Past pain, insecurity, and doubt still reside in my brain. Yet when I have moments of weakness, I know that my emotional and physical health is a steady work in progress. Old patterns creep up when I least expect them, but they don’t have to brew in my soul continually.

What if I told you that your heart longs for boundaries? Would you believe it? You may say, “Come on! What my heart longs for is freedom and independence-not boundaries!” Let me point you to three truths to help you embrace the security available to you; so that you can live out of God’s love. These truths will ground and secure for you the identity of belovedness He bestows on you.

How can someone like me with my imperfections or “pencil marks” be used by God? Over my lifetime, I’ve seen God’s sovereign hand and experienced His faithful love in my life. Through my imperfections and weaknesses, He has gently humbled and guided me through His Word and the encouragement of a community of believers.

In our global, interconnected, digital world, everyone is on our path. Caring can lead to cause burnout. It becomes so easy to throw up our hands in the face of it all, believing that we are too small to make any kind of difference by loving others well. Maybe it’s time to think smaller.

God has a calling over your life and it includes your work. God made you with specific skills, personality traits, strengths, and giftings, and when you walk in the fullness of who He made you, you will experience His love. You will feel more connected to Him and blessed in your job.

Maybe you’ve collected some negative labels of your own over the years? All of us have fallen short in various ways, and some of us have experienced trauma not of our own choosing. It can be tempting to allow these things to tell us who we are, but names that keep us stuck and discouraged are not from God.

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesians explaining that even before the world was created, God had set His eyes on–and chosen–us. Imagine standing in a crowd and having the God of the universe point His finger at you and declare, “I choose you.” This is what He does every day of our lives.

So, my response was to work harder, read more, pray longer. And soon my relationship with God became a legalistic ritual that no longer brought me joy. And that is not God’s intention for the spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible study. The good news of the gospel is that God’s love doesn’t depend on us.