For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. Psalm 139:13-18a
Our morning class this week is the First Commandment with Holly Fields. So, we have been studying Matthew 22:37:
And he said to him, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
We have been talking about what this means. Today, we talked about how your soul can be your personality. God designed each of us with a very specific perspective on the world, a certain sense of humor, and a particular way of interacting with others and our environment. He wants us to love Him with the whole of our personality because our love is unique, which makes it precious to Him. I was so struck by the thought that no one can love God exactly the way that I do. No wonder God desires for each of us to offer our love up to Him! He cannot substitute the love of any one of us for any other one of us. We are unique and God is jealous to have the love and affection that is unique to each of us.
I got even more excited when I was reading through the Song of Solomon study guide. Here is an excerpt from Mike Bickle that develops this idea further:
We all have a unique design from the hand of God in our physical and our personality design. Therefore, we have unique value in the way that God created us. God chose the way we look. He chose our ethnic group, our gender, and our gifting's, as well as our gift mix. Not only did God choose the gifts He put in us, He also chose the ones that He kept from us. In great love and wisdom, He chose the generation that we live in. God chose the family that we would be a part of and He chose our personality and temperament. He chose the way our face looks and the way our body works. David understood that the design of God had a purpose to it. He said, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me"! Psalm 139:6
God made me exactly the way He wanted me to be. I look the way that I do because God wants me to look this way. I have the strengths that I have because God gave me those gifts. He specifically chose not to give me the gifts that I don't have, even though He knew that I could see other people's gifts and that might provoke my jealousy. He has already written all "the days that [are] ordained for me"! From conception, God has orchestrated everything from my physical body to my family of origin to my educational experience to my cultural history to my personality to my secret history in Him in order to have exactly what He has destined me for. I can't even begin to understand this! How can I have choice and yet God is so sovereign that I arrive exactly where He wants me to arrive, in the end?! How can I doubt this incredible God who rules everything that exists, but desires my love and works to win the affections of my heart? Truly, my God is bigger and better than I can understand. On the other hand, it is comforting to know that I really can spend all of eternity getting to know Him without ever coming to His end.
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