Belovedness by Sarah KrogerSample

Own It

Beloved. This is who we are, and it’s literally an instruction: be loved.

There are three simple things I’m going to recommend that you can start doing TODAY to live this belovedness.

1. Start and end your day with prayer. This is not a luxury for those slow weekends when you have the time. Prayer is how our souls breathe. Every morning, rest in how much God loves you before you’ve accomplished a single thing - maybe you haven’t even gotten out of bed. Know that your worth is established in that moment, not in any other moment of success or failure that the day brings. At the end of the day, do a brief examination of conscience. Reflect on the ways you loved well and didn’t love well throughout the day. Ask for help doing better tomorrow. Being beloved isn’t about staying the same, it’s about being given the freedom to grow without shame because God loves you as you are yet is calling you closer to Himself.
2. Dive into Scripture. The great Billy Graham said that scripture is “God’s love letter to us”. If my husband wrote me a long love letter, there wouldn’t be entire chunks of it that I’d never read. There wouldn’t be huge portions I’d disregard or say are too good to be true. The word of God is alive, it’s effective, and it is true. The more you soak in His word, the more it saturates every part of your life. 
3. Give yourself GRACE. Newsflash: you’re not perfect and you never will be. Being aware of our shortcomings is not a bad thing but allowing them to tell us who we are is not of God. Remember, this grace isn’t the grace to keep sinning, it’s the grace to keep getting up when you fall. Our God is a God of redemption. Ask yourself, how can I treat myself with kindness and mercy? The Lord’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Are yours? 

My prayer for you, and what I hope you’ll pray for me, is that we see ourselves and others the way the Lord sees us. Beloved isn’t a badge to earn, a club to join, or a gift to withhold from others. It’s our identity, it’s our name, and it’s the strength we need for the journey. It’s time to own our belovedness. 

Learn more about Sarah Kroger here: SarahKroger.lnk.to/belovednessYV