i am chosen and my name is Hephzibah.

so this morning, i was thinking of posting a new blog - since i have neglected to do so in quite a while. i prayed that God would lay something on my heart to say. and pretty much as soon as i decided to open my bible, he showed me this :

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand." - Isaiah 41:10

ever since i began this journey with God, i've always been quite perplexed with the thought that God is always working on us - that we'll never be done. and lately, that thought has been a huge discouragement to me. Satan has twisted it in my head to be like, "See, you'll always be a failure. So why even try ?" but that is the enemy talking. it's in our brokenness that we find God, because that's when we need him the most. isaiah 41:10 is God comforting us. He's saying, "I am with you! Don't be discouraged! I will hold you up! I will help you!" My friend Hope said it like this, "It is hard to engage in something you can't finish, but that's why we need Him and His help and guidance. We can't do it on our own. Our life is a working testimony." if we were ever done being changed and fixed by God, there'd be no need for Him any longer. Our life is a working testimony - a testimony of His amazing power and love ! not a testimony of our strength (or lack there of), but of His.

as i began to dive into the whole chapter of Isaiah 41, i found more of what God wants to say in it. two verses earlier, it reads :

"But as for you, Israel my servant, Jacob my chosen one, descended from Abraham my friend, I have called you back from the ends of the earth, saying, 'You are my servant.' For I have chosen you and will not throw you away." - 41:8-9

not only does He want to communicate to not be afraid or discouraged, but before that He wants us to know that we are CHOSEN.

God chose you, and He will not leave you or forsake you. He will help you through the trials of life, and make you strong.

that is an incredible truth. God chose me. so even though i know He will never been done with me, i know he will help me along the way. He won't leave me. And He will hold me up with His "victorious right hand."

while writing this, God reminded me of another passage in Isaiah - Isaiah 62:3-5 :

"You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called Hephzibah (My Delight is in Her), and your land Married, for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so shall your God rejoice over you."

i'll leave you with this : You are chosen. You will not be forsaken, so do not be afraid. He will uphold you in his hand, where you will be a crown of beauty. You are Hephzibah - He delights in you.