By Mallory Mattingly
Atlanta Falcons running back Nathan Carter shared a powerful reminder about how well God knows each of us.
“How do you think God thinks of you?” Carter wrote in a post on Instagram. “Much of our relationship with God stems from the idea of His thoughts toward us. We all long to be seen. We constantly seek validation, asking the question: Are we worthy of love? We go throughout our lives wondering how other people will view us when we walk in a room, and then we translate that into how we believe God sees us.”
“We look at our failures, shortcomings, and mistakes and wonder how God feels about us based upon how we’ve lived our life,” he continued. “As if our performance is the way for God to ‘like’ us more. But we’re nowhere near where we think we should be, so we are disappointed in ourselves, and because we are, we think that God must be disappointed in us too. We say we have no purpose or anything meaningful to offer. But that isn’t reality.”
Related: Falcons RB Asks: ‘What Must I Do?’ to Gain Eternal Life
Carter then referenced Psalm 139:17-18, which reads, “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with you.”
“Not only do we see that the psalmist is confident in the way that God thinks about him, but he’s so confident that he calls God’s thoughts about him ‘precious,'” Carter continued. “Meaning something incredibly valuable, desirable, esteemed. It also means ‘difficult.’ The psalmist uses this word to convey both how incredibly incomprehensible and impossible it is to know the totality of God’s thoughts and at the same time how valuable and vast God’s thoughts are toward him.”
“God’s thoughts toward you are not hidden or mysterious. God’s thoughts toward you are intentional and overflowing,” the running back exclaimed. “So overflowing that it is overwhelming. His thoughts outnumber the grains of sand on a beach. To the point that if you were to try and count them all, you’d fall asleep. The greatest evidence of God’s thoughts toward you is found in His Son, Jesus, who came down to die on a cross for you.”
Carter finished his post with one of the greatest promises from all of Scripture.
“God’s thoughts toward you are not based on your behavior, successes, or failures,” he explained. “They are anchored in what Christ did on the cross. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection demonstrate the depth, costliness, and incomprehensible way God thinks about you.
“God is pursuing you. He loves you. His thoughts about you are precious, and He sent His Son to prove it. Do you believe Him?” he concluded.
God knows everything about you — the good and bad — because He made you. He knows the number of hairs on our head, and He knows our deepest thoughts, our desires and our longings; the question is, “Do you believe Him?”
Read Next: Falcons RB Explains How to Live Out This Biblical Concept Every Day
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +4Share:
– Content: +2