you may fear you do not matter…

When you wonder if you make a difference in the world, your home, your job, and you wonder if anyone really cares, remember there is a purpose to your life. God LOVES you! When you think you’ve messed up and it’s not going to get better, remember, God is still there!

I stumbled across this passage the other day when I was listening to Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time.

The foolishness of God is wiser than men;
and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty,
not many noble, are called,
but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
and God hath chosen the weak things of this world
to confound the things which are mighty.
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not, to bring nought things that are.
(1 Corinthians 1:25-28)

Consider Jephthah, he was a great warrior the Bible tells us. He was born of a prostitute. His father had other sons with his wife and they despised Jephthah. His half brothers sent him away from his home so that he would not inherit. Jephthah went to Tob where he met up with others who had been rejected and they followed him. Then enemies came against his homeland and the elders of his land came to him and asked him to command their troops and help them fight these enemies. He asked them why they wanted him now when they hadn’t wanted him before and they said “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight (our enemies), and you will be our head over all who live (here)." Jephthah replied, "Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me—will I really be your head?" they agreed and Jephthah WAS successful and ruled those who had scorned and driven him away from his home (Judges 11:1-11).

Consider Daniel, a simple shepherd who when sent by his father to check on his older brothers, discovered a giant and slew him with stones by God’s grace.

Consider Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery. God granted him favor with the king and he was put in a position to provide food for his entire family.

There are SO many stories in the Bible of the underdog becoming the best. Not because they suddenly became more than they had been, but because God met them where they were and said “him I will choose” and “her I will use in this situation.”

God knows the number of hairs on your head. Can you fathom that? On the average blond headed individual there are 140,000 hairs. Those with black hair have an average of 110,000 hairs. Red heads have an average of 90,000 hairs, but God knows EXACTLY how many hairs you have. I can’t possibly know you that well.

God cares for every sparrow that falls. In Biblical times 2 sparrows were sold for 1 copper and 5 sparrows were sold for 2 coppers. Consider the 5th sparrow. It had NO VALUE, and yet God cared for it as much as its brethren. He loves us much more than sparrows. No matter how unworthy WE think we are, God calls us WORTHY. He calls us his children. He loves us and cares for us. He works all things together for GOOD, even when we cannot see it.

Consider Mary, she was engaged, but not married, pregnant, but not by her husband and even her fiancée considered abandoning her. God worked that out, amazingly, miraculously well. He made it a pivotal moment in history.

Jesus dealt most with the base of society. Prostitutes, tax collectors, criminals and yet we call him Savior. Funny that. He wasn’t concerned with how it looked. He was worried about YOU and ME as individuals.

There are moments when the things around us overwhelm us, when the circumstances we find ourselves in seem more than we can bear, when we are NOT at our best.

God doesn’t care how many times we “screw up”. He may well anticipate them with the knowledge that now there is one less time it will happen. Ah, if only WE knew how many times that would be. Wouldn’t that make life easier?

While I have known these things all my life. They recently struck me as something I needed to hear RIGHT NOW, and I thought you might benefit from it too.