Within the past week, I have known the deep honor of journeying alongside several women while listening to their stories of pain. Most of their stories involve a sense of betrayal—either by the people they loved or by a sense that God did not come through for them when they most needed help. I have felt this way many times, though God is doing much to heal the places in me that still ache with the question, “Where were you?”

When I wrote this blessing out during a time of prayer, I thought the message was just for me. But now I wonder if it is also for the women whose stories I heard—maybe, even, for you.

I share this in hope of encouraging the one who feels afraid to take risks, whose heart still aches from past harm, who fears they are not enough, who has made themselves small to appease the ego of others.  

If that is you, the truest truth is this: God sees you. God knows you. God loves you. God will never leave you. God has more goodness in store for you than you could ever ask or imagine. God is not done with you. God has an eternal home for you.

May these words bring courage and peace, and may only what is helpful remain.

You are so afraid of getting it wrong.
What if I told you that you cannot go wrong in my Love?
That even your every wrong will be made right in my Kingdom of Light?
Don’t be afraid to live, my dear one—to make mistakes.

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.
My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

Moses was worried about getting it wrong, too—about being misunderstood or hated.
But I spoke through him, led many people to freedom through him, and never took my Presence from him.

You are afraid that if you do something wrong, you will lose my Presence.
You think that it is possible to get so far ‘off track’ that I won’t come looking for you, that I won’t be able to find you, that I will remove my favor from you and move on to someone else.

My love is not so fragile.
You do not need to keep my attention, to impress me, to earn my love.
My love goes deeper than you can fathom—deeper than every human fear.
Deeper than any force of evil that tries to take you under.

I will always come find you, and I am the Good Shepherd who always knows where you are.
Trust me, my dear one.
With you, I am well pleased.

I am not the people who have hurt you.
I am not like any man whose attention you felt you had to keep.
You do not need to adapt, to make yourself smaller or less than who you most fully are in my Presence.
Do not shy away from who I made you to be.
Let me heal the wound in your heart that tells you you’re not enough.

I am the Lord your God—I brought you out of captivity and carried you on my own shoulders, like a shepherd carries a lamb.
Why would I forsake or abandon my treasure, my prized possession?
Even those dearest to you may forget you, but I will not forget you.

I fashioned every star in place, and I know the stringed instrument sound that every blade of grass makes when played by the wind in just the right way.
I know every grain of sand on the seashore you love so much.

Following me will never be boring—how could it be, with me as your Captain?
Hard, yes. Discouraging at times, yes.
But anything filled with my Presence knows fullness of Joy.
Let me usher you into that Presence today.

You can rest here.
I am your Home.
Welcome Home, my darling, my love, my beautiful one.

Going Deeper: Spend some time with the Bible verses woven throughout this blessing. Are there any promises you need to claim as your own today?

• I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. (Genesis 28:15)

• My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. (Exodus 33:14) 

• I am the good shepherd. (John 10:11)

• Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. (Luke 15:4-6)

• This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)

• God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. (Numbers 23:19)

• I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (Exodus 20:2)

• I have made you and I will carry you. (Isaiah 46:4)

• The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6)

• Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! (Isaiah 49:15)

• Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. (Isaiah 40:26)

• In your Presence there is fullness of joy. (Psalm 16:11)

• I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

• Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! (Psalm 90:1)

• Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. (Song of Songs 2:10)