Mirror, Mirror....

Over the last few months, I've really been drawn to connect with God's presence, focusing on Him being right here with me and all around me and connecting heart-to-heart with Him. He's been teaching me about His goodness and what it REALLY means for me. Trust me, I'm still learning how to grasp the fullness of both of these concepts!

He's also been bringing me into a more intimate relationship with Him than I've ever known before. I know the various aspects of relationship we can have with Him - Savior, Lord, Master, Creator, Father, Friend, Husband, Lover, King of Kings and so much more, but I've been drawn into a love relationship with Him that's been sweeter and deeper than what I've experienced before, especially in the role of Husband and His unconditional, unwavering love. (I'm so very blessed to have a real life example in the form of Bri being my husband. He loves me like that and it's beautiful beyond words.) This has been the foundation for what I'm about to share.

The other night we attended an event, called Arise, at our church. At one point, the Aaronic blessing found in Numbers 6:24 was broken down for us, using the Hebrew definitions for bless and keep. With that in mind, the blessing was written out as, "Yaweh will kneel before you presenting gifts and will guard you with a hedge of protection, Yaweh will illuminate the wholeness of His being toward you bringing order and He will beautify you, Yahweh will lift up His wholeness of being and look upon you and He will set in place all you need to be whole and complete." We were encouraged to ask God what gift He wanted to give to us, draw it, and then ask Him, "How does this gift connect with who I am?"

Being completely vulnerable and honest, I haven't had the best of body images over the last couple of years as I gained back weight I've lost. It's really been a struggle and I derail myself when I make efforts. I really want to share about this because what God showed me and spoke to me extends WAY beyond body image to ALL of the wrong ways we EACH see ourselves. Body image is just MY baggage and the lies that I have allowed to be in my head.

Here's what God did. He gave me a hand mirror. When I looked in it, there was no reflection. Rather, there was the word, "TRUTH." I asked Him how this connected with who I am and this is what He said. "I offer you a true reflection of yourself - what you cannot see, even beyond what others see. A beauty that far surpasses what you've ever defined it as being because it's the reflection of who you are in me. It's the truth of the Creator to the created. The Love toward the beloved. It's truth."

I'm sharing this because I really believe that this is a message that the Lover of our souls wants to plant deeply in each of our hearts. We all have mirrors in various rooms of our homes or even as reflections shown in many types of glass that we find scattered here and there. We look in them any number of times throughout the day and we hear words about ourselves. Most often those words are lies that we believe about ourselves, our failings, our weaknesses, our mistakes. He wants to replace the lies we entertain about ourselves with His TRUTH. 

I pray that today you would be able to see His truth about you reflected back at you and that you would be able to embrace it with your whole being. Above all, know that His truth is that you are LOVED as you are. May you sense that more deeply today than you ever have before!

XOXOXOXO