Life With Unknown Love
Can you imagine growing up with the knowledge or thought that you're not wanted, knowing that someone considered you their mistake and didn't want you? Some of you actually can.
I've been fighting sickness the last few days, but in spite of how sick my stomach has been I've felt so blessed. I am so blessed because I realize how much God adores us and cares for us. He has given me so much. Jesus was so willing to die for us. I was reading John 16 and 17 yesterday and became filled with utter joy at the remembrance, that, the very God of the universe, who knows everything, lives inside of me and is with me wherever I go! When Jesus prays during that burden-filled night, He prays for God's glory and for us. I cannot comprehend how wonderful He is. I have been praying more and more that God would take away my selfishness and give me more of a desire to bring Him glory.
Why did I just bring up all that? I found such joy in spite of how I felt, because of the power of God's love and salvation for me. I know I have a great Father in Heaven that cares for me no matter how hard life gets here on earth. So many still don't have this great joy and freedom. I'm still not feeling one hundred percent myself today, I get up for a while and I feel weak so I sit back down for a bit and then repeat the process all over. I haven't had much to eat the last three days because my stomach's still not completely ready. I took a short nap a few minutes ago, trying to give my body some rest before I go back to work tomorrow. When I woke up, I had orphans on my heart. It was out of nowhere they came to my mind, which makes me feel as if God put it in my heart. I was looking up some statistics about orphans and I found this, which expresses perfectly my own thoughts concerning orphans: "132 million children they classify as orphans, only 13 million have lost both parents. The majority of orphans are living with a surviving parent, grandparent, or other family member." This means that most of these orphans were rejected and not wanted by a family member!!!
Everyone seeks to fill this great desire to be loved. It's a part of the way He created us. God Himself even said, "It is not good for the man to be alone." Genesis 2:18. Picture yourself in a room filled with other children, just like you, you know no other life outside of one or a few consecutive buildings. You do not seem to stand out from anyone else, you have no hope or future awaiting you outside this life. All you know is there's a big dark world full of rejection out there and you will have to find a way to survive in it some day. How do you explain to someone that God loved them enough to die for them, when they don't even know what love is?! This thought presses against my mind. Sometimes the only way to explain love is to show it yourself. I'm now wondering if I am doing all I can to show this love to those in my life now? Should I be trusted with His precious and beloved orphans if I cannot even be faithful with what He's already given me? I wish I could answer yes for sure, but I know I fall short. I am grateful for the gift to love others the way God has loved me. Which brings me back to one of my favorite verses:
Matt. 25:34-40 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
God's heart for the hurting and orphaned is clear over and over in the Bible. Praise the Lord that He is not some cruel God who leaves His children to fend for themselves in a world outside of a child's control. No, He's trusting us with them. It is easy to become so busy in life that you forget to look outside of your own box; I'm completely guilty of it myself. But what would be worse, is to make such a discovery and continue to ignore it. Let us pray for those who God's heart breaks for. Oh God please raise up more people to make a difference.
James 1:27
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
