Psalm 139:13-18 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”
This is a powerful Psalm with awesome truths in it. It is a reminder that God is the one who not only created us but loves us, being intimately acquainted with all our ways (read all of Psalm 139). It is a sober and hauntingly beautiful reminder of the sanctity of life and the horror of abortion which is the murder of a life God is knitting together inside the womb. Life is incredibly precious, and God’s thoughts towards us are also precious. He has a plan and purpose for our lives, and He knows every thought, every deed, every act, every day of our lives before it even comes to pass. His love for us is unfathomable.
Unfortunately, not many truly know or are able to receive at the heart level the love of God. Some have never heard of His love; others only know of His love in their heads, but it has never penetrated their hearts and isn’t filling their lives and flowing out to others. I want to talk about why that is in this post and pray you will be able to receive His unchanging, everlasting, amazing love!
The Bible is clear that we have an enemy called Satan who Jesus said in John 8:44 that: “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Jesus also said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
All of us have been wounded and are wounded in life. Some of us have been wounded more traumatically or dramatically than others, but all of us have been wounded by events, by words that have been spoken to us and just the consequences we experience in living in a fallen world. Satan uses all these things to speak lies that many of us have received or believed. Some of these lies we may be aware of, but other lies have been so subtle we don’t really recognize them or are blind (or have blinded ourselves) to them. Some lies go deep and have been embedded in us for a long time. Some of these lies have crippled us, paralyzed us and prevented us from knowing God’s love, grace and mercy and also from living in the fullness of life Jesus came and died that we might have. Some of these lies explain (don’t justify) but explain why we are or do some of the things we do.
I want to encourage you to take some time and ask God to reveal these lies that have been spoken over your life or that you have believed and received. These lies are so numerous it would be impossible in an article to list, but some of the most common ones are “Your life is worthless.” “God couldn’t love you or forgive you or help you.” “You are a failure.” “You are stupid.” “You have to be perfect for God to accept you.” “No one loves you and you will always be rejected.”
All of these lies are aimed at twisting the truth of God’s word and heart toward us. They are all aimed at cutting off or preventing us from drawing close and coming to know and walk closely with Christ in a real friendship and fellowship. They are aimed at blinding us to the heart of our Heavenly Father.
Things that have happened to us in our childhood, whether through mistakes or abuse or neglect of our parents, Satan uses to distort our view regarding God. For example, if your father was absent, you may “feel” God is distant and struggle with knowing His nearness. If your mother was angry and abusive, you may have trouble feeling safe in coming to God. If your parents did not show you the patient heart of God, you may feel extremely anxious when you blow it or sin and think God is constantly angry with you. If your parents (or a teacher, coach, boss) were too strict, demanding and pushed you too hard to perform, you may have a hard time resting in God’s grace and acceptance of you, simply for being a child of His.
And even if you had good and godly parents, and didn’t have any real traumatic experiences growing up or seemingly traumatic events in your life, that doesn’t mean the enemy hasn’t used things in a more subtle way to traumatize or paralyze your soul. He is constantly sending “fiery darts” aimed at destroying our faith in God, trust in God and view of God. These darts can come through any set of circumstances (not just people) from losing a job, to a career ending injury, to the death of a loved one, to a break-up in a relationship, to words spoken to you or about you behind your back. Proverbs 12:18 says: “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
God does not want us to walk around and live our lives never being healed of wounds. We have been wounded and will be wounded, but He desires to heal and bind up the brokenhearted. Jesus one time during His earthly ministry quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2 in regard to His mission and real heart of His ministry as Messiah: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This can only happen if and as we come to Him in faith and open up our hearts, allowing Him to touch us and heal us in those areas. This requires tremendous trust, humility and honesty. Wounds being healed are incredibly sensitive, and it can actually be painful to go through the process of having those wounds healed. But if they are not healed, they only get worse and more debilitating as time goes on. Those wounds release poisonous toxins that pervade every part of our being. They cause bitter roots to grow up in us and Hebrews 12:15-16 says: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile (poison) many.” This bitterness (anger turned inward) comes from not forgiving those who have hurt us and giving that pain, those people and those situations over to God for Him to deal with. In fact, we even become angry and bitter, offended, disappointed and disillusioned with God! This pushes us and drives us away from Him, but He is the only one who can truly heal us and help us! And He loves us! He is a Good Father! A gracious Father! And we are safe and secure in Him and when we come to Him! In fact, Psalm 18:2-3 says: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”
And listen…He does care. It may not always feel like it. It may not seem like it. And some people may say “If God cares, then why and how could He allow what happened to me to happen?” But Psalm 10:14 says: “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.”
If you commit yourself and those situations to the Lord (trusting in Him), you will see how much He cares about you and you will know His care for you! But many of us are like my one daughter who is constantly pushing us away in trying to help her with certain things that we know she needs our help in and can’t do or handle on her own. However, in patience we step back (most of the time!) and let her “fail” so that she gets to the end of herself and sees she does need our help. God will not force Himself and His help on you. He will wait for you to humble yourself or be humbled until gently picking you back up and helping you. How much distress and struggle could be saved if we just came to Him right away!
And again He is there and He is near and He does care! He has not forsaken, forgotten or abandoned you! Isaiah 49:14-16 says: “But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
It is Satan—the father of all lies—who tries to convince you that God does not see, that God does not hear, that God does not know, that God does not care!
But this is where you and I must choose to believe and do what Ephesians 6:16-17 tells us to do: “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” The only way to keep the “flaming arrows” of the evil one from penetrating is to take up the shield of faith (that is, trust God and have faith in Him and His Word).
But what I want to gently encourage to call your attention to are the arrows that have penetrated and the wounds that presently exist that have never been healed. Can you see any in your life? I want to encourage you to bring those to God along with all the pain, anger and bitterness. I want to encourage you to come to Him and trust Him. It is when you open up and trust Him that healing comes and everything begins to change!
God knows everything about you. He created you. He loves you. Christ died for you. And know He wants you to trust Him. He wants to heal you. He wants to help you. He wants to deliver you and set you free. He wants you to know Him and to receive His love for you. He wants to make you whole.
1 John 4:15-20 “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.”
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Let the Spirit of Christ minister to your heart and your soul, awakening your spirit to His love and bringing you into a fullness of life you never knew before!
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Ben Foley 