Be Still

The world that we live in today is fast paced with all the technology that we have, and how we have the ability to spread news faster than before with internet and social media. With the fast paced life that we are living, we tend to miss out on what God has for us. We are always on the go, that it is rare to find to to just sit still. There is a verse that I like, Job 6:24, that talks about how important silence is. "Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray." Now if you have been to school, you know that the teacher can not teach you if you are talking and making noise, because your focus is placed somewhere else besides on the teacher. The same concept applies to God. He wants to teach us and to help us grow, but if we are continuously distracted by the things of this world, and if we keep running around like chickens with our heads cut off, then we don't have the opportunities to learn from God. So I challenge you to slow down this week, and just find time to sit still and be quiet, and try to listen to what God has to teach you. For I know that you won't immediately get a response from God, but when you are silent, you are allowing God to work in your life, and maybe work in ways you never through of before. My life has been crazy busy the past month with everything I need to do to graduate, as well as finding a job, and still trying to keep up with my school work. But when I do find that time to be still, I can find strength to keep going, and sometimes, God teaches me where my mistakes have been, and what I can do to move forward. 

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for wanting to teach us even if we are bad students from time to time. Help me to find time in my life where I can sit and listen to you, to learn more about who you are, and who you made me to be. Thank you for your love and patience. Amen. 

Through the Storm

We all have storms in our lives. That is just a fact of life. We all deal with storms differently, and we all reach our breaking point at different points. But know that God is with you, through the storm. But no matter what strom you are going through, take heart in this verse. Psalms 34:17-20 says, "When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken."

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for being with us through the storms. I pray that you will give me courage to keep fighting this fignt. Thanks. Amen.

Letting God In

It amazes me to see how God can work in the life of someone who lets Him. So on Monday I go to a leadership Bible study for the club at my school, First Priority. Every week at the end of the Bible study, we give our obedience’s of what we are going to work on during the week to grow in our relationship with God. If I am honest, I tend to forget what I said I would do when I walked out the door, because it just said something to get it over with. Well last week, I actually took my obedience seriously, and God showed me so much during that week.

To understand my obedience, you have to understand who I am, and who God made me to be. First, God made me a thinker. I love to sit and reflect on my own life, and think about why I do certain things. I also love to study books, TV shows, movies, you name it. I love to take what I just read or saw, and break it down to understand in detail, the characters, events and so on, and then make connections back to my own life. I love to do this, and it has become a hobby to me. I also find that I can connect best through music. There are times when I hear a song, that then would lead me on a tangent about the message of the song, and often times I discover something about myself. The thing is that God knows this about me, because he hardwired this into me, and he uses this information to connect and to revel Himself to me.

So my obedience last week, was to reflect on some of my fears, and to find a way to start to overcome it. So the fear that I was going to focus on was my fear of talking to people. I broke it down into what the fear was, where it came from, and how it affected my life today. I then found Bible verses about that specific fear, and then I reflected on how these Bible verses apply to my life. I then got off on a tangent, and I started to dive deep into Star Wars Rebels. I love that show and the whole Star Wars Universe. My favorite characters are Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, and so I went into detail of both characters, by studying their characteristics, history, and their role in the show. I then took this info and see how it connected to my life, and how it connected to the fear that I was writing about, and to fear in general. I spent time on this, and I wrote eight pages on this, all of it was colored coded, and everyone was impressed on what I did in a week.

But there is more to this. Sure it is great to reflect and write down on paper, but as it says in James 2:7 “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” Now that I had my research and I had it all nicely laid out, I had to act on it. Last week I had two job interviews for a summer job, to help pay for college. I was so fearful, but I thought of what I learned through my reflections, and I went in there trusting God. I was offered a place at both of those jobs, and the one that I did choose; I was working at in the same week. God was there through the whole process, and He never left my side, and I had nothing to be afraid of. Now sure, you can’t get over a fear in one week, and this will be an ongoing process, but I open myself up to God, and God showed me a lot about myself, and he is willing to do the same for you. God wants to have a relationship with you, and he is willing to meet with you. The thing is we so often think that we can do it ourselves and we leave God out of it. The thing is that God wants to be involved in every part of your life, you just need to surrender and let him in.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for loving me so much for loving me, even when a leave you out of my life. I know that you know so much more about me then I know about myself, and I pray that I will allow time in my life, so I can sit and listen to what you have to tell me. Thank you for all the love that you have given me. Amen. 

Not Today

I am so sorry for there not being a post today. The last few weeks have been crazy and I need sometime to get my life in order. I will try to post next Wednesday, so come back then. Thanks!

Going Just The Way You Are

So many of us who are making new friends, or who are trying to impress the in-laws, or maybe who are looking for a new job, know that when it comes to impressing people that we need to have it all together. We need to look out best and dot our i's and cross our t's. We tend to hide who we really are on the inside so that we can make it look like we have it all together on the outside. The thing that amazes me about God is that we don't need to have life all put together to go to him. He wants you as you are, and in a society where looks and outward appearance matters it is hard to comprehend that God loves us for who we are. He is not going to reject you because he wants you to go and get your life in order and then come back to him. He will accept you as you are. Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 2000 years ago while we were still sinners, God came down to Earth to die for us. He died for us because he wanted to have a relationship with us, and he wanted to show his love for us by being our sacrifice. He did this so that way you didn’t have to be perfect to come to God, but so that you can come broken and bruised, so that way he can be with us as he works in our live to make us more like Him through his love. You don’t need to get you life in order, to go to God. So I encourage you this week to take time to meet with God just as you are so that way He is able to love on you.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for loving us just the way we are. I pray that you will help us understand just how much you love us, and that we don’t need to have it all together to come to you. Thank you for sending your Son as a sacrifice for our lives, so we all may have a chance to have a relationship with you. Amen.

Parable of the Lost Shoe

I know that I already did this post before, but I find when I am studying the Bible that I keep coming back to this parable. I fell like so many people can relate to this that it wouldn't hurt re-posting it. Enjoy!

When Jesus was alive, he would talk in parables or stories. One of my favorite parables is the one of the lost sheep. The parable goes,  

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:4-7) 

Now we can get the idea of the parable, but it can be hard for us to relate. So instead of sheep, we think of the loss of one shoe. The parable would go, 

“Suppose one of you has a hundred pairs of shoes and loses one of them that goes perfectly with your blue sequined dress. Doesn’t she leave the ninety-nine in the open closet and go after the lost shoe until she finds it? And when she finds it, she joyfully puts it on her foot and goes to her room to get ready for the dance. Then she calls her friends and boyfriend together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost shoe.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” 

When we place the parable in modern times, it is easier to see the significance. Imagine if you did really lose your show that goes perfectly with your dress for the prom. Wouldn’t you look everywhere to find it? That is exactly what God does. He hunts you down like you hunt down your lost shoe. Another reason why I like to use the parable with shoes is that each pair goes to a specific outfit. Some shoes are meant to go with dresses and some are meant to go with jeans and a T-shirt. One isn’t better than the 

other they just have specific tasks to do. If we all are shoes, then we each have a specific task to do. We can’t all go with each outfit. That why some of us have a specific skill, that someone else may not have. But we were all created for the same reason, and we are all equally loved.

Telling the Truth

So today I am going to touch on a topic that we all deal with. Telling the truth. Now we all know that lying is when you don't tell someone the truth when they ask you. And most of us have found out the hard way, that those lies often get exposed. The Bible even warns us about this in Proverbs 12:19 which goes "Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but only for a moment." This verse talks about how our lies will be expose at some point. There is another part to lying, and that is not telling someone the truth even if they didn't ask. Most the time something happens and we don't tell anyone because what they don't know can't hurt them. The thing is that these lies also get exposed too.

I know a lot on this topic because I just went through something like this. A couple weeks ago I backed into someone's car, and while there was only damage to my car, the person in the other car was mad. On the way home I told my brother not to tell our parents. Well yesterday my mom and brother and I were talking and he told how I backed into another car. Now my parents were not mad that I backed into someone on accident, my dad even laughed a little when we told him, but they were mad that we hid it from them. When we lie we hurt the people who are affected by it. It may be hard to tell the truth but that's better than being exposed and losing the trust of the other person.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for forgiving us every time that we lie. Please help us to have courage in the moment to tell the truth, so that we don't hurt others more when the lie is exposed. Thank you for your forgiveness and the forgiveness of others. Amen.

Magic of Saturday

As so many of you know, it is Easter weekend. Yesterday was Good Friday and tomorrow will be Easter. But there is something about this Saturday that I like. This is the time after Jesus's death and the day before the resurrection. I see this Saturday as a day uncertainty. For the disciples, they had just lost the one who they were following, so they are trying to figure out what to do next. Now for us, we already know how this story ends, with Jesus rising from the dead. But the disciples couldn't see the future, so they didn't know how awesome the next day will be.

I feel like often times, we are like the disciples. Sure we may not have lost someone who we have gave up our whole lives to follow, but we all get caught in this time of transition, where something devastating happens, and you are left to wonder what to do next, not knowing how amazing the next day will be. Ecclesiastics 3:1 says, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven," and Ecclesiastics 8:6 says, "For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him." These are just two of the verses that talk about how good God's timing really is. Nothing is just through together in our lives, but God knows how your story will unfold down to the last detail. Sure you may be caught in this "Saturday" time, but have hope because you don't know how awesome the next day will be. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you so much for sending your Son to die on the cross for our sins, and thank you for his resurrection three days later. I pray that as we go through transitions in our life that you will be there to guide us, and to trust in what you have in store for us. Thank you Lord for all that you have done for me. 

Finding Something Filling

Searching
For anything to fill the
Void
Emptiness
The hole in my heart

Tried
Everything from
Friends
Relationships
Material Wealth

Disappointed
Nothing has worked
Confused
Uncertain
Don't know what to do know


But


Discovered
Something that can fill the void.
God
Son
And the Holy Spirit

Love
Has came down to
Fill me
Encourage me
And gave me strength

Certain
That He will never
Leave me
Forsake me
Stop loving me


Therefore


I will put my trust in the Lord
The one who fills me up
The one who loves me
The one who will never leave me