Hey friends,

We have a special guest post by my friend, Sarah Mae, who is sharing with us a sneak peek into her new book: Longing for Paris which released TODAY!!!

I had the pleasure of reading Longing for Paris this summer and loved it! In her book, Sarah Mae shares powerful reminders to live with intentionality and enjoy the precious time we have with loved ones…living like the French and savoring life right down to the very last morsel!

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The room was full of old things.

Around me, in an old barn converted into a retreat center, the walls were covered with buckets and farming tools and all sorts of things that would clang loudly if they fell. There were shabby, torn couches scattered throughout the room and folding chairs occupied by college students, including me.

The speaker asked, “What would you do if Jesus walked into the room right now?”

I would hide, I thought. I would hide from Him because He’s good and beautiful, and I’m bad and ugly. I would hide in the corner, behind one of these worn couches, bent down, with my face on my knees. I wouldn’t want Jesus to see me.

I was filled with shame.

After a few minutes, either through the speaker’s words or God’s Spirit encouraging me, I suddenly had a great peace that I didn’t have to hide. In fact, if Jesus walked into the room, I was certain He would come over to me and hug me and put His hands on my face and call me daughter. It didn’t matter that He knew everything about me right then, from my past, and for all of the future. He knew me, and He loved me just the same. That was the first time I knew I was loved and that I was His. I could hide myself in Him; I could tuck in, and He would take over—if I let Him. He could have all of me, and I could have all of Him.

That is identity.

It is being so enveloped by Christ, and Him by you, that you become the same; you can identify with Him because He is so close to you and vice versa. This is why we must remain in Him if we are to stay secure in our identity. After all, identity means sameness.

WE ARE MADE TO KNOW WHO WE ARE

I heard someone say once that if you don’t figure out your identity in your twenties, you are likely to have a midlife crisis in your fifties. This makes complete sense to me. We are made to know who we are.

When God wove us together out of dust and love, it was personal and intimate. God did not speak me into existence like He did the sun and the moon and the plants and the animals. He formed me, molding me with His hands, and He breathed His breath of life into me. He knit me together in my mother’s womb. He knows me by name, and He knows every hair on my head. I am not spoken into being. I am created. I am art. I am the artwork of God.

But that intimate relationship between God and man didn’t end at creation. One of my favorite stories of Jesus healing someone is recorded in the Gospel of John. As Jesus was walking along, He saw a blind man, and this is what he did:

He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. John 9:6-7

Now at first, this action seems kind of gross and unnecessary. Jesus could have just proclaimed that the man was healed and he would have been. But spit? Eeww. But then I remember how God made man in the first place.

“Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7, NLT).

It was as if Jesus was forming new eyes for the blind man, from the very dust which he came from. But it wasn’t just the dust or the mud; Jesus touched him. He gently put the mud over the man’s eyes, and it was personal and tender.

Our bents, our personalities, and our skill sets are not accidents. God put them into us for His glory and purposes. To not accept how God made us would be to deny His glory.

When we are fully ourselves, He is fully glorified.

This is why it is so important to accept who you are, to push out voices of opposition, and to walk free and confidently in God. We do not love ourselves as much as we love how God lovingly, personally created us.

I love who I am because I was made with love. And I want to be fully me so that my God can be fully glorified.

Love,

Sarah Mae

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To read more from Longing for Paris, click here to grab a copy: Longing for Paris.

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And stay tuned for tomorrow as we announce our upcoming study and some exciting events happening in our Love God Greatly community! Can’t wait to share them with you!

Love God Greatly!

Angela Perritt

Angela Perritt is the founder and director of LoveGodGreatly.com, a nonprofit online Bible study ministry reaching thousands of women in over two hundred countries around the world with God’s Word through their translated Bible studies. She and her husband live in Dallas, Texas with their three daughters. Angela is passionate about God’s Word and believes one woman in God’s Word can change a family, community and ultimately a nation. Her greatest joy is to encourage her children and others to love God greatly with their lives one day at a time. You can connect with her on Instagram.