A child of God

I am a child of God. 

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children." -Romans 8:16 (NIV)

"God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children." -Romans 8:16 (The Message)

Wow. What a beautiful picture. God as our Father. One of the definitions for "father" that I looked up on dictionary.com defined it as "paternal protector or provider". 

God is our protector. He watches over us. He never punishes us, but instead he allows things to happen to us for the betterment of our own selves. Sometimes thats hard to see and hard to understand, but its the truth. He loves us so much, and he would never let something happen to us that didn't need to happen. A lot of times we choose what happens to us. Sometimes I think that we have complete control over what harms us. I'm guilty of making things a bigger deal than they really are, are you? If we just commit ourselves to the will of Christ then he will be faithful and just. God has complete control over what happens to us-- but above that, he is our protector. Just like my earthly Daddy had a gun safe full of guns and urges me to get my handgun license and gives me a can of pepper spray for when he can't be there to protect me, God does the same. He gives me heavenly weapons. He gives me the Holy Spirit.

God is my provider. He provides. When you are at the bottom of the barrel, you don't know how you're going to buy your ramen and juice and still have enough money to drive home that weekend...he's there, he knows. So many times he has provided for me. Through other people listening to his voice, through my parents deciding to just randomly put money extra in my account when I needed it the most. Let me tell you -- my God provides. When I'm in need. No matter the type of need...he provides. Just like my earthly Daddy provides us with food and shelter, God provides us spiritual food and shelter --and sometimes earthly food and shelter as well.

Children of God. Think about that. You know that love between a mother and her child that people always talk about. How the love you have for your child you can never explain unless you just have your own kid and experience it? Well...we are all his children. He loves every one of us with that passionate, overwhelming love. He takes care of us. But most of all...I know I already said it...He loves us. So much. Like a parent and its child. Creator caring for the created. It only makes sense. Its the most beautiful analogy. I am God's daughter. :)

John Marc Mcmillan - How He loves

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.


We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way

An introduction

You're beautiful. A beautiful mess. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Your God loves you more than anyone you can think of right now. More than your own mother. I know...that one's hard to understand or accept, but its the truth. He loves the crap out of you. Every fault, every hair on your head. He knows it all and he loves you anyway. Completely. He knows you better than you know yourself. Here's a kicker: he knows the desires of your heart, even the icky slimy ones. But if you ask, he can forget it all in a heartbeat. Every mess you've made, ever thing you regret. If you give him a life of service and worship, he is faithful and just to forgive you and make you a new person. Trust me, the Bible says so, and I know it from my own personal experience.  If you're interested, let me know and I'll be glad to share with you. If not, that's fine too.

Anyway, I would like to share my purpose and motivation for starting this blog. First of all, I have searched near and far for a college devotional, and could not find one. I find this extremely depressing considering that college is the time in your life that defines you. Its the time you make the decisions that will effect your life forever. Its the time where you figure out who you are without your parents. Who you can be on your own. As a person in that step of my life right now, I can't tell you what its going to be like afterwards. Ask your mom or dad if you wanna know that. But I can tell you that as a college student I struggle with things. Especially insecurities. You see, this world expects so much from us. We have to be smart, funny, skinny...you name it...we expect ourselves to be perfect, and we're not. Thats the beauty in Christianity and in Jesus. We aren't perfect, and thats what makes us beautiful. But because of these high and sometimes unreasonable expectations the world places on us, we lose sight of who we are in the most pivotal moment--which is now. Right now when we are shaping who we are, we have no instruction, no outlet, no example....only expectations placed upon us. So we develop insecurities. And I know that first hand. 

So I have set out to write this blog to encourage myself and anyone who desires to read of who I really am. Who I am in Christ. Because to be honest, I am still searching. There are times I don't even want to be me and I want to change everything about myself, and I don't want those times to exist anymore. I want to find who I am and roll with it. I want to get closer to Christ and be more like him. So I'm going to turn to my bible and some resources from a former counselor to share with you who the bible says we are. What could matter more than that? I want to be who Jesus wants me to be, don't you? I want to be comfortable with myself. Not only comfortable--proud. 

In each post I plan to give a statement about who we are, a corresponding scripture, some song lyrics that are relevant to the topic or perhaps just on my heart, a picture, and my thoughts. I hope you enjoy. :)