Veronica Y. Brayboy is part of our City of Refuge Fellowship family and each month she will be sharing her heart on our website blog. Below is her first post titled “Getting to Know God’s Love…”
May I tell you a story? Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a Kingdom that was ruled by a very just, kind and loving King, who was her father. This King was well known for His love and generosity, but the princess did not feel that she was worthy to have the honor of being His daughter. The princess knew all the bad decisions and wrong she had done in her life and knowing that if He, her father, the King would know her true being, surely, He would never want to use her to represent Him in His kingdom.
Sadly, instead of trusting that her Father loved her, the princess listened to other voices, voices that said they represented the King…some well-meaning, some not. These voices told her that if she ever made a mistake in following her Father’s wishes, she would miss any further opportunities to be used by Him…that she would “miss” any good that would have come to her and that it would be passed on to someone else. The voices, in an attempt to control, also portrayed her Father as a King that would punish her if she did not obey them, the voices. For years, the princess listened to the voices and believed their interpretation of the King and His wishes, she believed that her obedience to the voices would somehow make her acceptable to the King; but instead she only grew in fear, fear of rejection and missing the opportunity to please Him.
The King was very wise and knew all along that his daughter’s heart desire was to please Him. He heard her heart’s cry to know Him more, He knew of her fears of not being good enough and of her weariness of trying to be what she thought He would want in a daughter.
The King, her Father, was not only wise but also very merciful and compassionate and it sadly moved Him that His daughter, the princess, would not come to Him directly to get to know Him for who He truly was. You see, the years of deception and misguidance had created layers of unworthiness and fear around the princess and the King knew that only the Truth about Himself could pierce and take away those layers of fallacies…so He sent a voice. This one was a voice that shared the Truth about who the King really was, a voice that had learned, and knew the true character of the King, about His mercy, forgiveness and unconditional Love. This voice had no hidden agenda, no desire for control…this voice had sat in the presence of the King and knew Him well. The King who loved His daughter very much, and wanted her to know Him, sent her this voice that understood her journey and whom was free to help others learn how to have that same freedom.
The more the princess learned about the True character of her Father, the King, the layers of fallacies about Him fell off. The more she was encouraged to get to know and visit the King for herself, the more at home she felt in the King’s presence. No longer is there a barrier of fear between her and her Father. She knows how much He loves her and wants the very best for her. Now she can walk in her Father’s kingdom with assurance that she is loved…she can love the King freely and love others as she loves herself.
Confession (as if you didn’t already know): I am that princess, and for so many years I was so bound with the deception of what I believed was Truth. If there is anyone to blame, it would be myself, because during that time I chose to believe what I felt was truth. God, in His loving mercy, is always working in our lives to point us to the Truth, but we for various reasons often chose what we feel is the easiest way. God wants us to know Him for ourselves, He wants us to KNOW the Truth of His love for us, not someone’s interpretation of it. God’s love is pure, transparent, no hidden prerequisites to obtain it, not controlling nor condemning and certainly not deceptive. We can never truly love and appreciate ourselves or others, until we first KNOW the true character and unconditional love of God!
I am so thankful for His Mercy, for directing me to a representative whose only agenda is to share the Love and True Character of Our Father. No one is perfect and I’ll be the first to raise my hand, but I am so thankful that God sees and uses “voices” that are willing to transparently share and represent the Holy, Loving, Kind, Just and Merciful God that desires to save, redeem, heal, restore and establish us in His Kingdom!
February is considered the “Month of Love”, my prayer is that all who read this will get to know REAL Love and not someone’s interpretation of it. Get to know Jesus Christ, the King of Kings for who He truly is! He loves us with an everlasting Love and in getting to know that love, His Love, we can then begin to truly love others and to love ourselves.
“We love Him because He first loved us.” John 4:19
“…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
-Veronica Y. Brayboy