Recently I had a question posed to me by a dear friend who doesn’t know the Lord intimately. Somehow we got on the subject of God and faith (sound familiar?) and she put a question out there. What will God do with me? I wasn’t sure if it was even meant to be answered. You know, just two girlfriends talking and random thoughts just pop out. But I thought, I really should answer this question.

I’m curious, what would you have said? Are you ready to answer this question for someone whom you’ve been praying that God would reveal himself to?

So many thoughts went through my mind at one time and I found myself speaking almost instantly. My thoughts were the following, we are in a precious time of God’s grace. Then I thought, how in the world do I explain grace to someone who might not know what this means from a Godly perspective? Another thought was, come on…we are without excuse, haven’t you seen him paint the beauty in the sky or gazed upon a newborn baby or experienced unconditional love – there must be a God and He is wonderful, beyond explanation even! And then a judgmental thought entered my brain, oh girl, you will be judged, and you better be ready. What does that even mean…judged and how does one “get ready?” I didn’t think judgement because I knew this friend’s past, in fact, her past is a bit mysterious however why did my thoughts take me there?

As I pondered my response the next day I thought, boy did I get that answer wrong! What words even came out of my mouth? I suddenly didn’t even remember! Did I even show the love of Jesus? Did I tell her how much God just loves her, in fact, that He’s wildly crazy about her? That He enjoys her, enjoys every part of her like a lover looks upon one He is madly in love with? Or just that He wants to hold her hand and simply be with her through this thing called life? Did I tell her that He’s SO much closer than she thinks, constantly reaching out to her in ways she’ll never know? That He created her to be her and that is enough. That He wants to love her right where she is? Or did I stop to ask her, what makes you ask that question? Yes! That would have been the perfect response. Because my training has taught me that if she’s asking, God is at work. I could kick myself, you always answer a question with a question for more discovery! Darn it, darn it, darn it!

And now I think, what was she even asking – does she even know what she was asking? How does one who doesn’t know God even ponder the thought, “What will God do with me?”

This reminded me of another conversation I had recently. I was out to dinner with my 18-year old niece. She is getting very close to her boyfriend and I wanted to remind her that God has a special “one” set aside for her. In this conversation I told her that since she was a little girl, I have been praying for her future husband. It is something God laid on my heart when my nieces and nephews were born. My prayer has been that they choose wisely in their selection of a spouse because it is critically important. I pray for wisdom for them to make good choices and I pray for their future spouse to be a Godly person of tremendous faith!

I was dumbfounded when she responded in this way, “Why are you praying for my future husband? Am I that crazy that you need to pray for him?” Immediately her thoughts went to judgement and there might be something wrong with her that she wasn’t good enough. My heart broke.

Both of these scenarios brought me to wonder, why are we so hard on ourselves? Me included! We ask questions like, what will God do with me? This is possibly insinuating that I’ve messed up too bad, God surely doesn’t have the time nor the desire to think about me! And, am I that crazy that you need to pray for my future spouse? This is possibly insinuating that I’m such a bad person that I need help! And, I could kick myself for not answering the question the absolute perfect way. This is possibly insinuating that I must be perfect at all times. These trains of thought are slippery slopes. I am not worthy, I am unlovely and I didn’t say the right thing. I must be a failure and why would God love a failure? And, I’m going to be in big trouble if I can’t even get this right. One could be left without hope.

The beauty in all of this is God is the complete opposite of what we expect Him to be. We try to assign what we know of love from a worldly perspective to God and it doesn’t match up. It’s truly incomparable. He loves us with an unconditional love. He just doesn’t love us; He is wildly crazy about us. Everyone. God knows exactly what to do with us, love on us then love on us some more because we are His children. As I smother my 5-year old daughter with way too many kisses to count and so many hugs that she wants to throw up I am reminded, I am God’s daughter and that is how He feels about ME. He is the one that created me. HE is the one wanting to smother me in His love. Over and over again.

This type of love deserves a response. Although God requires a response, He is willing to wait. Now that you know there is a God that loves you in this extravagant way, what will you do? What will your response be to Him? Will you let him? Will you start a conversation with Him? All it takes is something as simple as…Okay God, lay it on me…let me know what it feels like to bask in your love. Let me feel your presence. Surround me. I want to surrender to you but I don’t know how. Help me Lord.

Say this out loud now and remind yourself often, God loves me. God is close to me. God holds my right hand. He doesn’t want to be anywhere else but right beside me holding my hand. He is the lover of my soul.

Now go, go talk to God.

Go take a walk with Him envisioning that He is literally holding your right hand!

Let Him lavish His generous and never-ending love on you.