“Oh no!”

I stopped shaking out the bunch of artificial white carnations and lilies as I leaned over my second-floor balcony, watching three rosebud pink paper hearts spiral and flutter all the way to the ground, as concerned as if I had just dropped the ruby ring my daughter gave me down the sink.

I ran, well at least I moved fast, to retrieve those three little paper hearts. They had nestled in the vase of white flowers next to my kitchen sink for nearly four years, extras from when I worked part-time in the children’s department of our church. Four years ago, God was just beginning to draw me out of the pit of deep depression.

‘He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. ¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. ¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. ¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:16-19).

Read all of Psalm 18 and take time to thank God for something He has rescued you from. Understanding how God fights for us is deeply comforting.

The messages on those paper hearts. Three messages are printed in the center of those little hearts:

• God made me and He loves me.
• God listens to me and He loves me.
• God takes care of me and He loves me.

Pondering Bible truths such as these day and night (Psalm 1), healed depression and gave me a new, undepressed mind (Romans 12:2) when nothing else worked.

Constant reminders.  We all have our weaknesses. Some of us, like me, need reminders all day long to depend on God and not worry. Some of us, like me, need reminding that no matter how I feel, I am not alone. That’s why those little pink paper hearts reside in that vase of flowers by my sink. What do I think of when I read those three little messages?

God made me and He loves me. In Psalm 139:13-16 David talks with God about how God created him. David says to God:

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,  I know that full well.

¹⁵ 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.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;

Verse 16b says “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” How comforting to know that our all-powerful God has our life planned and that His plan is for our good.

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

“. . . And He loves me” In verses 17 and 18 of Psalm 139, David gives us another detail about the way God loves us – He thinks about us all the time.

“How precious to me are your thoughts,^] God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.”

I can only echo The Enduring Word commentary: “David was filled with amazement and adoration by considering how God knew and cared for him. It is precious that God should think of us at all; it is beyond precious that He would think well of us and think so often of us.” (emphasis added)

God takes care of me and He loves me. I have an extremely hard time writing about the phrase “God takes care of me.” Why? I have too much to say! Since April 1981, when I gave my heart to Jesus, God has abundantly supplied all my needs “according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19, NIV). He truly has never, no never, no never failed in any way (Hebrews 13:5-6, Joshua).

By God’s grace, when I was saved I determined to put my relationship with God first and to obey Him fully. Everything else—every day of the past forty-three years–followed from that. God continues to give steady spiritual growth, heart and body healings, and miraculous provision of every physical, mental, emotional and spiritual need. All it takes is loving God above all, obeying Him, and serving Him with your whole heart.

Consider now Hebrews 13:5-6. Verse 5 tells us to love God first, more than material things, and be content with where we are and what we have. Why? God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, promises to never fail us in any way. I highly recommend imprinting these two verses on your heart by pondering on them.

 Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down ^]relax My hold on you)! ^]Assuredly not!]

⁶ So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?

God listens to me and He loves me. Many years of seeing God do personal miracle after personal miracle has built up my faith. From the miracle of courage and strength for daily life to miraculous physical healings and provision, He has never failed. Yet, being human, sometimes dark clouds of loneliness and self-pity close in, threatening a destructive emotional storm. Though surrounded by loving family and friends, in moments of special stress or fatigue, the enemy sometimes flings flaming arrows of thought. “You are all alone. No one really cares. How could they? You are such a mess, you are . . . “

By grace, I’ve learned to quickly identify the voice of the enemy. When thoughts like that come, I say “Satan, it is written in James 4:7 that if I submit myself to God and resist you, you must flee, so I command you to flee now!” Then I immediately turn to praising God and keeping my mind on Him. “Father, thank You that You are far greater than the enemy and that You are in me, Your Spirit is giving me all I need for life and godliness. You are keeping me in complete and constant peace because I am keeping my mind fixed on You. Thank You for teaching me Your Word. Thank You that I live in America where I can have a Bible and worship You in freedom. Thank You for my family, for food to eat, clothes to wear, a car to drive. Thank You for the bird I hear chirping outside. . .”

This has never, no never, failed to restore my peace. Try it.

Another weapon against the poison of loneliness is Genesis 28:15.

⁵ And behold, I am with you and will keep (watch over you with care, take notice of) you wherever you may go, and I will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done all of which I have told you. (AMPC)

Keep the truths in this Scripture in mind as you go about your daily life and simply talk with God about whatever you are doing. Be aware that He is listening—all day long—specifically to you. You will find it helps you feel His presence.

Returning to whole-hearted seeking. Jeremiah 29 contains a warning and a precious promise about God’s mercy toward us. Jeremiah 2­9 is a letter God wrote through Jeremiah to the captives exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem because of their wickedness and unrepentant idol worship. In the first nine verses, God told the captive Israelites to settle down and work for the good of the place they lived (Babylon) because “its welfare will determine your welfare.” (V. 7b, NLT). God told them they would stay in Babylon 70 years, which was until their punishment was completed. (Notice how God is taking care of them, even while they are being punished, by telling them how to have a better life.)  In verse 10, God promises that after 70 years He would return them to Jerusalem and “do for you all the good things I have promised.” (v. 10b).

And then comes the well-known verse, Jeremiah 29:11: “¹¹ For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.” (NIV). Especially notice verses 12 through 14.

¹² Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you.

¹³ Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (emphasis added)

¹⁴ I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.” (AMPC, emphasis added).

God reassures His rebellious people that He has good plans for them, and that their final outcome will be one where they love Him whole-heartedly and find Him as well as enjoy freedom again.

This teaches me that I move toward captivity –to my fleshly nature and/or Satan–when I start depending on or loving anything more than God. I make that thing an idol. It also teaches me that God is ever ready to deliver me when I seek Him with my whole heart, as if my very life depended on Him, which it does.  God brings me back to Jerusalem, to the beautiful condition of the heart that comes from peace, when I call on Him whole-heartedly.

I believe this process of sin-captivity-judgement-restoration applies to any scale of time, from our “little” failures that take us away from God part of the day to unrecognized and/or unconfessed sin that steals our closeness and our peace for months or years.

Father, thank You so much for teaching us how to stay in peace. Thank You for Your clear guidance in the Word. Please forgive me when I give in to doubt or fear. Thank You that You are growing me up and those times come far less often.

And from Psalm 91 I say, Lord, help me always dwell in the secret place so that I can remain continually under the shadow of Your great wings. Remind me to say of You, “The Lord is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!” (AMPC)

When I do that, Lord, I know You will cover me with Your feathers, just like a mother hen fiercely defending her little chicks.

And when I am under Your wings, I will be able to snuggle in close and find the trust and refuge I so desperately need.  Truly Lord, Your “truth and faithfulness are a shield and a buckler.”