Fear No Fear

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” (Isaiah 61:1, MEV) There is so much going on in the world right now that comes down to people being hurt. Picking a single aspect of their identity (the sum of all their parts) and focusing on it to the near-exclusion of all else – and then being hurt because of the impossible standard set up for that piece by society in general. How can we hold our multi-faceted selves to a single oft-changing golden standard? It hurts. When we fail to achieve those impossible standards, we blame ourselves. It’s been happening for years in all kinds of ways. Males being forced into the ‘macho’ mold. Females being held to impossible beauty standards. Students being told their worth is in top 1% grades. Salesmen fired for simply having the fewest sales in a given period (regardless of number) as a motivator for the overall sales team. We’re held up against arbitrary standards, we’re held up against each other, and we tie the sense of our worth to these things. We are hurting all over the place. And every year more and more of these standards creep out of the woodwork to infect us. When will enough BE enough? The truth is that the ONLY time we are enough is when God looks at us. Because we ARE enough in His eyes. Enough to come and pay for Sin. Enough to offer to cleanse us of our personal sins AND from our sinful nature (Sin itself). Enough to mend our hearts until they are better than new. We are enough in God’s eyes because He made us. He knows what we are. He knows how we are meant to be. He is ready, willing, and able to restore us to His perfection – no matter how long the journey. We are ALL being restored. Piece by piece, day by day, and it will continue until we stand before the Throne face to face. Our worth was established in His eyes before that journey began. Before we were even born. When we were an idea in His mind before He even spoke of Light and kicked everything off. We are WORTH something. You are WORTH something to Him. Because He loves you. Because you are lovable. Because you are YOU. No one and nothing can take that from you. Ever.