Psalm 139:14
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
There is something special about summer. It’s engrained in us from the time we are children. The anxious anticipation of long, light filled days overflowing with bliss.
Even as working moms with more tasks than minutes in a day our spirits cling to the optimism. Summer days are better. The traffic lighter. People nicer. Smiles bigger. Bookbags, lunch boxes and homework assignments on hiatus for a couple sunny weeks while laughter flows freely. Stress levels ever present but their chronic whine in our minds dimmed.
We love a good summer vacation. Fortunately for us, God doesn’t take one.
The Bible tells us, God is the same always, over and over, forever, through the annals of time. Sometimes that can be intimidating when we are remembering the God as judge in the Old Testament or from our Bible lessons when we were young. When ineffective church teachers used fear of God and His power as a weapon to keep our little souls in line. The Jesus Loves Me brigade with a little too much emphasis on hell and damnation and not enough on forgiveness and love.
For those like me with birthdays that fall early in the year or with the beginning of Spring, we can be especially grateful that God wasn’t taking it easy that summer all those years ago as our parents came together and created the special beings we are. Psalms 139 continues in verses 15 – 18 and reads as follows:
Ps. 139:15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
Ps. 139:16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Ps. 139:17 How precious are your thoughts about me, oh God. They cannot be numbered.
Ps. 139:18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand and when I wake up you are still with me.
Summer is drawing to its conclusion for another year waiting to join us again next June. We will move faster; our anxiety levels will inch upward. We will long for the days behind us if we are not cautious and careful.
We gawp back instead of peering ahead.
We romanticize yesterday instead of valuing the moment we are in.
We search outward for satisfaction longing for something different when our gaze could be in the sky. We could look inside ourselves and find our whole.
Our days may change, but not our God.
As we prepare for Small Group this week, I have a request. We have been working on consciously contemplating and realizing the truth in all of God’s words in the Bible not just our own personal stronghold verses. Take our individual foundation verses and apply that same faith throughout God’s words to us individually.
Psalm 139:14
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
If we apply that thought process to Psalms 139:14 we are going to have to understand each of us are wonderful in our own way. We were each made with a purpose and by design. There is something special and awesome about and in each one of us.
God created us that way. With a purpose, by His design.
He didn’t take summer off; He made us to be something wonderful. If we allow ourselves to contemplate that truth we will know it very well. Our soul already knows. God placed that awareness within us. It’s society that tells us differently. It’s our own self-doubt that harms us inside.
This week, I want each of us to privately and confidently recognize for ourselves at least one thing that we believe God did wonderful in us.
I know you. I know there are many things. I can name many wonderful things about each one of you. My bet is we will all find it a lot harder to name those things in ourselves.
This week your responsibility, as a Small Group member, is to find at least one thing you know and believe is wonderful about you. What did God make wonderful in you.
When you know those things for yourself about yourself thank Him.
When you realize one of your wonderful things, think of more.
As you understand what is wonderful again for yourself remember them. Choose to believe in them. About yourself. For yourself.
As summer comes to a close make this year different. Keep the awareness of the wonderful inside you in gratefulness.
As the winter days approach be grateful we take time for summer, but our God does not change. He never takes a break from us; even when we take one from Him. He made each of us wonderful in our own way before we even knew Him. Before we could love Him back He loved us already. He made us wonderful.
Let’s start our new season grateful for the wonder that we are and filled with wonder for our God. Watch our world be wonder filled and different.
purelyjoyous living 