“My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come…'” — Song of Songs 2:10–12
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8
There are days when I look back over my life and wonder how God could possibly love someone like me.
I don’t see a spiritual giant.
I see a broken man.
I see someone who has stumbled more times than he can count. A man who has ignored God’s voice, defended his pride, chosen comfort over obedience, and broken His commandments in thought, in word, and in deed.
If my life were presented as evidence in a courtroom, I would have no defense.
And yet…
When I open the Scriptures, I don’t hear condemnation as the final word. I hear an invitation.
“Come now, My love.”
Those words almost seem misplaced.
Surely God is speaking to someone other than me.
Someone whose life isn’t marked by so many failures.
Someone who hasn’t wandered so far.
But that isn’t the Gospel.
The Gospel is that Jesus always moved toward the broken.
He ate with sinners.
He touched lepers.
He defended the ashamed.
He restored failures.
He forgave those who nailed Him to the cross.
He did not wait for people to become worthy before loving them. He loved them into transformation.
Brennan Manning wrote in The Furious Longing of God that many of us spend our lives believing in God while quietly doubting that He delights in us. We accept that God is loving, but struggle to believe that His love is personal enough to include me, with all of my shame and failure.
I understand that struggle.
I know what it feels like to believe the facts of the Gospel while secretly wondering if they apply to me.
But the cross answers that question forever.
Jesus knew every chapter of my story before I lived a single page.
He knew every failure I would carry.
Every hidden motive.
Every selfish choice.
Every season of wandering.
And He still stretched out His hands.
The invitation was never based on my goodness.
It has always rested on His.
So perhaps when Jesus says,
“Come now, My love…”
He isn’t ignoring my past.
He is declaring that my past no longer has the final word.
Winter has passed.
Not because I finally became good enough.
But because Christ entered my winter, bore my sin, and walked out of the grave so I could walk into His spring.
One day I will stand before Him, and I believe my greatest surprise won’t be how much I loved Him.
It will be discovering how much He loved me all along.
Prayer
Father,
There are still places in my heart that struggle to believe Your love is truly for me. I know my failures. I remember my regrets. I carry memories that remind me how often I have fallen short of Your holiness.
Yet You continue to call me, “Beloved.”
Thank You for loving me before I ever thought to love You. Thank You for pursuing me when I wandered, for carrying me when I was too weak to walk, and for never giving up on me even when I doubted You—or doubted Your love for me.
Help me to stop measuring Your love by my performance. Teach me to measure it by the cross.
When shame tells me to hide, remind me of Your invitation.
When guilt tells me to run, remind me that You ran to meet the prodigal.
When fear tells me I am unworthy, remind me that Jesus was worthy in my place.
May I spend the rest of my life learning what it truly means to be loved by You—not a love I earned, but a love You freely gave.
And when I finally hear Your voice face to face, may my first response simply be,
“I’m home.”
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
Lyrics
Verse 1 I’ve been walking through The memories again, Looking at the places Where I should’ve turned back then. I see the pride. I see the shame. The words I can’t take back. The times I knew the better road… And still I chose another path. If anyone knows The truth about me, It’s You. So when I hear You calling, I can hardly believe You’re calling me.
Chorus Come now, My love. Come just as you are. The winter is over. You don’t have to hide. Lift up your face. Let Me hear your voice. I’ve been waiting here, Long before you heard Mine. Come now, My love. Come home.
Verse 2 I spent so many years Trying hard to earn Something You were giving Long before my turn. I wore my shame Like it was my name. I carried every scar. Never dreaming grace Could ever reach this far. But You saw every failure, Every secret, Every sin. And somehow You stayed here.
Chorus Come now, My love. Come just as you are. The flowers are waking. The morning has come. Lift up your face. Let Me hear your voice. I’ve never stopped Calling your name. Come now, My love. Come home.
Bridge I don’t understand it. I never will. The Holy One Reached for these broken hands. You knew every chapter Before my story was told. Still… You opened Your arms. Still… You called me beloved. Still… You whispered my name. Come now… My love.
Final Chorus Come now, My love. The winter is gone. The old has surrendered. A new day has dawned. Lift up your face. There’s nothing to prove. You were loved before You ever knew love. Come now, My love. Come home.
Outro When I stand before You, It won’t be because I finally became worthy. It will be because Your mercy never stopped Coming after me. My story Was never about How tightly I held on to You. It was always about How faithfully You held on to me. Come now, My love. I’m coming home.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” — Ephesians 2:10
One of the greatest discoveries I’ve made is that life isn’t primarily about finding answers.
For years I prayed, “Lord, show me Your will. Show me the path. Show me what You want me to do.” I thought if I prayed long enough, read enough Scripture, and listened carefully enough, one day God would hand me a map.
Instead, He kept putting people in front of me.
A friend who needed encouragement. Someone who needed forgiveness. A stranger who needed kindness. A challenge I never would have chosen.
Looking back, I wonder if I was asking the wrong question.
Maybe the purpose of life isn’t found in discovering God’s plan as much as responding faithfully to the opportunities He places in front of us.
Viktor Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning) wrote that life asks every person a question. As I read those words, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus. He rarely answered questions directly. Instead, He asked them.
“Who do you say I am?”
“Do you love Me?”
“What do you want Me to do for you?”
Maybe that’s how God has always worked.
Every circumstance quietly asks, “Who will you become?”
That’s where My Story begins.
But it never ends there.
Because the next question is always about Your Story.
Who has God placed in front of me today? Whose burden can I help carry? Whose tears can I help wipe away? Whose story intersects mine for this moment?
Then, almost without noticing, both stories become part of something infinitely larger.
His Story.
The story God has been unfolding since the beginning. It’s not simply bound and finished in the Scripture.
Maybe that’s why Paul could write that all things work together for good—not because all things are good, but because the Author is still writing.
The chapter may be painful.
But the story isn’t over.
Prayer
Father, help me stop demanding the whole map. Give me the courage to be faithful with today’s step. Let my story become a blessing in someone else’s story, and may both find their place in Your Story. Amen.
My Story, Your Story, His Story
Verse 1
I thought faith would spare the hard days, Keep my feet on easy ground. But the road has crossed through valleys Where hope was hard to find. Some prayers were answered slowly, Some dreams never came to be. Still somewhere in the silence, He was changing me.
Pre-Chorus
I can’t choose every chapter, I can’t stop every storm. But I can choose the heart I carry Until the morning comes.
Chorus
My story… Written through the joy and pain. Your story… Crosses mine and we’re both changed. His Story… Has been holding every page. Nothing’s wasted, nothing’s lost When love becomes the way. My story… Your story… His Story.
Verse 2
Sometimes strength is simply staying When the night won’t let you sleep. Sometimes hope is just believing There’s a harvest you can’t see. Love is found in ordinary moments, A hand to hold, a burden shared. Meaning grows where mercy meets us, Right in the middle of our prayers.
Bridge
When I cannot change my story, I can change the way I live. I can answer fear with courage. I can answer hate with grace. I can answer loss with kindness. I can answer doubt with faith. Every choice becomes a sentence That no sorrow can erase.
Final Chorus
My story… Never written just for me. Your story… Part of who I’m meant to be. His Story… Has been calling us by name. Every scar and every victory Finding purpose just the same.
Outro
My story… Your story… They were never meant to stand alone. Every road… every scar… Every joy… every tear… Somehow they all lead home.
“For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” — Ephesians 1:4
There’s something hard for us to grasp about a God who is not bound by time.
We live inside it. We measure everything by it. Days, years, seasons, milestones. We think in terms of what has happened and what might happen next. But God doesn’t move that way. He is not reacting. He is not catching up. He is not waiting to see how things turn out.
Before there was a “before”… He chose.
Before there was breath in your lungs… He knew your name.
Before anything in your life was built—or broken—your identity was already established in Him.
That means something important.
It means that what you are walking through right now—whether it feels steady or uncertain, successful or falling apart—was never meant to define you.
We spend so much of our lives trying to build a name. Through work. Through reputation. Through what we accomplish or what we avoid. And when those things shift—and they always do—it can feel like we’re losing ourselves.
But maybe what’s actually happening is something else.
Maybe what’s being shaken was never you to begin with.
God is not forming your identity based on your performance. He’s not watching your life unfold and then deciding who you are. That decision was already made—in Christ—before the foundation of the world.
And what He writes… He doesn’t erase.
Your job may change. Your circumstances may shift. Things you thought were stable may not hold. But none of those things have the authority to rename you.
Because your identity doesn’t come from what you do.
It comes from who He is.
And faith, in its simplest form, is just agreeing with that. Not striving to become someone new—but waking up to who you’ve been in Him all along.
So today, whatever feels uncertain… whatever feels like it’s slipping…
Let it.
Because what is truly you—what God has spoken, what He has written, what He has sealed—was never built on those things.
And it never will be.
You are His.
And that has already been decided.
Prayer
Father,
You are outside of time, and yet You see me right here in this moment. Before I ever lived a day, You knew my name. You chose me. You claimed me.
Help me to believe that more deeply.
When I start to define myself by what I do, what I’ve lost, or what others think— remind me who I am in You. When things around me feel unstable, keep me anchored in what cannot be shaken.
Teach me to live from my identity, not for it. To rest in what You have already spoken, instead of striving to prove something You’ve already decided.
And when I forget… bring me back again.
Thank You that my name is written, that it is held by You, and that nothing in this life can take that away.
I am Yours.
Amen.
Song Lyrics: Verse 1 You are a God who sees all time Not bound within these days of mine Before I ever drew a breath You knew my name, You knew my steps I’ve worn the names this life can give By what I’ve done, the way I’ve lived But they all fade, they lose their claim They never held me like Your name
Verse 2 There are days it all feels thin Like who I am just caves within When what I built won’t stand its ground And nothing steady can be found But underneath the shifting sand There is a truth I know will stand It holds me up when I give way It speaks the words I cannot shake
Chorus I am Yours, and that won’t change My name is written in Your grace Not in the rise, not in the fall Not in the weight of it at all Through the fire, through the pain Through the loss I can’t explain What is shaken isn’t me Just what was never built on Thee
Verse 3 You wrote my name before the start Not on a page, but in Your heart And sealed it not with what I do But with the blood that speaks for me And faith is just my way to stand On what you always had clearly planned Not earning it, not holding on But trusting what was true all along
Bridge You see the end before the frame And still You call me by my name Not who I was, not what I fear But who I am when You are near All the names I wore before Don’t fit me like they did before They fall away, they lose their claim Standing in the light of your holy name
Bridge (Build) Written before time began Sealed by the blood of the Lamb I believe, so I will stand In the grace that holds my name
Final Chorus I am Yours, and that won’t change Even here in doubt and pain When I don’t see, when I don’t know Still I am who You have called Not by sight, not by proof But by the steady weight of truth What is hidden now in faith Will be clear when I see Your face
Outro My name is written Not by me And nothing here Can take it from me I am Yours You are mine For all eternity For all time
