| Read Psalm 18:19 The psalmist tells us that our Father God must often rescue us from our good intentions. God Delights in MeWhen I was in my late 20s, I was the head of a community-based youth center and on the way to leading a major Christian youth movement in Sydney, Australia. I was passionately serving God and so busy that my weeks literally felt like one long day with a series of naps (and these were rare). It was a very exciting time for me. God had given me gifts of leadership and speaking, and many doors of opportunity were opening. I felt like I was living the dream, yet when I would get home and lay my head on my pillow at night—well, actually, in the early hours of the morning—I felt like I was dying inside. When everything was quiet and it was just God and me, the success from the day would fade away and all that would be left was what felt like a gaping chasm in my heart. I was not a happy girl. No matter how much I accomplished or achieved, I just couldn't seem to find contentment and joy. In order to fill this void, I kept working harder and harder, keeping longer and longer hours, hoping sooner or later that my heart would feel fulfilled. Eventually, the stress and intensity of my schedule took its toll on my body, and I collapsed. Quite literally, in fact. I threw my back out, and my life came to a screeching halt. For the next three weeks (which felt like an eternity!), my days were spent lying on the couch, keeping very still to avoid the pain of movement. I was forced to stop doing and simply be still. As I lay there feeling like a completely useless Christian, I picked up my Bible. As I flipped through the pages, I came across a verse in Psalms that I had probably read more than a hundred times, but that day these words came alive in a new way and arrested my heart: "He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me" (Ps. 18:19, NIV). It was like God had a megaphone and was screaming to get my attention: "Christine, I delight in you. Not just the thousands of young people you minister to, not just in all that you accomplish in my name, but in you, my own precious daughter." God delighted in me—in me with all my faults, me with all my failings, me with my broken past . . . me immobile on a couch! Point to PonderDo you know that God delights in you, with all your faults and failings, just as you are? What you do for God will never be as important as who you are to God—his precious child. |
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