My Prayer Today

Dear Lord,

You are sovereign.  You are all knowing and all powerful.  You are a God of grace, mercy and Truth.  You are a just God. You are perfect in every way.  You are holy.  You are my God and I am so blessed to be called your child.  Lord, today I ask that you let me be a mirror.  When others look at me, I want them to see You.  Lord, I ask that You will help me to be a reflection of you in every way no matter what comes today.  Lord, I pray you would give me opportunities to teach and give me Your wisdom to teach accurately.  I pray for opportunities to speak and Your words to come from my mouth.  I pray for opportunities to truly love with the heart of Christ.  I pray that my speech would edify and lift up those whom I speak to and speak of.  I pray that the Spirit in me would overcome the flesh in every decision.  I pray that I would order my day according to Your desires and not my own. I pray that I will be more interested in partaking of a spiritual feast that I can only get through prayer and the scriptures, than the temporary satisfaction of my favorite foods.  I want more than anything to wake up in the morning and desire to spend time with You and to remain focused on your presence throughout the rest of the day.  Let me be a light in the darkness that points the lost to You.  You tell me in Your Word that if I ask anything according to Your will, it will be given.  I know that these are things that You desire for me.  Thank You for giving me the desires of my heart…to love You above all.  Thank You for hearing and answering.

Amen.

Her Heart Meets The King’s (Short Version)

This is the shorter version of the poem in my previous post:

Her Heart Meets the King’s

 

She could not even comprehend

A love that has no start or end

A love no more nor ever less

A love so perfect and so blessed

 

She’d only known love so fleeting

That followed insults and beatings

She believed she was unworthy

So messed up ruined and dirty

 

But then He came on bended knee

And told her she had such beauty

Love so real caught her by surprise

And wiped the tears out of her eyes

 

See He was not your average man

Behold the King the Great I Am

The Prince of Peace she met that day

He washed her every stain away

 

He gave her peace and gave her worth

He had plans far before her birth

No man nor beast nor wicked thing

Nor insults with their nasty sting

 

Could change the plan He had designed

Before birth she was on His mind

Before her time He was so sure

That she was worthy to die for

 

So die He did upon a tree

And came that day to set her free

He calls her beautiful and pure

He calls her lovely and adored

 

Never had she known love like this

She did not know what she had missed

Heaven came down to earth that day

And washed all the ashes away

 

Gone were the ruins of her life

Gone was the agony and strife

He gave her hopes He gave her dreams

Strength to overcome anything

 

In His great hands she now can know

That she can stand through all life’s blows

She has purpose and destiny

From the One who died on a tree

 

With tears of joy she now can sing

Of the love she found through her King

He works her success and failures

To glorify the Creator

 

So there is no man or leader

Who has the right to mistreat her

She is worthy of hopes and dreams

Impossible as they may seem

 

For nothing stops what God ordains

He has purpose for lives He claims

When our dreams meet His you see

Our destiny is victory

 

Copyright 2013 Katrina L. Dunkin

Her Heart Meets The King’s (Long Version)

I recently entered a poetry contest at http://www.charlottehunt.com.  This was a poem I entered.  It is edited from its original by advice of the judges.  The poem didn’t win but it was liked enough to be posted on her website.  I am grateful for the experience. The poem has already spoken to the hearts of some hurting women and Charlotte told me I needed to do something with it.  Not sure what to do other than post it here.  This is the long version.  I also edited it a second time to make it a bit shorter.  For those who are hurting, I hope it will encourage you.

Her Heart Meets the King’s

It was beyond her ability to even comprehend

A love that has not a beginning a love that has no end

A love that can’t be more than it is nor is it ever less

A love that is perfect and holy and always very blessed

 She had only ever known a love that is brief and fleeting

One that accompanied insults heartache bruises and beatings

She only knew that she never believed she could be worthy

All she understood was feeling empty ruined and dirty

 

But then He came to her one day loving her on bended knee

He told her she was pure and holy a perfect bride to be

He said that she was so beautiful and it caught her by surprise

She could hardly see past the tears till he wiped them from her eyes

 

You see He was not just a guy not an ordinary man

He was and is the Lord, the King of Kings, and the Great I Am

The Creator of all the universe, came to her that day

He captured her heart gathered her tears and washed her stains away

 

He gave a crown of glory that spoke of her infinite worth

And told her He had plans for her life even before her birth

No man or demon, no evil beast nor any wicked thing

No foul words that threaten peace nor insults with their nasty sting

 

Could ever change the wonderful plans He carefully designed

Before she was even born she was already on His mind

Long before her parents gave her birth He was completely sure

That He loved her with perfect love and she was worth dying for

 

So die he did upon a tree

And came that day to set her free

He calls her beautiful and pure

He calls her lovely and adored

 

Never had she known love like this

She didn’t know what she had missed

Heaven came down to earth that day

And washed all the ashes away

 

He gave her beauty and took away the ruins of her life

He gave her joy to replace the pain the agony and strife

He gave her hopes, and gave her passion and then he gave her dreams

And the power to overcome any obstacle or thing

 

In His great hands she now can know

That she can stand through all life’s blows

She has purpose and destiny

From the One who died on a tree

 

He turned her mourning to laughter, tears to joy and now she sings

Of the love she has found in the heart of this glorious King

In His hands lie her joys and sorrows successes and failures

To be molded by the Potter, the Lord, Master Creator

 

So there is no man, no woman, no president or leader

Who has the authority to insult hurt or mistreat her

No, she is worthy to have great and amazing hopes and dreams

No matter how simple, grand or impossible they may seem

 

For nothing is impossible when by God it is ordained

The hopes and dreams have a purpose in the lives that He has claimed

When our dreams meet with His desires for us there can only be

A destiny that ends in grace and glorious victory

 

Copyright 2013 Katrina L. Dunkin

Worthy (Lyrics Without Music)

You sit alone in your room

Tears streaming down your face

Over the stains from yesterday’s

Hearing those words again

Fighting hard not to listen

Saying, “You are worthless”

“Nobody loves you”

Let me tell you.  I do. 

When I look at you I see beauty

I see a broken vessel that is worthy

I see my child, one who needs me

I am here.  I am yours

I look at you and see a tool I can use

To give hope to the lost, broken and bruised

You may think you are dirty

But I call you worthy

I am here.  I am yours. 

Your heart is filled with emptiness

Your hope is lost in fear

Your joy pours out with loneliness

And drops with every tear

But you only have to look at me

To know how close I am

And how I can give you joy

And restore your hope again 

When I look at you I see beauty

I see a broken vessel that is worthy

I see my child, one who needs me

I am here.  I am yours

I look at you and see a tool I can use

To give hope to the lost, broken and bruised

You may think you are dirty

But I call you worthy

I am here.  I am yours. 

When the world pounds hard and takes you away

When the storms roll in and your heart goes astray

When those voices tell you you’re too far gone

Put your hope in Me and you’ll never go wrong

Because no matter what you’ve done… 

When I look at you I see beauty

I see a broken vessel that is worthy

I see my child, one who needs me

I am here.  I am yours

I look at you and see a tool that I can use

To give hope to the lost, broken and bruised

You may think you are dirty

But I call you worthy

I am here.  I am yours.

You only need to believe.

copyright 2014 Katrina Dunkin

Self-Esteem Right or Wrong?

To all believers who think that all this “self-esteem” teaching in the church is wrong let me say that I disagree. There is a right reason and a wrong reason to feel good about who you are. When it seeks to glorify God in how you think and feel about yourself so that you will reflect God better on others…then it is not wrong to think good thoughts toward yourself. I will say this, however, it is NEVER good to not like yourself. It does not glorify God when you hate who you are. I’m listening to a message on depression by my beloved former pastor, Kevin Blackwell. He says that the enemy wants to slowly kill you one day at a time and he does this by bringing thoughts of worthlessness to your mind. Since my pastor was so transparent, I am going to follow his example and confess to you that I battle these thoughts daily. It is the encouraging words of believers and the very Word of God that gives me weapons to fight with. I NEED to feel worthy. God created me that way. The difference between the good kind of self esteem and the bad kind is that the good kind comes from realizing how unworthy I am apart from God…which leads me to see how much I need Him in order to combat the words of worthlessness that I have in my head daily. To say that as a believer I am worthess is a lie. The very fact that Christ lives in me is all I need to know that I am to die for…and this is God’s message to me through Jesus Christ. Christians cannot walk in victory with a low self-esteem. When believers see themselves as unworthy…that is living in defeat. That does not glorify God. People may deem me unworthy. People may tell me that I am not wanted or needed. But, not all of them do. God uses me. He uses my hardships and He uses my battle with depression and anxiety for good. Every time I am buried in the lies I hear in my head…I can turn to God’s truth and put those lies to rest. I can remember the encouraging words of a person I shared my testimony with and know that I am being used. I want to be needed. I want to be accepted. I want to be loved. I want to be noticed…but not for me…I want to be noticed because of Christ in me. It serves no good for me to be noticed otherwise. I am an instrument deemed worthy for use by the Redeemer who died for me. Nothing trumps this truth and it is not wrong to feel a sense of self worth because God says I am worthy…not because of anything I am or have done…but simply because I am created in His image and loved by Him.

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  Psalm 138:14

Happy New Year!

“‘Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will’ – Ephesians 1:4-5

Your worth and purpose do not depend on what you have done, or what has been done to you or where you have been, even if you have been to the very precipice of hell. Your worth and purpose depend on God and God alone –His will, His calling, His choosing. His love.

Start the new year by focusing on getting to know God better so that you can stand confident and strong in the upcoming year!” – Kay Arthur (and me)

Wisdom

“Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do. He reveals to you Who He is.” -Oswald Chambers…..wow.