“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill

Every person on this earth starts their lives as a blessing! In the Bible, we read that “children are a gift from the Lord – they are a blessing” (Psalm 127). Therefore, no matter what anyone tells you to the contrary or how you may feel, you are a blessing.

We are children of an Almighty God, and we need to start believing that and acting accordingly. God says in His word that “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). We need to ask God to share His vision for our lives with us and to find out what His original plan was for our lives before the world got in the way and some of us fell so far short of what God had planned for us.

Before any of us are born God had already spoken a prophetic word over our lives. He says in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

We serve a God who has so much compassion for us. He sent His Son to die on the Cross in our place. Jesus suffered horrific humiliation, He was mocked and bullied, and His friends turned their backs on Him when He needed them most. God knows exactly how sinful we are, how petty and nasty we can be, and yet, He still chose to send His son to die on that Cross.

It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus that we can enter into a relationship with God. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Due to a very fractured childhood – divorce, re-marriage of both my parents, more divorces and re-marriages on my mom’s side and constant moving around as a child and teenager, I didn’t develop into the adult that God had created me to be. I had no sense of self-worth; I struggled with feelings of total inadequacy and had built so many barriers around myself for fear of being hurt, I am utterly amazed that my husband took the time to get to know me, never mind marry me!

We had been married for 21 years when I asked him what he had seen in me that made him want to marry me. His answer shocked me.

He said he had seen a wholeness in me.
I was a broken person, and yet, God gave him this image, this vision of wholeness, and through the years because of his love and the fact that he has always treated me as a whole person, I have been able to grow into wholeness.
I am still a work in progress! We are all works in progress.
From the time we are born, God sees us as whole people.  God looks at us through the image of Jesus Christ. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27).
It doesn’t matter what family we are born into or how we are being raised – God treats us as whole human beings, full of potential. We need to ask God what His vision is for our lives, and then, through His love, we need to start living that vision.
Lord, we pray that you will give each one of us a ‘vision’ of who we are in You. We are born with so much potential, born out of your love (despite our birth circumstances), equip us Lord, we pray, to grow into the people you created us to be.  Amen
“In becoming a whole person, the grateful leper was healed inside as well as on the outside. That day nine lepers were healed skin deep, but only one had the faith to be made whole.  The tenth leper was changed eternally by his faith in the Savior and the healing power of His atonement” ~ Merrill J. Bateman
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