DEVOTIONS: He calls me Daughter.

By Leila Halawe | @LHalawe 

Daughter. He called me daughter.

As I stood at a prayer and worship night at church, arms stretched high with tears streaming down my face, I cried out to God. I opened up my heart to Him, showing Him all the hurt and anger and bitterness and heartache and resentment; I showed Him all the ugly that was withing me and in that moment, He whispered the word, 'daughter.'

Daughter.

Despite my rants and rages and the ugliness that was in my heart, He did not turn away; He drew near and He drew me near to Him and called me daughter. When others would have walked away, He came closer still. God did not shy away from my anger or hurt, He did not look away in disgust like some of us may have done. Instead, He leaned in and called me daughter. 

Daughter. I am His Daughter. I am His Child.

In that moment, God reminded me of a couple of things: firstly, I had lost sight of Him. It is so easy for us to forget God; to carry on with life and forget to take time to look into the eyes of Jesus and just be. In our flawed human state, we so easily forget that He is with us in the everyday moments of life. and so we go on without Him until we hit a stumbling block or a ditch and we find ourselves crying out to Him. Secondly, I had forgotten who I belonged to. I was the daughter of the Creator of the universe. Since the moment He created me, in this very moment now, and for all eternity, I was and am and always will be the daughter of the Creator of the universe. The King of kings and Lord of lords. That is who I belong to and that is where my identity comes from.

In a society that tries to shape our identity be telling us how to be and who to be and what to be, we need to remember that our identity is found in Christ, the One that created us and died for us. We have all had hurtful words spoken to us or over us. Maybe it was your parents as you were growing up telling you that you were a mistake. Or maybe it was the schoolyard bully picking on you while others looked on, or your teacher telling you that you would never amount to anything. Or it could have been your partner telling you that you were unlovable as they walked out the door. I'm not sure what it is for you but I can tell you this: when God looks at you He does not see a mistake or someone who is unworthy or unloveable, He sees His Child. He sees His son. He sees His daughter. And He looks down on you with a heart loves you more than you could ever comprehend.

Today, as you go about your day, take a moment and remind yourself that He is calling you Daughter. Or Son. And lift up your eyes and heart to your Heaven Father knowing that He loves you.

Note: This post was also published on Looking In.

Leila (Lays) Halawe is a Sydney based coffee loving nonfiction writer and blogger. She has published a short devotional, Love By Devotion, and shares her views on life and faith via her blog page Looking In . You can connect with her via Facebook at Leila Halawe Author  and via Twitter at Leila Halawe.

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