God's Plan for our Life

This is one of the most comforting things. God's timing is perfect. Life is tough. That's something we probably all know from experience. When everything seems to be falling down, we can all be comforted by the fact that God has it all under control. It may not seem like He does, but that's the thing... we don't know. We don't know His plan. We never will. We can get a few glimpses of it. A few things here and there. You can see bits and pieces of it when you look back on your life and realize, "Oh! So that's why God let that happen." But, no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to see the big picture. God is infinite. He is the King. He is the Creator. And yet, although He is all of this, He cares for us. He loves us. He is always going to take care of us. No matter what happens, we can take refuge in the fact that He has a plan for us. There may be bumps in the road of life, but it will all end of for the better. Every trial and pain that we go through is because of God's plan for our life. It may be tough and even seem impossible at times, but all we have to do is be patient and have faith. God, no matter what the circumstance is, will take care of us. All we have to do is have faith.

Forced Love

     Alright, so first of my sincerest apologies for not writing for... what was it? About a month? Goodness! I'm so great at blogging, aren't I? I just procrastinate. Especially with blogging, apparently. :)

     

     So, I just came back from my Youth Group, and may I just say that the sermon tonight touched me. Normally the sermons get me in a way, but I loved this one. Mainly because I never really thought about it in such a way. What he talked about was how sometimes we force our relationship with God. You're probably thinking "Wait, what? How in the world do you do that?". Well, it's kinda like a relationship with someone you like. You're trying to make it work, but it's obviously not going anywhere. You don't love them anymore, but you still want to make it work. It's no longer a fun thing, it now becomes a chore. That's not the kind of relationship you want, right? Chores aren't fun. Especially nasty ones like folding laundry, doing the dishes, and emptying the dishwasher. Ok, so that's a little bit biased there. Those are my least favorite ones. Those are evil..... but anyway. :)  When your relationship with God feels more like a chore than an actual relationship, you're doing it wrong. That's not what God intended. To have a true relationship with Him, to feel His love and to have a burning desire in your heart to serve Him and be a part of His kingdom, you need to love Him. It's kinda like if you (yes, yet another "lovey-dovey" example) have a girlfriend or a boyfriend who loves you WAY more than you love them. They call you and text you all of the time, but you just ignore them. They're annoying! They won't leave you alone! They love you like crazy, but honestly you don't love them as much as they love you. What kind of relationship is that? It's like your relationship with God. He loves you unconditionally. No matter what you do, He will always love you. But there you are, not really loving Him. That's not a relationship. That relationship ends up becoming more of a chore, a task that you feel you need to keep up just to suit the image that people have given you. If we were all honest, none of us would want to live that way. If you want a true relationship with God, one that is satisfying. One that fills you with peace and love. One that, no matter where you are, no matter what you are facing, will always be there to protect you. If this is what you want, then you must love God to receive it. Because without love, there is no relationship.

I was going to write something... but this quote says it all. :)

Pain

Pain... yup. That's a word that everyone has become familiar with. Pain hurts. Whether it's physical pain or mental pain. It hurts. But, it's something that everyone goes through at one point in their life. All we can do though is pray about it. God can take away the pain. Whether it's sickness or emotional, He can take it away. That's so easy to say though. "Oh ya. Don't worry. This pain that I'm going through won't last that long. God will take it away for me!" That sounds so simple! But it's not! The pain that fills us inside is so difficult to get rid of. The human part of us just wants to cling to it. It doesn't want to let go. So it's kind of like a war inside of us. (Yes, that's a reference to my Battles post.) It's either us or God. He has the power to get rid of the pain, and we have the power to keep it. We can't get rid of it on our own. That's one thing that I know for sure. No matter how hard you try, you aren't gonna be able to throw it away. Humans vs. sin is not a fair match. BUT humans+God vs. sin is totally gonna work. All we have to do is trust in God, and He can save us from the pain that the world causes us. 

Silence

     Not talking. I can say from experience that this is pretty difficult. But, it's one of the greatest things you can do. Ok, so when I say no talking I'm not saying that from now on you can't say anything. God have us voices for a reason, right? :) What I REALLY mean by this is that if you have to choose between saying something that you KNOW you'll regret or just staying quiet, the second one is the best. I'm sorry to say that I don't always do this. I'm human! That's why this post is mainly me talking to myself. I'm posting it though in the hopes that I'm not alone in this. I'm not the only person who can't hold back from saying things that she'll later regret, right? :)  But, anyway, times like this when you would rather say something sarcastic or sassy, you might as well stay quiet. Unless of course the comment is meant to be funny (in a not insulting way), then totally go ahead and blurt out whatever your heart desires. But, sassy and sarcastic remarks tend to make people (and by people I totally mean me) feel all superior. And when they act that way it annoys other people. Then when people are annoyed at you, they're most likely not going to act to nice to you. THEN that might make you feel anger towards them. Well, you can kinda see where that goes. Anger and harsh words will just be returned with anger. All of this began because you (me... yes, me) couldn't keep your mouth shut. But, by keeping silent, none of this would have happened. It's seriously just the best way to go. Keep quiet, and you can avoid all of those argument and drama that you go through everyday.  :)

Our Purpose in Life - The Great Commission

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."   Matthew 28: 18-20 (NLT)

     This is the Great Commission. I never really knew what it was called until my Youth Pastor started calling it that, but may I just say that it's a really fitting name. The definition of "commission" is "an instruction, command, or duty given to a person or group of people".  So this instruction that we've been given is pretty awesome. So awesome that its official title is the GREAT Commission. I mean seriously. It must be pretty important that God would call it the Great Commission, and not just the Commission. But this task was put upon us by God! I mean... GOD told us to do something. The King of the Universe, our CREATOR told us to go out and make disciples! Don't you think that we should do that?

     Now, you must be sitting there and wondering... what? Like, what is she talking about? Or you're thinking... oh. THIS again. I've heard this story at least a thousand times. It's all that my church talks about. Ugggghhhhh. (Well, it must be really important if you've heard it at least a thousand times!) Well, for those of you who don't know what this is (or you already know), I'm gonna tell you what I know it to be. It's God's command for us. It's what our life is all about. Everyone in the world wonders what the point of life is. Well ladies and gentlemen, here you go. We are to go out and make disciples. That sounds a bit weird, but that's what it's about. Now, in the Bible days Jesus had disciples. Or another way to call them is His followers. They followed Him everywhere. They did what He did and followed His every instruction. They were His disciples. And that's what we are. We're Jesus' disciples. And our job is to go tell everyone about Him and make them disciples. Because being a disciple is being with Jesus. Since Jesus is God, we're with God. He is the King and we're servants. Just think about how in the Renaissance times how kings would treat their servants. Quite horribly to be honest. But God... He cares for us. He loves us so much. And for a King to care about a servant as much as God cares about us, that's just amazing. Everyday we can be sure that God is on our side and that no matter what we go through, He will always be there for us. Just the comfort and the love and the peace that comes from being with God, it's just amazing. And to think that there are people out there that are hurting and feel like they have no one to turn to... that just hurts me. They have no idea that God loves them. That they are not a mistake and that they are not loved. Because feeling unloved and alone is horrible. There are millions upon millions of people in this world who believe all of the lies that the devil whispers into their ear on a daily basis. I hate that. I don't like just sitting by and watching people slowly crumble into nothing but pain and agony, wanting nothing but to find a way out of life. I don't know about you, but I want nothing more than to save them. Life may be short, but I don't want to watch them live it the way the world says they should. This is what Jesus told us to do. He knows that His people are hurting, and He wants us to save them. I want to walk into Heaven and see all of the people that I saved instead of looking down into hell and seeing all of the people I could have saved, but was too timid to do so.

Actions

I'm not too sure who Amanda Patterson is, but her quote is amazing. It pretty much just says that words are pointless. People can say one thing and then turn around and do another. That is something that I have seen many people do. That is why we, as Christians, need to not only make sure to watch what we say, but also need to watch what we do. If we're telling someone that we are a Christian and that we follow Jesus, we better make sure that we act like Jesus too. Because that's what being a follower of Christ is, right? We FOLLOW Him, in both our actions and words. People are looking at us to see what being a Christian is like. If we are going around saying one thing and then turning around and doing the complete opposite, what kind if message do you think that's sending off to all of the people watching you? 

Anger

     Alright, so something crazy happened to me today. I was out with my sister and my mom buying clothes (because that's what girls do) and we decided that we want to stop at a gas station to get drinks. I get Dr Pepper of course, because that is the best drink in the world! :)  So, anyway, we get back in the car and situate ourselves. My mom turns on the car and then immediately flips on the air condition. Then, she turns to look back so she can pull out of her parking spot. The car just sits there. It isn't moving. She turns the car off and turns it on again. It rumbles a little bit, but doesn't fully turn on. She does this over and over again, but we don't move. Something's wrong. We're stuck. Of course at this point the air conditioning isn't on and I'm dying. Well, not literally dying... but I was HOT! I mean like the kind of hot where you want to take off all of your clothes and stand in front of an air conditioner blasting 40° air. Ok... that was a bit over dramatic, but still. So, my mom grabs her phone and casually calls my dad. We sit there and wait. People are looking at us because we're just casually sitting in the parking lot drinking our drinks. I'm trying to cool of, so I'm just sitting there with my legs all spread out. I probably looked like a dude doing that, but I didn't really care. I was wearing long skinny jeans and a shirt with the sleeves that went halfway to my elbows. This was one of my hottest summer outfits that I could have possibly chosen, and I decided to wear it today. Of course I would do that. I'm just that type of person! :)  So, my dad finally arrives and pops up the hood of the car. He, after unsuccessfully working on it for a few minutes, comes to the conclusion that he wants to move the car to a different spot in the parking lot. He tells me to get behind the wheel and to put our poor dead car in neutral so that my parents can push and I can steer us to the parking spot. So, they begin to push. I look behind me to see if there are cars coming, and there is one. I step on the break and immediately my dad, who is tired, hot, and very frustrated, angrily asks why I stopped the car. I tell him that I would have crashed if I didn't stop it. He doesn't tell me at the time, but apparently he could have stopped the car from rolling out into the street. It was moving slow enough for them to stop it. At this point I was getting pretty annoyed. It was hot, I wanted to go home, and my dad didn't have any common sense. So, anyway, the car passes and we start backing up again. I look back, and yet ANOTHER car is coming. I push the break, and my dad and I have another argument. Except this time I wasn't at all in the mood to be respectful. I raised my voice and shouted that there was a car and I didn't want to crash his car. Normally I wouldn't just flat out yell at my dad (I'm more of the angry silence type), but I seriously thought that they didn't realize that there was a car behind me. So, after it passes, I furiously steer the car backwards and pull into the parking spot. Since the car was in neutral, the steering wheel wouldn't steer at all. It felt like someone was pulling it the other was as I tried to turn it and steer the car. At this point, I was ready to hit someone. I was so upset. It was hot, and everyone was making me mad. I again, after getting out, tell my dad why I braked, and he just angry replied with the same thing he said earlier. After that, I just go off and sit. I ignore everyone and just lean against my dad's car in a furious way. I cooled down eventually, like I always do. Our car eventually began working again, and we drove it home. It's in our drive way know, and as far as we can tell it's working. :)

     So, I did learn something from this.... annoying experience. Anger is NOT the way to go. Getting annoyed at a situation really just makes it worse. Of course, it's sometimes difficult to avoid. But that doesn't really make it right. I tend to have a short temper, but I try to control it under certain situations. That does NOT always happen though. Getting angry and annoyed is a very ugly quality to have in your life. It makes people really not enjoy hanging out with you. The Bible says to be slow to anger and slow to speak. Being slow to anger means to be... well, slow to anger. To not get angry quickly. To be patient. The second one means to not say what is on your mind all of the time. Before you say something, think about how the people you're going to say that to will react. Will they laugh? Will they be offended? Will it make them cry? And after evaluating all of those things, imagine yourself standing there. Would you say that thing to yourself? You don't want to hurt yourself, do you? After thinking of that and you still think the thing is ok to say, then go ahead and say that. Unless of course everyone moved on to a different topic and the thing you wanted to say is irrelevant. So, in simpler terms, think before you speak. I am told this WAY too much by my dad. That's not really a good sign if someone keeps telling you to think before you speak, right? :)

Battles

"Everyday is a battle. Whether you win or not is up to you. You always have a choice."

     I love this. Everyday we battle something, whether it be very difficult or very simple. We all have some sort of battle going on inside of us. But the fact of the matter is, you an decide whether or not you want to win or lose. Of course we can't fix the problem. That would be a wonderful thing if we could! I would love it if we could just snap our fingers and the problem would be gone. But what I mean by determining whether or not we win is that we have to choose a side. How I imagine this battle in our mind is literally a battle field. One the right side we have a large army of evil demons decked out in burning red armor. In front of them is their leader - the devil. On the left side is another army, much more massive than the devil's. They are covered in silver armor with other blue garnets draped over them. Their leader is in front of them, sitting on a white horse. He is Jesus, commanding His vast army of angels. Then there's you, the neutral person in a regular t-shirt and jeans. They stand there, preparing for the fight. Which vet side wins will have control of your heart. You, the victim, have a choice to make. Which army will you side with. Assist the devil and he will win. He will take over your life as you fall deeper into sin, farther and farther from God. But side with God, and He will surely win. Your heart will be His, and He will protect you from the devil. 

     But, no matter what side you pick, there will always be more wars. Pick God and you will be safe with Him, but the devil will be back. He wants you to side with him, but God won't let this happen as long as you side with Him.

 But, the same goes for God. If you pick the devil, God will continually come to battle for you. He wants to protect you from the evil that is the devil. You are His, and He won't let anyone hurt you. 

     This is all where free will comes in. God didn't make you to be a robot. He wanted you to make choices of your own, to set out your own path. But He wants nothing more for you to come running to Him. To follow Him and to choose His side all on your own. He doesn't want to see you go through the pain and agony of being with the devil. In this world there are two things, good and evil. You can side with either, you always have a choice. 

This Is Where I End and This Is Where You Start

     Alright, so there's this musician that I absolutely love. His name is Colton Dixon. A lot of you may know him from American Idol. He's a VERY good singer! But, anyway, there's a song of his that I love called "Love Has Come for Me". It was never really one of my favorite songs by him until I really began listening to the lyrics. In one point in the song it says, "This is where I end, and this is where You start. And everything I've needed is everything You are." That point in the song is my favorite. In life, people tend to think of nothing but themselves. They only do things that THEY want. They focus their entire life on things that THEY enjoy. They may focus their life on something like a significant other, or on a tv show or sport that they love. Whatever they focus on, that becomes what their life revolves around. But in this song it says "This is where I end, and this is where You start." Who is the you in the song? It's God. The song is talking about ending the fake pointless things that your life revolves around and instead making God the center of your life. I know that you're probably thinking that that sounds a bit weird, but it's true. Without God in your life, it just becomes a painful walk through the hardships of life. Because living in a world as cruel as ours, we need someone as big and powerful as God is to lean on and steady us. Life is going, and most likely has already, thrown some horrible things our way. God is crutch that helps us get through it all. He brings us peace in the storm and lets us know that He has our backs.

     The second part of the song that I mentioned was, "And everything I've needed is everything You are." This is talking about pretty much what I just said. Everything that you need in life, God is. If you search in Google "What does the Bible say about...", it will have something about it. The Bible has something to say about EVERYTHING! And the cool thing is is that God did that on purpose. He knew what you were going to be going through in life and made sure that He would have something for you to get you through it. 

     So that is what I love about that song. Those lyrics remind me that I should end the things in my life that I center my entire self around and start revolving around God. Because when life throws things at me, I need to make sure that I have my strong God to back me up. I also love how the song reminds me that everything in life that I need, God is. God is always there and He never fails. No matter where you are, He'll be there with you.