BE ALL YOU CAN BE!

My name is Charlotte and I am writing to help us give our first thoughts to the Lord.

We have been talking this week about the will of God. When I looked in my concordance this morning what caught my eye is the fact that you and I have a will of our own and guess who gave it to us? our Heavenly Father. Now think about it. Why would He give us a will of our own? The answer could possibly be so that we could choose of our will to serve Him and choose His ways.

I always raised my children to be good adults. It wasn't that important that they be perfect kids, but to point them in childhood to being good adults. I wanted them to experience things in their life while I was around so that when I wasn't around, they would have a clue as to how to handle life.

When I was a child, my parents did it - everything - for me. As long as I was quiet and well mannered, they were happy, however, when I got out on my own, I didn't have a clue as to how life worked. I wanted more for my children.

God wants more for us - that is the reason He gave us free wills. He didn't want robots. He wanted free, word inspired, redeemed, smart people to make a choice to accept Him as their God and follow Him no matter where he leads or doesn't lead. He forces no one to serve Him or accept Him.

So many times when I have done things for God, I have been rejected. Especially if you are teaching the Word of God. The persecutions that come, the rejection makes it hard sometimes to continue. Many times I have run away or stopped doing what I was doing because I couldn't stand under the pressure.

Then the Lord reminded me that it was not me that was being rejected....it was Him....it was His Word.... That to me was even sadder than my being rejected because of what I stood for. How many people in this world reject God? How many don't want anything to do with Him? How many will not accept Him as their Saviour?

We can relate to that in the games children play. Remember when kids picked the ones they wanted to be on their team? I don't know about you but this little fat girl was never the first one chosen to be on a baseball team. It is sad but that is where self-esteem starts - not being the chosen one.

Can you imagine - if God had to have self-esteem - how rejected He must feel in this world we live in? How sad for this world because He is the Lord of love.

I was raised in 'hell and damnation.' At one point in my life I wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the church because of the 'hell and damnation' I was raised in. But, what got me was the love of God. How much He loved me and ACCEPTED ME JUST LIKE I AM. In Him, I found myself. He created me to be me - not someone else. He gave me a complete free will to do as I choose and in Him, I found who I am. Not the next door neighbor - not the beautiful people who I always felt inferior to, but me.....He loves me......good, bad, ugly, or indifferent.

Now some of you can't comprehend that and think that is a terrible saying, but I can tell you for a fact that the majority of the people in this world think they are unworthy.....that they are not good enough......that they are not beautiful enough....that they are not rich enough.....that their life style is too different...that they have made too many mistakes. God reaches down to where we are as we are and doesn't try to make us into something we are not. He takes the threads of our torn up lives and makes us A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS. It's not a second chance, it's a first chance....to be everything we can be.

What a choice to make!!!!!!!!

Well, for someone who didn't have anything to say, I have sure said a lot today. I love the Lord with all of my heart and my heart's desire this day is that you would love Him also.

Have a great weekend!

Charlotte