Hope Encouragement Inspiration
Letter Forty-Three
Dear Child:
Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will always have my eye on you, and I will always want to be your God.
By the worlds standards I should have given up on you long ago. But the world doesn’t see with my eyes. I see you; I cherish you, and I love you. You are my child – rags to riches, in misery and in money – for all the seasons of your life.
Come to me. Rest in me. I am your safe place.
Your God,
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
Letter Forty-One
Dear Child:
You have failed again, and now you are afraid to approach me. I’m here waiting. Invite me in.
Haven’t I proven time and again that I am more about grace, love, and forgiveness than about wrath and rejection?
It takes great courage to approach me after a fall. Come near.
Remember this -- at the end of your failures you’ll always find me.
I was there in the beginning.
I am here at the end.
I am with you always, even to the end of the earth.
So, draw near.
~I have a big heart.
~I have compassion for the weak.
~I have love for the loveless.
~I have forgiveness for the fallen.
Come to me.
You’ll always find me at the end of your failure.
Your God Who is Always There
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
Letter Forty – From God
Dear Child:
I don’t flinch at your ugliness and the dirty rags of your life.
I don’t turn my head from the stench of your past rottenness.
I look beyond all of that and offer you my hand, my heart.
Others may flinch at the thought of your past life, but not me. I don’t flinch. I look beyond all that and see my child in need of his or her Abba God.
I am yours. Rest easy with that.
I am as personal to you as I am to anyone else on this earth. I long to be intimate with you right where you are, misery and all. I’m not turning my head. I’m not pulling back my hand.
I’m opening my heart to you, for I love you!
Don’t lock the door.
Don’t keep me out.
Open yourself to my presence, my forgiveness, and my cleansing touch.
I am God. I want you, just as you are.
Your God,
P Michael Biggs
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
Letter THIRTY-NINE – from God
Dear Child:
The moment has arrived. You are facing surgery soon. There are a couple of things I want to tell you as you go through this experience.
You have fears. That is natural. Give me your fears.
I will be with you wherever you go, even through this.
And I’ll be with your friends and family too. I’ll be present with them just as I will be with you.
Today’s medical world is in the best shape it has been in. Man has created some amazing equipment for monitoring, probing, and seeing the human body from all angles.
And above all, trust in me, the God who loves you more than you could ever know.
I am with you every moment.
God,
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
THIRTY-EIGHT on Trust
My Dear Child:
This is a hard letter for me to write, but this is important.
Faith doesn’t come with a guarantee.
If you know much about me, you know I am all about faith. It’s been that way since the beginning.
I told Adam and Eve they could eat of every tree in the garden except for one. I gave them a stern warning to avoid the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. I hoped that they would take it by faith that I meant what I said. That is a dangerous tree and I wanted them to avoid it at all costs.
But they failed the faith test. They chose their own way and took from that tree.
I wanted faith. They wanted selfish desires.
The fruit on that tree looked very enticing, and I knew it would open a door that could never be closed again. I hoped they would take it by faith and obey when I said leave that one alone.
Faith is all about trusting me when you don’t see things clearly or have all the facts. Sometimes I want you to stop, sometimes I want you to lean out, or jump over the edge. You can’t always see the other side, but I want you to have faith in me.
Faith doesn’t come with a guarantee.
I’ll always allow you to make your own choices. If you want to open a forbidden door, you surely may. You won’t always like what’s on the other side, but I’ll let you open it if you choose.
I care and that is precisely why I put up some “Do Not Enter” signs along the way.
I can handle whatever comes your way ... today, tomorrow... forever. Just trust me with a little bit more of your life.
God,
P Michael Biggs
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
THIRTY-SEVEN
Do I Matter?
Dear Child:
I hear your cry. You wonder if anybody cares. You feel empty, abandoned, and alone.
You cry out, “Do I Matter?”
Let me wrap you in my arms. Listen as I whisper words of calm. “Yes, you matter. I am God, and you matter to me.”
I know where you are every moment of the day.
I never lose track of you.
I never take my eye off you.
“Do I matter” you ask?
My precious child, yes, you do matter.
As long as you take a breath you shall matter. Your significance is not diminished simply because of your age. You are, therefore you are significant.
You are someone important.
Someone of value
Someone of worth
Someone with skills and a destiny
Someone worth knowing
You are valued simply because you exist.
“DO I MATTER” you ask?
Yes, you certainly do. You matter!!!
Your God of Compassion
THIRTY-SIX
My Dear Child:
This is the season of grief in your life. Everyone goes through this at some point and now perhaps it is your time.
I want to say some things to you about this time in your life.
This loss you are experiencing will pass in time. That may be a difficult thought for you, but it is true.
Meanwhile, know this.
I am here. I am with you in the middle of your grief.
I AM HERE!
I’ve never abandoned you.
Shed tears if you like.
Talk with a trusted friend or advisor. They are there to help you as a part of
my plan. Reach out to one if you will.
And hold onto this thought: “Do not fear. I am with you; I am your God, so do not be shaken. I will give you strength and I will help you. You are held by my righteous right hand.”
Your God of Strength,
Hope Encouragement Inspiration
Letter THIRTY-FIVE
From The Letters by P Michael Biggs
Dear Child:
I am all about simple things, and I want simple from you.
Simple prayers.
Simple conversations.
Simple thoughts.
You don’t have to use big sounding words or holy sounding phrases. Just be you.
I’m not impressed with fluff. I don’t like a lot of high-minded blabber or lofty sounding words.
Just be yourself. Be true to the nature I have put within you already.
Even if you can’t utter the words, I still understand. I know your thoughts. I know everything about you. I love you, just as you are.
Your words are important, but your attitude is what I consider most. Just be you. Come to me just as you are.
Simple is beautiful.
God,
From:
Thoughts on Prayer
And what about prayer?
What is prayer all about and how do you do it properly?
If you’ve ever tried to pray, perhaps you have your stories of struggle, of staying awake until the “amen” and of making a coherent string of thoughts in prayer so that God is pleased with you, and you get a gold star for the day because of your prayer.
Hmmm. Consider this:
“Just patch a few words together
and don’t try to make them elaborate.
This isn’t a contest but a doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.”
Mary Oliver – Poet
Mary was not a theologian nor a biblical scholar. She was in touch with life in her own way as a poet and writer.
However, I think she was onto something with this quote.
Praying is not a contest to see who can pray the most eloquent thoughts, or the most beautiful phrases or string together the perfect synonyms for creative thoughts on God.
Praying is based on sincerity, humility, and intent of the heart.
I love Mary’s analogy of prayer as a “doorway into thanks”. Simple thanks.
Ann Lamont wrote once that “‘Help’ just might be one of the most profound prayers ever uttered.
When the burdens are heaviest, when the way is darkest, when the mind is cluttered with too much information or not enough of a sense of God, then perhaps “help” is the most appropriate prayer we can pray.
I’ve used that one a few times in my life.
I have some mulling to do on Mary’s last thought.
“And a silence in which another voice may speak.”
Silence. Isn’t that one of the eight deadly sins of the church? We can’t sit still and silent for too long for fear that half of the congregation will fall asleep.
Ah, what if we use that silence as a true tuning in time? What if God wanted to say something to us and was waiting for us to simmer down, hush up, and quite yakking long enough to whisper an important thought into our minds?
Now, wouldn’t that be something.
That’s the kind of praying to which I can relate.
It goes like this.
Come in, with no agenda, no prepared speech (prayer) and no worries about what I am going to say and no fear that I’ll say the wrong thing or leave out someone or something for which I should pray. Whew.
And then, in the stillness, the quiet quieter than quiet, what if God whispered to you and me? What if He started with something simple like, “Hey you. I love you.”
That would really be something.
A real, honest-to-goodness God-moment.
P Michael Biggs
Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration
