answers and fulfillment, and must have felt ashamed about
her failed marriages and current lifestyle.
Yet, in spite of all this, she mattered to Jesus! He needed to go to
her to minister to her. And indeed, after she met Jesus, the perfect Man, she
was transformed. She was no longer ashamed, and went into the city to tell the
people about Him. (John 4:28–29)
Beloved, Jesus wants to meet you wherever you are at in life and
minister His grace to you. You certainly matter to Him. He came to give you
life and life more abundantly. (John 10:10) You are not just a face in a crowd
or a number. No, He knows you by name and has a personal love for you. And in
spite of the mess that you might be in, He wants to meet your every need and
make your life beautiful!
Thought For The Day: You do matter to God! He knows what you are going through and wants to
meet your every need.
John 10:10 (above) is even more powerful from the Amplified Bible!
10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
Meditating on that this verse by speaking it to ourselves, we can say it backwards, like this: ONLY the thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy! We know that the thief ONLY comes to do those things, no matter how prettily he tries to dress it up, but if we assure ourselves that ONLY the thief does those things, and NEVER God, then we will not fall for one of the enemies most used tactics against believers who do not know the Word of God! If he can convince believers that God is bringing evil things on us in order to teach us something, then we will be chained to those evil things! NO, God does NOT bring evil things! He teaches us by His Word! He will teach us IN every situation in which we present ourselves teachable to Him, but He does NOT need the enemies tools to teach! Meditate on this TRUTH until it is SO real to you that you will never entertain that vicious, pitiful and abhorrent lie again! Then you will begin to walk in a measure of Divine health and healing that you only ever dreamed of before! AMEN! After all, He IS Jehovah Rapha, the GOD WHO HEALS YOU! AMEN! Here is Hillsong UNITED with "Say The Word":
Shalom in Him!
