God loved me before I was born. Sometimes I just let that sink in. When I was inside my mom’s womb my creator loved me. Maybe that’s why I was born premature. I was ready to take part in His great creation, ready to experience His love.
A premature birth nearly cost me my life. Fortunately, a group of loving and skilled doctors worked round the clock to save my life and I joined my family after 13 days in the hospital.
My God loved me as I grew up. He loved me as I messed up.
Joining my family was the best thing I ever did, not that I had much of a choice, but if I did I would choose them a thousand times over. My parents taught me love and grace. They loved me as I grew up. They loved me as I messed up. They taught me how to have a relationship with God.
I’ve always known God loved me, but I didn’t start building my relationship with Him until I was a freshman in High School on a mission trip to Costa Rica (This trip probably started my love for Central America as well). Like any freshman, almost everything I did was meant to impress someone, or more truthfully a girl. This particular girl read her Bible every day, which I found very attractive. As we walked the beach in Jaco, Costa Rica and shared our hearts I knew my life would never be the same. But instead of falling in love with a girl. Instead of finding my “one”, I commited to reading my Bible. And that is when my real relationship with my creator began.
He loved me before that night and he loved me after that night when I messed up with girls and other relationships. He used that night to start something beautiful. A couple years later I felt Him asking me to be more committed. At that point I was a Sophomore in College, struggling with self confidence and reading my Bible and spending time with Him most of the time, but if I was too tired or just not in the mood I would decide not to open the Book.
It hit me though, He had always loved me and deserved more than an occasional night committed to him. At that time I was struggling to fall asleep, constantly worried about my life, what I had done and had not done. He told me to give him everything, each night. And so on December 23 2004 I decided to read my Bible and spend time in prayer each night for a year. Funny enough I hardly have trouble sleeping anymore. Funny enough I haven’t missed a night in more than seven years.
How can I worry when I know He has always loved me no matter what?
This commitment has been difficult. Like I said in my blog about running, Living Spiritually takes being attentive, being in position, and being submissive. I find being attentive and being submissive the hardest out of these three to commit to. Some nights I am just so tired and then sometimes I just don’t want to hear what God has to tell me.
I have often thought of giving up my nightly time with God, taking a break, but then I think that I might miss what God has to tell me. And so I continue.
Then this last December as I was reading through the Psalms, I heard God tell me to invite the rest of my family to live spiritually with me. Nah, it wont work, I thought. You’ll never know if you don’t try, I heard God say. And so I tried. Now, a month in I have noticed a change in my family. We are sharing our prayers with one another, sharing how God is working in our lives.
I have also noticed a change in my time in the Bible. The words have come alive again. This last Thursday as I read Psalm 139 God reminded me that he has always loved me. He has always known me. He made me special and strong. Even as I have lived each day perfectly or gone afoul He has loved me. He has seen my every action and He knew my every move before I even made them, and He still loves me.
He searched me. And He knows me. And He loves me.
How can I not live with confidence? How can I not show grace to those around me? How can I not live spiritually with this knowledge?
He has filled me with joy and I pray I do not forget this Psalm.
I challenge you, my readers, to open the Bible and start a relationship with your creator. He has loved you always, and if you join him on this Biblical Adventure His love will change you forever. It’s a ride worth taking. He has always given me the strength to continue reading and I know He will do the same for you.
Join me and my family in Living Spiritually.
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
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;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Adventure With Brendan 
Hey! Thank you for your post. I’ve been going through some challenging times and I have neglected my relationship with God for a while. But post has inspired me to go pray and read the Bible. Thank you!
**your post
I’ll definately try to restore my relationship with Him!
Joy, I’m praying for you. Thank’s for being open and letting me know a little of what is going on.
Impressive “blue steel” in that first pic. I like how you don’t focus Bible reading on getting information about God or ourselves but rather on getting to know God. Thanks for passing on your experience and the gift of the God Sightings journal. God is using it to change me.