Loving Your Frame - Encouragement Café - September 23, 2015

Loving Your Frame

Café Menu for Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Today’s Special is:  Embracing How God Made You

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Jamy Whitaker

Main Ingredient:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

Psalm 139:13 NIV

Entrée:

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love looking at picture frames.  I can’t get over the wide assortment, everything from plain to very ornate.  

What amazes me is not that there are so many choices, but that the various styles can fit the picture.  In some cases, you want to showcase the artwork or picture, so you don’t want a fancy or ornate frame that would draw the viewer’s attention away from the art.  However, there are other instances that an ornate frame is exactly what is needed.

I’m almost certain that we would all agree that one frame couldn’t possibly fill the needs of all the artwork in the world.  The frames need to be different sizes, as well as styles.  The same is true of people.

God created each and every one of us with a certain frame to go around His artwork – the brushstrokes in your life.  The frame consists of your physical characteristics, personality, gifts and abilities.  This frame was designed specifically for you and the purpose and plan God has for your life.

God has given each one of us a unique SHAPE:

·       Spiritual Gifts

·       Heart (passion for certain things)

·       Abilities

·       Personalities

·       Experiences

That concept has been difficult for me to accept at various times in my life.  I would look at someone in person, or on television, and wonder why I wasn’t as tall or thin, or have great hair, or even the ability to dance.  But then I examined this passage:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days were ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:13-16 NIV

There are several things about this passage that really struck me.

First of all, the phrase “knit together” evokes the image of God wrapping His hands around me to create me.  For those crafters out there, you know full well that you can’t knit or sew something together without holding it in your hands.  Stop and think about that for a moment.  The Creator of the universe held you and me, in His hands and lovingly created each of us for His purpose.  We are indeed wonderfully made.

Just like when the world was created, God knew what He was doing when He made each and every one of us.  We are not to be clones of one another, because we each have a job to do.  All of our abilities, and even the disabilities, were utilized to fit the unique plan God has for us.  No one else in the world can fulfill your purpose.

Another person’s “frame” would not fit you or me, which is why God made you the way you are.  We need to thank God for the way He made us, trust in His craftsmanship and look for ways that our frame can fulfill His purpose.

Take Out:

I challenge you to really look at your SHAPE today.  What has God given uniquely to you, that He wants you to use?

Dessert:

Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You today asking for Your help.  I long to see myself as You see me.  Quiet the voices of the world, so that I can only hear from You.  I know that You have knit me together for a specific purpose.  Grant me the strength and courage to step out and let my true self shine into the world.  In Your Precious Name, Amen.

© 2015 by Jamy Whitaker.  All rights reserved.

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