Empty me
Of the selfishness inside
Every vain ambition
And the poison of my pride
And any foolish thing my heart holds to
Lord empty me of me
So I can be
Filled with you
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I'm not okay, and I'm not alright. I feel...like I'm NOT ENOUGH.
I believe, 100%, that I should love other people, in my actions, words, and thoughts towards them. But I'm not going to lie to you and say that doing so is easy. Or that I always do it.
Because people hurt people.
I know--people hurt you.
I know, because people hurt me.
This lie (I'm NOT ENOUGH) has been permeating my being for the past few months. I can't really remember the first time a minuscule, nagging voice whispered it to me. But I can remember many times I heard it. When someone gave me a second hand compliment: "They would never have said that if you hadn't been standing there when they said that to her," said the coercive nagger.
When I walked into a room and felt alone among a mass. "See...no one wants to talk to you...you must be annoying and mean," slipped into my mind, before I could stop it.
When attention I craved didn't come to me: "Obviously, you are ugly. If you looked like that, it would be different."
When pressure rose and stress rose and hopes fell and grades fell...I was weighed down and the ever-present influence remarked, "If you were just SMARTER..."
When fired-up changed to burnt-out changed to luke-warm: "You're evidently the worst, most fake Christian ever."
People don't mean to hurt us, really. I know that I've hurt PLENTY of people. I feel broken because I realize I can't stop being hurtful--hurtful is human. But now I'm moving on to what I CAN do.
I can accept this TRUTH. I'm going to reject those lies ^^. I'm going to forget them.
Because--and this is amazing--Jesus doesn't see those things in me.
Jesus came and...died. For me.
God created us in His image. IN HIS IMAGE!
Let that sink in. He didn't just make us to worship Him--although that is part of it. He made us TO BE LIKE HIM.
And what that means for me is that I don't have to be broken and jaded and crushed in my sin and lies and pain and pride.
And neither do you.
Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing to you. (Luke 23:34)
Love them, well.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (NLT)
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (NLT)
Raw conviction hits me when I read those verses. Love doesn't demand its own way. It keeps no record of being wronged. It never gives up.
Don't give up. You're loved. You are MORE than enough.
He made you enough. He died because you were enough.
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You are good, You are goodWhen there's nothing good in meYou are love, You are loveYou are light, You are lightWhen the darkness closes inYou are hope, You are hopeYou have covered all my sin
