It
was after midnight and the last thing on hubby’s mind was talking. Say a prayer, kiss-kiss, turn out the light
and nighty-night was all he wanted to do.
I
realized that my timing wasn’t exactly what I’d call convenient, but I wanted
his thoughts on something that I had been thinking about for several days. Right now I can envision the married men reading
this bobbing their heads up and down, agreeing that their wives ask thought
provoking questions when they’re about to shut off the light for the night.
He
sat on the edge of the bed trying to be attentive to what I had to say. After repeating myself and rewording what I
was trying to convey, my husband began to talk … and talk and talk he did.
By
now we could see daylight peeking through the top of the curtains. Our hearts were amazed with the wonder of it
all. What was on God’s mind before there
was you?
Welcome new friends this week from:
See if your city/state/country made the list.
New on DFB – Médéa, Médéa Province, Algeria; Burnt
Church, NB & Prince George, BC, Canada; Peyia, Paphos District,
Cyprus; Kolding, Region of Southern Denmark, Denmark; Suva, Central Division,
Fiji; Havant & London, England, United Kingdom; Rio Grande, Río Grande,
Puerto Rico; Moldova; Poland; Austria.
USA
– Zion, AR; Blanca, CO; Cape Coral, FL; Bourbonnais,
Moline, Rock Island, Coyne Center, Edgington, Sherrard, & Illinois City, IL; Muscatine & Davenport,
IA; Essex, Forest Hill & Pikesville, MD; Cedar Springs & Wyoming, MI;
Smithfield, NC; Mercersburg, PA; The Colony & La Feria, TX; ; Oshkosh, WI.
I am so thankful for your visit and hope that you come
back each week to participate in the weekly challenges. Join us in our new series as we spend time in
the study of Daily Favor Relationships.
You are welcome to leave comments or prayer requests below. All are private. I would love to hear from
you and how Daily Favor has worked in your life. Contact me by leaving a message in the box at
the bottom of this week’s post.
Don't miss out on this week's challenge
(below).
Before
You Were Born
There’s
a line in the Christian movie “Facing the Giants” that always makes me weepy
eyed whenever I hear it. The couple is
disheartened because nothing seems to be going their way, especially when it
came to conceiving a child.
With tears in her eyes Shannen Fields who plays the
coach’s wife Brooke Taylor, responds to her husband when they were discussing
the subject of children. She looks up at Grant and in a soft spoken voice says,
“I’m still clinging to a hope that one day we’ll have
children.
I imagine them running in this house.
I hear them playing in the backyard … or …
Running to our bed in a thunderstorm.
I think about reading them stories and teaching them
songs.
And I just keep thinking …
How can I miss someone so much that I have never met?”
Every time I hear those words it reminds me of the wonder
of mankind and what in the eternal past made God decide the timing of creation. The lines from the story in the film depict
the heart of God wherein before we were born He already loved us. In His world, a relationship with the race of
man (male and female) was already formed, it just hadn’t been “made”.
When we see the anticipation of parents in waiting, it’s
easy to imagine how they love their child before it has come into
existence. If we can picture that kind
of love, why is it so hard for us to conceive that this emotion came from the
Creator Himself?
Marvelous You
In my time here on earth I’ve been called some “creative
things” including, “you’re something else” or “you’re a piece of work” and they
weren’t referring to my good qualities. No
one has ever declared that I am marvelous or wonderful (except Maggs maybe),
yet the psalmist understood how special we are in the very creation of our
being.
“I will praise You, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
(Psalm
139:14-16 NKJV)
King David in scriptures praised God because he was
fearfully and wonderfully made with distinction to be set apart to have
fellowship with Jehovah the Creator. He
was “made” on purpose, with a purpose and for a purpose.
If you interpreted this incorrectly it could
sound like the author was bragging, because he was referring to himself as a
marvelous work. That was the farthest
thing from his mind, when in fact he was in awe of how marvelous the creation
of man really is.
David was a creation to stand in awe of and be
astonished in reverence of the Divine One for what He had done. God in His extraordinary power beyond our
comprehension, had chosen to make man “marvelous” distinguishing mankind to be
different than anything that ever was or will be.
He recognized that his frame literally meant
“substance” or “very substance” referring to “matter” as in living cells. God
by design skillfully took the dust or parts of the earth and saw what He wanted
to create before the process ever took place.
My husband has said that I see something in
its completed state before I ever start a project. I already know what I want
to design, gather the contents needed for it and then set my hands in action
until it is finished. We have that
ability because we inherited that skill from our Creator.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
(Psalm
139:16 NKJV)
In Psalm 139:16 the word substance is translated from the
Hebrew word embryo, “my substance yet unformed”. Before one marvelous embryontic cell of yours
was formed, God already knew your name, what you would become, how many days
were carved out for you, and which path would lead to favor in your future.
Do
You Understand? God Already Loves You
Before Adam or any person was born God already loved them
and planned to show His favor to each person’s individual needs and
desires. Everything God does is driven
by His unending love for us. His love is
unique and individualized loving us fully as we need to be loved.
“Your hands have made me and fashioned me;
Give me understanding, that I may learn Your
commandments.”
(Psalm 119:73 NKJV)
Do
you understand that “man” was created by God, for God so that we could have a
relationship with Him?
“For by Him all things were created
that are in Heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created
through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16 NKJV)
Man came into existence through God’s son Jesus Christ
for Jesus. He is the One who blessed us
with favor saying, His creation was not only good as He called everything else
He made, but that we are “very good.”
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and
indeed it was very good. So the
evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31 NKJV)
We
are “good” not because of anything we did or could do, but because God said we
were. He liked and was pleased with His
work.
“For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)
In
Jeremiah 1:5 the Bible tells us that before we were born God formed us, knew us,
sanctified and ordained us to carry out His plan.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV)
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV)
His
favor allows us to “carry out” what we were ordained to do, which is good works.
From the beginning we were created good
to do good; and God has never altered His plans for His creation.
For
Jeremiah it was that he was to be a prophet to the nation of Israel, but for some
it may be a president, caregiver, teacher, bus driver or whatever.
Love
Has a Plan
What
we know is that God’s plans are grand, good and full of hope because He loves
us. If Jesus planned things for our
future doesn’t that mean that He intended to stay in the relationship? I know that if I had an elaborate plan I
certainly would want to make sure it succeeded, so I’d stick around for all the
details until the end.
“I say this because I know what I have planned
for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt
you.
I plan
to give you hope and a good future.” (Jeremiah 29:11 ICB)
God has plans for us as He did Adam before he was
born. He loves watching us move toward
our calling as our relationship with Him develops.
I have to admit that sometimes I am confused about God’s
love based on my own distant relationship with my father. God’s love is not like the emotional love we
feel or don’t feel. His love for us
isn’t influenced by our behavior, deeds, looks or personality.
Paul explained God’s love to Timothy when he said,
“God is the One who has saved us and called us with a Holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace (favor)
which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began or we were made/formed.”
(2 Timothy 1:9 emphasis mine)
God loves us because it brings Him pleasure and that’s
it. It pleases Him to love and show favor without us doing anything to deserve
it.
Before There Was You, He Knew You
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV)
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV)
Before “man” was physically formed God knew his identity
which means God knew everything about you that was ever to be known. He knew everything about you before your
parents ever thought about having you.
He protected and monitored your mother’s womb to make
sure you arrived on this planet to fulfill your destiny. You were born to be His child forever.
Before there was you, God knew, wanted and ordained you before
you were an embryo. Here are nine reasons why you were born. This is what He says:
ü You
had to be born and aren’t a mistake.
ü You
were set apart and I put My mark on you for Myself.
ü You
were meant to be different for My purpose, so it doesn’t matter what anyone
else says.
ü You
were created to be you and not the “image” of anyone else but Me.
ü Your
fingerprints are unique because that’s the way I distinctly made you, and no
one else has your prints but you by My design.
ü Your
hairs are more than counted they are numbered like the stars in the sky and the
sand on the shore. I know when number 7,531 has fallen off your head because I
put it there.
ü You
were not created to die, but live eternally with Me.
ü You
had My blessing from the beginning of creation to succeed and prosper.
ü You
are so important to Me that before you were created I made provision to get you
back into My life by coming to Earth to save you.
Planned Parenthood
There was a time that I questioned why I was ever born,
because I never felt I fit in anywhere.
The Holy Spirit whispered that my mother was a vessel to get me here and
it’s the same for all of us.
The devil doesn’t want us to know how special and favored
we are by God. He will set traps to derail us from reaching our assigned agenda
from the Lord. If God’s children never
realize that His favor was ours from creation, we will never receive the full
blessing He spoke on us from before we were born.
Don’t forget, God is your creator who loves and adores
you. He wasn’t clinging to hope that one day He’d have children, like that
couple in the movie. God planned for
each of His relationships.
It isn’t by chance you are here. He planned and designed
you from the beginning to bring Him pleasure long before you were ever born.
Nothing moves His heart more than YOU!
Think on This Challenge:
Did you wonder what prompted my husband into our all
night talk? I’ll ask you the same thing
I asked him and see if it doesn’t challenge your thinking.
I asked my husband to think back on his earliest memories
that didn’t involve smells (because they trigger most of our past
thoughts). I already knew that he had
one from before the age of two having to do with his bottle.
Our think on this challenge is to try and recall the
first person we had a relationship with as a child. That is, the first person you remember having
a conversation with in life.
I know that for some of you this will be tough as it was
for me because they may not be pleasant, but how we form relationships is based
on those we had from our past.
How did your understanding of relationships develop and
who played a part in them? My first recollection
of conversations was with adults. I was the
age of four years old; one was good and the other very bad. Both have affected the way I form
relationships.
It wasn’t until I accepted that God favored me that I changed
the way I saw myself. Before I was born He
really wanted and loved me.
Upon birth when
I was in an incubator without my parents to love and hold me, He was there with
His shield surrounding me with His favor. (Psalm 5:12)
As an adult He meets me in the prayer closet, shows up
when I need Him and always welcomes my fellowship. He never tires of me no matter what I bring
to Him, because He loved me before there was a “me” to be loved.
He
feels the same about you. Before there was “you” in the flesh, God chose to
bless and favor you. You were planned from the start.
His
provision was that goodness and mercy (unmerited favor) would follow you all
the days of your life, and that you would dwell in His Garden of Favor house
forever. (Psalm 23:6)
If this article has encouraged or helped you, please
consider sharing it by using the social media icons provided at the end of this
post.
Until next time, God’s favor was from
the beginning!
“From creation I blessed you with favor.”
Jesus Christ
*Unless
noted, the names in articles are changed to protect the individual(s) privacy.
Note: Emphasis
is given in some scriptures to show clarity or understanding and is not to take
away from the inspirited Word of God.
When used,
the words satan or devil are not capitalized deliberately, because we give him
no place in our lives.
Disclaimer:
Article information is not meant to be used as treatment for mental or physical
issues, but geared toward spiritual awareness.
What’s New This Week: Click on the links below.
Before You Were Born by Nancy White Carlstrom
As always, all proceeds from this site go to Christian
charity.
Maybe
you don’t know the Living God that I know, but would like to have this kind of
favor in your life also. Click on the
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Disclaimer Notes: Results may vary due
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Scripture
references provided by Bible Gateway in the New King James Bible Version or as
noted.
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credit: Google Images or Dreamstime Creative Common
License if not specified.
Image: Man Sitting Brooke Taylor Facing the Giants Psalm 139:14 Jeremiah 29:11 Jeremiah 1:5 Challenge God Favors Me
Before There Was You, Daily Favor Relationships, Daily Favor Blog, Favored1, Favor of God, Planned Parenthood, Children, Christian Living, Creation, Weekly Challenge, Nancy White Carlstrom
