Valued and Consumed

Story Will Explain Picture
(Can you see the trees behind the pines,
they are slightly pink from the spring buds!
Yippee! Hooray! Spring is here!)

I haven't read anything in Sacred Rhythms for a few days because my take-out from the last reading is still nourishing. Being intentional. Keenly aware each day of the Presence of God, His agenda, listening to my thoughts and bringing them to the Lord to filter, reveal, re-interpret, or question. Each day as I read scripture I attune myself to a word or phrase that "pops", somedays it whispers! Today John 20:27 popped. For starters, it jumped at me because it's suppose to be 80 degrees today. It's very warm already. Doing my outside chores this morning, the birds and their songs could not be missed. Geese flying overhead, a hawk squawking in the neighbor's woods, Woodpeckers pecking, Chickadees, Cardinals, Finches galore, and my own chickens, guineas, ducks, and roosters. It's no wonder this verse jumped at me this morning. The heart of the pop was not the section about the fowl of the air, but what the Lord said about me..."Are you not of more value than they?" For the Lord to say this to us, do we not end up like a melted ice cube? We are valued! I am valued. (My mind says stop! Don't start giving disclaimers of why I'm not valuable. If I do that, I'm calling Him a liar!) I'm valued. I'm of value. I'm valuable. God thinks I'm valuable. He finds worth in me. He brought all the pieces, times, and circumstances together and handed me His greatest gift--Himself. Then He filled me with Himself, the Holy Spirit, and He's closer than any cell in my body. It's too wonderful. It's too much. I can't take it in. I am consumed.

Are you ready for this? I picked up "My Utmost..." and this is at the end of the reading for today:

"The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him."

This speaks volumes to me. For a person who struggles with perfectionism and performance issues, I am constantly weighing the consequences and circumstances knowing full well, there is LOTS of room for failure. Hence, I don't surrender. I'm learning that surrender isn't something that requires work...it is a natural progression when being consumed by Him. How freeing is that? It's not another mark on the Christianity Check List of being a true believer. It just is! Doesn't it all fall into place when He says, "Seek Me first...?"

Today, I like this transformation journey; because He has said to me, Juanita, you are valuable to Me. I have to say, those words would melt the biggest iceberg, glacier, or polar ice cap.