My Story-Part II

I can’t imagine being raped and then finding out I was pregnant with my rapist’s child. I remember justifying how an abortion would be somehow acceptable in the case of rape-I mean how could you expect a woman to carry a child that was conceived under such horrible and evil means? Oh wait-that could’ve been me… I was questioning everything-my self-worth, even my existence.Thoughts of suicide came and went.  I never acted on it and always shrugged off the thought of doing so.  It wasn’t until I sought God’s voice in my life that those thoughts began to disappear.
Little did I know God was calling me to Him.  He wanted me?   Couldn’t be-you don’t know about me, where I came from… Yes Ashley, God wants you.  HE knows you-HE created you-HE loves you.

Galatians 1:15-16 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles…

Psalm 139:13-16 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

You see, I wasn’t a mistake. God knew what was going to happen the day I was conceived, and He had a plan for my life.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

God takes bad situations and makes something beautiful!

Revelation 21:4-6 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

I am a child of God.

Romans 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

I am here to share God’s good news and plan for your life and mine.

I am alive, not by mistake, but by His grace.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

We must all remember that God has a plan for our lives. We may not see it or even understand what it is. All we can do is daily seek His face and His will. We must not get discouraged when we feel like the world has turned its back on us-it has! But GOD hasn’t turned His back on us! God was, and still is, in control. And praise God for that!

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Think about it-What if God designed my birth, my life, my whole situation to show others His love for me?

What is God doing in YOUR life to bring you closer to HIM, to make you more Christ like, to make you share His love with others?