Amazed at His Grace

You saw me before I was born.

   Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

   before a single day had passed” (Psalm 139:16 NLT).

God dreamed you up before the world even met you.  He designed every combination of personality, what you would look like and what would make you smile.  The real you.

Then you entered the world, a family, an environment that was either nurturing or challenging, and thus began the story of your life.  We were all given different gifts during our childhood, and some people were robbed of their childhood and innocence much much too young.  That’s the real world.

Jesus entered this world to heal hearts that were broken and help us escape the prisons that entrapped us in lies that we were unlovable and not worth fixing.  Jesus always sees the real you.  The original dream.

Today I went to the Dream Center (in Phoenix, Arizona) I was asked to tell my love story to at least a hundred women that had been rescued from human trafficking.  You can imagine the heaviness of what these girls had been through as their dreams were lost. Yet, somehow there was an anointing for joy - we laughed and had fun, it felt like a massive sleepover party, (I know, you have to be a girl to understand this part) but the most amazing miracle took place.

As my love story unfolded, it clearly became everything about redeeming love.  Jesus paid the price for me, he bought me back, and He makes me feel safe, important and beautiful.  And nobody is exempt from receiving that love.  The presence of God became so noticeable…the peace, the reality of His love and the power of His forgiveness.   I wish you could have seen the faces of these girls as they received God’s point of view – how He sees them.  So glistening-clean, so gloriously-free, oh-so-beautiful! Most of us had tears…

I prayed with many girls individually for a few hours, and got home and was super-hungry, yet super full of hope.  When I told Bob about some of the stories that I heard, our hearts were filled with passion to keep telling the story of how Jesus saved us in our brokenness, and He didn’t leave us or ever turn His heart against us. He never forgets the original design of why He made us in the first place.  No matter what!

Today is my day to thank God for creating me with design and a dream.  I may have experienced some scrubbing in life that felt unfair, and I may have squandered the gifts He gave me, but Jesus was with me through every memory – good and bad, and He has been my protector, provider and promoter.  He has always loved me perfectly. I will embrace my original design and celebrate the dream God dreamed-up when He made me!

Have a great Thursday,

and don’t ever give up on God’s story for you life,

Love Audrey