I (Janet) have been thinking a lot this week about how God sees us and loves us. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had to really choose not to carry guilt as my natural position in life. I don’t know when it started or what started it, but it has been a real struggle in my life, and honestly, it’s a fight that I still have to fight often. I know that God loves me and that Jesus took my guilt on Himself on the cross, so I don’t have to carry it anymore – and that is the truth that I live in. However, some days I still randomly feel a sense of guilt in the pit of my stomach, like I’ve done something wrong, even when there’s no reason for it. And it’s that feeling that I choose to fight against. I want to be a person who doesn’t hide hard things or doesn’t want people to know that I sometimes wrestle with things. That is a cost for me, mostly because, as I wrote in my last week’s post, I like when people like me 🤦🏻‍♀️. But also, I am generally a really happy and joy-filled person, and sometimes it feels strange to admit that I have to choose joy just like everyone else! I realize that isn’t very rational – but confession is good for the soul, right? 😃👍

Anyway, over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been humbled and blown away all over again by how much God loves us (I recorded a wee podcast video about that actually), and yesterday I decided (it might have been the Holy Spirit dropping it into my head) that I’m going to really intentionally spend time focusing on how much God loves me. I know that focusing on truth is the best way to fight off lies, and Jesus IS the truth!! So I want to make sure my eyes, heart, and thoughts are firmly fixed on Him and on His word 🙌 I’m not totally sure why I’m sharing all this, except that I pray it could be an encouraging reminder for us all to fix our eyes on Jesus and not let niggly lies distract us in our thoughts or take hold of our hearts ❤️