I had been in a valley for the last couple of years, and especially the last six months or so. My life just isn't where I want it to be (yeah, I know... lol) and I was really struggling. Pushing against walls that wouldn't move, pulling knobs on doors that wouldn't open, but also, in the words of Casting Crowns, "trying so hard to stop trying so hard." A few months ago, a friend passed a prayer to me that was told to her when she was struggling with her life and her relationship with God:

Lord, teach me to be more secure in Your love for me.

I prayed it every night for a couple of months. Didn't think much more about it at first except to pray it and hope for an answer.

Shortly after I started praying this short, simple prayer, I noticed a pattern. Things I read - Bible verses, blog posts, magazine articles, book passages -, sermons at church, songs on the radio...I often recognized in these things a message that God loves me no matter what. It doesn't matter that I sin, He loves me and forgives me; it doesn't matter that I'm weird, and insecure, and impatient, and hugely imperfect...He loves me. Those messages were a comfort and I started to climb out of the valley.

Then one night a few weeks ago, I prayed the little prayer: Lord, teach me to be more secure in Your love for me. And it hit me: He loves me. NO MATTER WHAT. How much more secure can you get? All of those little messages were God's way of telling me I can't screw it up, His love will never leave me. In that instant, my prayer was answered and I believed, really believed, that my Father in Heaven loves me and always will.