"God knows your pain, He knows your hurt, He knows your struggles. He knows all about you and He loves you anyways." Jamie Ivey
Hey there!
Welcome to part two of the quote series. If you don't know who Jamie Ivey is that's okay I didn't either until I finally became accustomed to her voice greeting me every time I entered my mom's car. This is because she has a podcast, The Happy Hour, that my mom listens to faithfully in order to entertain her throughout her commute. As well as having a podcast she speaks at various conventions throughout the year.
This quote unlocked something that I had pushed deep down inside of me and opened me up just a little bit more. For years I tried to hide parts of my life from God. This obviously doesn't work considering He sees everything. But part of me just chose to ignore that, and I continued to pretend God didn't know I was living in sin.
Since I was surrounded by sin all the time I didn't believe God could truly love me. For us humans, it wouldn't be possible to love someone who surrounds themselves with something you can't stand the sight of. God's love is more powerful than that. Yes, he hates the sin, but that doesn't mean he hates you for sinning.
God saw that every time I looked in the mirror I physically winced, He saw that I struggled with comparing my size to the hundreds of other girls. He saw everything that I was doing to try to satisfy and fulfill what I thought would make me beautiful, even though He made me and I was beautiful in his eyes. He saw all of this, but he loved me anyway. He pursued me anyway.
He sees you crying because you don't feel good enough. He hears you using His name to curse one of his sons or daughters. He hears the words you use against your "friend" when they're not there. He knows your desires. He knows your thoughts. He knows that even though you say you believe in Him that you have doubts. None of this changes the fact that He loves you.
You could run as far from God as possible. Wrap yourself in every sin that you can think of. Disobey his every command. Tell other people Christianity is fake. You can hide under all of this mess that you've created and yell at God asking Him, "Do you really love this, I have done every single thing you hate, and you still want to say you love me?" You may think you've got him, there's no way he still loves you, but in reality, his answer would still be yes. Nothing you can do would stop him from loving you.
I have trouble wrapping my mind around that. It doesn't matter to him that I messed up, nothing can undo the cross. What matters to him is how I ask him to forgive me. How I make an effort every day to not fall back into the same sin. How I lean on Him to prevent relapse. He sees every mistake and continues to show me endless support an love.
He could have a world where sin didn't exist. Where His creation was perfect and loved Him enough to not fall short. He chose to have us so that we would choose Him. He loved us so that we could love him. He forgave us so that we would want him. So that we would want, to choose him. Not out of obligation because we're perfect. But out of love that reflects his own for us.
This week I pray that you stop hiding from God. He already knows your pain, he knows your struggles, and he still chooses you over and over. There is no sin that could separate us from His love. So confess and allow him to change your heart. Love God enough to choose him over whatever sin you're surrounding yourself in.
Praying,
Addison Wimbish
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