Dearest You,

Have you ever felt so alone that you just cried and cried...even though you knew you were wallowing in self-pity?  Have you ever been felt so afraid that you feel caged up?  Or caught?  Or trapped?  Trapped in...bondage to...fear??  Whatever fear that may be for you? 

Jesus has something He wants to tell you and me today, (look at Romans 8:15 for the exact reference)

"For I did not give YOU a spirit of fear to be in bondage again, 

But I have given you the Spirit of ADOPTION by whom YOU cry out, "Daddy!  Daddy!"

Something my Dad told me is that God WOULDN'T tell me to do something that He WOULDN'T give me the EMPOWERMENT to do!!!  "How can I just go to Him and cry out, 'Daddy!"?, you may ask.  Well, you see, it's not you that does it.  It's the Holy Spirit inside of you...you just can't suppress the Holy Spirit down...

You see, my Dad also said something very profound, and that is, "What He requires of you, He has already given you."  This is something I'm still learning and growing in too, so don't feel like I'm preaching at you.  Actually, I need to hear this myself so I'm writing this to you all, hoping and praying that God works this truth in my own life and heart as well.

You see, let's start off with the Truth.  The reality.

If you trusted Jesus to save you from your sins, YOU ARE a Christian.  It's that simple.  It doesn't matter what you did, didn't do, will do, want to do, don't want to do, YOU ARE A SON OR DAUGHTER OF THE HIGH KING, and HE LOVES YOU AS HIS CHILD.

So, here's who you are:

SAVED from yourself, your past sins, the debt you could never pay up
LOVED by Him
ADOPTED into God's family
FREED from sin

GIVEN a Spirit of power, love, a sound mind, and adoption!  You NOW HAVE THE ABILITY to TRUST JESUS EVERY DAY!!!!!   And if the enemy tries to tell you, "Oh well, how do you think you can trust Jesus?  I mean, wouldn't that be in your own strength?  How can you just choose?"

Come back at the devil with THIS REALITY:

"Get BEHIND ME devil!  Because I KNOW that I am God's child!  And Jesus has, (according to Romans 8 and other verses!) ALREADY GIVEN ME a Spirit of adoption, HE'S ALREADY GIVEN ME FAITH, so THAT'S HOW I can CHOOSE to TRUST JESUS TODAY!  Because the Holy Spirit is INSIDE OF ME, and I HAVE THE ABILITY NOW to run to JESUS, to CLAIM TRUTH, TO FIGHT THE LIES, TO KNOW THAT THEY'RE LIES, and to STAND VICTORIOUS!!!"

Because...IT'S NOT ABOUT ME and my strength and ability, it's about the ABILITY and STRENGTH JESUS HAS GIVEN ME BY MAKING HIS HOME INSIDE OF ME.  Make sense?  

I don't NEED to be "STRONG ENOUGH" to COME to Jesus!   All I do is SURRENDER my heart to Him AGAIN (because if you're His child then you've already done it  at least once before!) and BELIEVE what my Savior is telling me, because I HAVE ALREADY BELIEVED HIM FOR MY SALVATION, 

WHY CAN'T I BELIEVE WHAT HE'S PROMISED ME FOR TODAY???

So dearest you, 

you that feels unworthy,

you that feels guilty,

you that feels hopeless,

you that feels FEELS FEELS !!!!

JESUS IS YOUR STRENGTH!  He IS your hope!  He doesn't ASK anything of you that He HASN'T ALREADY GIVEN YOU!  

And here's something else you must know.  You ready?  Here's reality, okay?  No feelings, no emotions knotted up with it, just hard core REALITY.

Because YOU ARE HIS CHILD, JESUS IS NEVER GOING TO STOP CHASING YOU.  So, you can do one of two things.

You can either do it the hard way and trust in your own feelings and emotions and make your learning experience a lot more prolonged,

Or you can admit that "Okay, yes Jesus, you got me.  You're right!  I'm yours."  And then He just picks you back  up and sets you back on the narrow road.  It's that simple.

He just wants your heart...that's it.  And it's never too late to give it back up to Him.  NEVER EVER.  

So dear you,

YOU CAN GO BOLDLY to the throne of God, not because you have this amazing ability to believe God, or because you have an amazing amount of faith, or because you tried and tried really hard and so then you earned a certain rank in the Christian walk and now you can go to Him,

NO!  You can go to Jesus RIGHT NOW because when God looks at you when you go to His throne, He doesn't see you any more!  He sees the ONE YOU ARE TRUSTING!  He sees the ONE THAT TOOK YOUR PLACE.

He sees THE ONE that loved you so much that He temporarily gave up His place as a Son of God, so that YOU COULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE GOD'S CHILD, TOO.

So don't you EVER EVER EVER let the devil tell you WHO YOU ARE, because He is a liar, and deceiver and destroyer and a BIG FAT PHONY!   He is afraid that if you truly come to the point of realizing YOUR IDENTITY in Christ, that you will KICK HIS BUTT!!!!
 

And it's true!!  Because when you come to that realization point, YOU WILL!

Dearest you,

You will.