Photo by J W on Unsplash

My daughter Jorryn, 14 years old, was discouraged when she brought to me her painting of the cross with flowers growing around it. She had taken a picture of what it represented before she painted more detail and liked what it looked like better before. I told her I like how it was painted now. I told her she has pictures of both to look at. She said that the more detailed painting made it look more messy. I shared with her that it revealed how JESUS’s death to save us from our sins was messy. She had some dark red vine-like stems and she wasn’t liking how it stood out so much. I told her it reminded me of JESUS’s blood shed on the cross that forgives our sin. She replied, “I like it then” and she walked away more accepting of her created piece of artwork.

My daughter Jorryn and I are going through the book of John together. She has a lot of questions arise in her mind as we take turns reading parts of each chapter. I’ve enjoyed GOD speaking through me and by HIS Spirit to Jorryn concerning various verses and what they mean. As we read through John 12, we came to a stopping point and her heart opened up to me. She wanted to know how to trust in the Lord. I told her to believe in Him and know He loves and leads her. She talked about how she fails and doesn’t know what to do about it.

I shared with her the following verse:

¹⁶ for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
    but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

Proverbs 24:16 New International Version

I told her every time we fall or fail, we get back up and try again. GOD knows we fail, but wants us to get up again to live our lives in HIS love and care…

She let me know she feels discouraged a lot of the time and doesn’t know what to do about it.

I shared with her the following verse:

¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10 New International Version

GOD can be trusted and we can know HE is with us. We don’t have to stay discouraged by knowing HE is our GOD who loves us. We can know HE is the ONE who will make us strong and be our help. Every time we fall/fail, we get back up and HE will hold onto us and hold us up with HIS own mighty righteous right hand…

She let me know she sometimes hates herself and doesn’t know how to be perfect the way GOD wants her to be.

I told her that GOD hates our sin.

We have believed in and trusted in JESUS who took all of our sin and GOD’s wrath so that HE could love us whom HE has made special and precious to HIM.

I told her that GOD loves who HE has made her to be, but hates the sin we sometimes do.

I shared with her Psalm 139:

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.

Psalm 139 New International Version

I told her GOD loves who HE made her to be. HE hates the sin, but loves who she is in JESUS Christ…

I told her that when she sins or reads something in the Word that points out her sin that she is able to confess her sin to GOD and HE will forgive her. She can ask HIM to help her not sin in that way and help her grow to become more like JESUS, HIS Son…

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9 New International Version

When she confesses her sin, GOD the FATHER looks to HIS SON JESUS at HIS right hand next to HIM on the throne and sees JESUS’s scars where He took the nails shedding His blood to forgive her of her sins and says “Since she has trusted in MY SON, I will also forgive her sins and cleanse her to make her new and spotless again…

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

She told me she often has thoughts of feeling terrible and not being able to do everything right. She was feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, and stressed.

I told her we can hate our life and explained to her how life is hard and people fail us.

⁵ Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:25 New International Version

We are allowed to hate this life, because we were made for our life to be found in Heaven forevermore with Him…

Though we may hate this life and hate our sin, we are not to hate ourselves.

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:30-31

We are to love GOD with everything we are. Then we are to love those around us as ourself. We are only able to do this if we accept and receive GOD’s love for us in and through HIS Son JESUS… Once we do this, we are then able to love others by HIS Holy Spirit working in and through us…

I told her she needs to replace the negative thoughts she has toward herself with GOD’s Truth about her…

I shared with her the verse:

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 New International Version

It is important that we renew our minds with GOD’s Truth about who we are in Christ so that we do not get discouraged and give up in order that we can continue onward in faith, hope, and love that is a Gift from HIM to be an overcomer in this life we have been given…

I told her that she was wounded by others in Jr. High where she attended before the stress and hurt caused her depression. I told her she can “pour out her heart” to GOD in a prayer spoken or written out, a story expressed, or a drawing or painting depicting how she felt at that time with the pain experienced. Once she has done this, I told her she needs to ask GOD to heal her heart, soul, mind, and spirit…

She stated that she can’t do it.

I shared with her the verse:

¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13 New International Version

Then I had her pray to GOD something like the following prayer:

GOD I can’t do it. I need YOUR help. I am hurting. I ask for YOU to heal me.

She cried in silent tears falling down her beautiful face. I was moved with compassion to go and hug her holding onto her and interceding for JESUS to hold, comfort, and heal her… I know He will answer this prayer in His timing, will, and way…

I asked her after I prayed. How do you feel or what are you thinking?

She said to me, “I want to hide.”

I shared the following verse:

⁸ Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,

Psalm 17:8

She told me she was worn out.

Then she asked me for what she should do now.

I shared with her the following verse:

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 New International Version

She asked what she should do now.

I told her to go to her room and shut her door. I suggested she listen to worship music to listen to, sing in her heart to GOD, or sing out loud. I told her giving GOD our praises helps us to fight the enemy and our negative thoughts.

Later, while writing this post, she came to me and shared with me this song entitled “You Hold Me (Psalm 139) by Tom Mottershead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym8cdp-urVk:

HIS “painting” covers over the white canvas of our heart and soul that creates a Master piece for HIS telling our story of redemption in and through JESUS HIS Son as HE gives us true meaning for our lives…

His blood shed for us covers over our past, present, and future sins making us a new creation…

HIS love for us covers over a multitude of sins so that we in turn are reminded that we were created to cover over others sins when we forgive their trespasses against us…

¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 New International Version

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace,which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

¹¹ In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-14 New International Version

⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8 New International Version