Isaiah 44:2a (CEV) “I am your Creator, You were in my care even before you were born.”

Some books never get old.  The church we are visiting is offering families the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.  It’s updated in that you can scan a barcode using your Iphone on each chapter and see a small video that emphasizes the chapter.  Cool beans!  Technology is so amazing!

Honestly, I believe the truths of God are so complex to our minds that we read them like a long sappy Hallmark card and say, “Awwww that was sweet”, and then we move on.  We never REALLY apply it or believe it for ourselves.  We say it on Sunday in worship but Monday comes and we feel defeated from a situation or thought.  We might even think the Bible is just that – sentiment, a positive self-help book instead of truth.

Stop and really think about YOU existing in the mind of God BEFORE you were born.  The book shares: “Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God.”   God wanted YOU and created YOU. Why?  So you can be in a relationship with Him.  He created you to be loved by Him.  God IS love. He commands us to share His love with others.  It’s really that simple, yet hard. 

It’s hard because the world enters in and mankind tells you different.  Some of us know the pain of being told you were a mistake, or accident.  Or, maybe it wasn’t said to you but their actions implied that you were in the way and a bother.  I work with girls who try very hard to feel significant for the opposite sex and do everything to gain that acceptance only to be left alone or rejected.  I remember a horrible relationship I was in as a teenager.  This person said that if I left him no one would ever love me, and He listed all the reasons why no one would want to love me.  His words  profoundly impacted me as a teenager, and it manifested in negative coping skills on my part. I lost sight of God’s love for me and His plan.   These words and situations collect in your mind unknowingly and over time you accept them as truth. It must be so. God’s grace and mercy in our lives restores us over time as we acknowledge His truth.  Let me just say that short sentence is an understatement of His Work.  That’s another story for another day!  It takes courage to bring these things into the light and deal with them by applying God’s Word consistently.

How does knowing this TRUTH help us in day-to-day?  If we truly believed this with all our being then life’s ups and downs and trials would be wrapped in the knowledge that if God conceived me in His mind before I was born, He obviously has a plan for me.  I can trust Him.  The other truth would logically be if anything speaks against His truth, then it’s false and I should not accept it into my mind or heart.  YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT.  YOU ARE HERE FOR A PURPOSE.  NEVER LET ANYONE TELL YOU  THAT YOU ARE NOT LOVEABLE!

If you’ve ever given birth, or visited someone in the hospital after their child entered the world – Go there in your mind.  But, instead of thinking of that event transfer the image of you being conceived in the mind of God, and He has the biggest smile!  He is overjoyed, knows exactly what He wants you to accomplish, and creates every cell of your body into this masterpiece. You belong to Him, and He brings forth this life – YOU – destination Earth.

Rick Warren includes this poem in Chapter 2:

• ” The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me…”
• “You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.”
• “You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe.  Every day was recorded in your Book!” (DID YOU THINK ABOUT GOD KEEPING A DIARY ON YOU?)
• “From one man he made every nation…and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
• “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love.”
• “God decided to give us life through the word of truth so we might be the most important of all the things he made.”
• “God formed the earth….He did not create it to be empty but formed it to be inhabited.”
• “God is love.”
• “I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth.  Even when you are old, I will be the same.  Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you.  I made you and will take care of you.”
• “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us.”