So I've been trying to write a new post for about a week now...but somehow this thought struck me today and changed the whole focus of the post so here we go.
I was pondering the question "Does God satisfy us?" earlier. But really, that is not even the question. The question should be "If we had everything taken from us, our families, our friends, our work, our ministries, would we say 'God is all we need' and mean it? Would we be okay with God and only God if it came down to it?
I am completely in love with my Savior but alas, I still find myself filled with distractions. It's not that they're bad distractions but they take away from me finding who I am only in Jesus.
Friends are so amazing and talking to them and having them there to bask in Jesus' greatness with me is such a blessing but when I post a picture on instagram and then am constantly checking to see who's liked it is a tad obsessive.. What's it matter if so and so liked the picture or liked the status?
A lot of girls struggle with what people think of them. I am definitely one of those girls. My goal in life should not be that everyone likes me.
If Jesus is my main example for how I should live then what am I doing? Why am I so focused on what others think and say about me?
I actually finished up with my little second graders early last night and had the privilege to join the middle school girl's class. Some of the points talked about were things that you feel that you can't live without. Me being the little Jesus freak girl that I am says Jesus. There is absolutely no way I could live without Jesus.
And this is true. But something interesting that I read yesterday was talking about spiritual gluttony. Which really caught my attention. Basically, when I go to church, I get filled with Jesus; when I'm in my car, I have these crazy awesome worship jam sessions and I get filled with Jesus; I study my Bible or read amazing Christian books that show God's crazy wonders and I pray and I get filled with Jesus...but what happens when you're doing all of that and then not using that fire that Jesus has ignited your heart with to show who He is? We are the hands and feet of Jesus! But we sure don't act like it a lot of the time.
I love sleep, food, and social media. Oh and missionary blogs. But when it's 11 at night and I've been busy all day and I come into my room and crawl into bed and all I want to do is sleep, shouldn't I still take a couple minutes to reflect on the day and thank Jesus for everything He did for me? Or if I'm emotionally exhausted and I feel like just going to sleep and forgetting my troubles momentarily, shouldn't I come to Jesus, the healer and protector of my very soul?!
The things we love, the things that frustrate us, the things that we talk about most, the things that capture our eye most quickly all show us what is most important to us. God doesn't want any competition. He's not supposed to be just above the rest of everything in our lives, He's supposed to be in the very center of everything in our lives to the point of everything we do, everything we think, everything we say is flowing out from Him.
When that happens, we will be out of our comfort zone, we will be tired, we will be hungry, we will feel empty at times but He fills us back up every single time!
I feel like this post was all over the place but you know....God is still good.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Our Savior's Love
Just imagine sitting on a playground full of kids...when one little girl whom you've been playing with looks up at you with huge, gorgeous brown eyes and says the words "Can you just be my mommy?" I didn't know what on earth to say to her so I simply hugged her a little tighter and wished the moment would never end.
This little girl didn't know me. She knew my name and she knew what I looked like but she didn't know my past or where I came from. I didn't know her either yet in that moment, God saw it fit to put us together, for me to show her God's love. And to think, God's love is so much greater than the love I was showing that girl.
I wasn't able to give her a lasting human relationship where I would be with her as she walks through the rest of her childhood, finds herself, grows up into an adult, and lives the rest of her life. But you know what I could tell her? I could tell her about my loving Savior and my loving Father. I could tell her that he will never leave her and that in every single moment that there's no one else there for her, God will always be there for her.
Don't you think that sometimes we need to be reminded of this? We get so caught up in our lives and in our schedules and we lose sight of God. We forget that He has it all in the palm of His hand and he knows what he is doing. I mean he's been doing it since the beginning of time right?
"Your plans are still to prosper, You have not forgotten us
You’re with us in the fire and the flood
Faithful forever, Perfect in love
You are sovereign over us"
God's there whispering, "Come to me....Come to me..." Will you listen?
This little girl didn't know me. She knew my name and she knew what I looked like but she didn't know my past or where I came from. I didn't know her either yet in that moment, God saw it fit to put us together, for me to show her God's love. And to think, God's love is so much greater than the love I was showing that girl.
I wasn't able to give her a lasting human relationship where I would be with her as she walks through the rest of her childhood, finds herself, grows up into an adult, and lives the rest of her life. But you know what I could tell her? I could tell her about my loving Savior and my loving Father. I could tell her that he will never leave her and that in every single moment that there's no one else there for her, God will always be there for her.
Don't you think that sometimes we need to be reminded of this? We get so caught up in our lives and in our schedules and we lose sight of God. We forget that He has it all in the palm of His hand and he knows what he is doing. I mean he's been doing it since the beginning of time right?
"Your plans are still to prosper, You have not forgotten us
You’re with us in the fire and the flood
Faithful forever, Perfect in love
You are sovereign over us"
God's there whispering, "Come to me....Come to me..." Will you listen?
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Where My Trust Is Without Borders
"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"
For those of you who haven't listened to the new Hillsong album, it is AMAZING! This song is probably one of the best on it but they're all fantastic. This one is called "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail). Check it out if you haven't yet!
Think about these lyrics though. "where my trust is without borders." Without borders! An endless amount of trust.
In Matthew 14, it talks about when Peter walked on water.
Verse 29. "Come." He (Jesus) said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. Verse 30. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Verse 31. Immediately, Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
Let's take this story back to the lyrics. "Let me walk upon the waters, wherever You would call me."
Y'all, Jesus is saying "Come." Take a step out on faith. When God brings you out of your comfort zone, I guarantee you that your faith will be made stronger! The waves are rough, everything around you tells you to give up. But you have to keep your eyes on Jesus.
Philippians 4:14 says, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
We have something great waiting on us! We can't give up! We have a Savior who loves us and cares for us and the least we can do is follow Him. It'll give us so much more satisfaction than anything else.
We can't be scared to do the unknown. To go against what everyone else says is okay and good and right. We are set apart! We are different! We have to act different, to show people who our Savior is because if we don't then no one will.
I greatly encourage you to just listen to this song, close your eyes, bask in the greatness of God, and then apply these lyrics to your life and truly seek Christ in every single situation of every single day!
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"
For those of you who haven't listened to the new Hillsong album, it is AMAZING! This song is probably one of the best on it but they're all fantastic. This one is called "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail). Check it out if you haven't yet!
Think about these lyrics though. "where my trust is without borders." Without borders! An endless amount of trust.
In Matthew 14, it talks about when Peter walked on water.
Verse 29. "Come." He (Jesus) said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. Verse 30. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Verse 31. Immediately, Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
Let's take this story back to the lyrics. "Let me walk upon the waters, wherever You would call me."
Y'all, Jesus is saying "Come." Take a step out on faith. When God brings you out of your comfort zone, I guarantee you that your faith will be made stronger! The waves are rough, everything around you tells you to give up. But you have to keep your eyes on Jesus.
Philippians 4:14 says, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
We have something great waiting on us! We can't give up! We have a Savior who loves us and cares for us and the least we can do is follow Him. It'll give us so much more satisfaction than anything else.
We can't be scared to do the unknown. To go against what everyone else says is okay and good and right. We are set apart! We are different! We have to act different, to show people who our Savior is because if we don't then no one will.
I greatly encourage you to just listen to this song, close your eyes, bask in the greatness of God, and then apply these lyrics to your life and truly seek Christ in every single situation of every single day!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Surrender All
Lately, I've been completely obsessed with the song "I Surrender" by Hillsong. The lyrics make me question how much I actually depend on God.
"Here I am
Down on my knees again
Surrendering all
Surrendering all"
How often am I brought down to my knees? Am I truly surrendering all? Is there any part of me that I'm keeping for myself? That I don't give God?
God is my Father, my Lord, my Creator, my Counselor, my Friend. He cares about me. He hates sin because it separates us from him and when that happens we don't communicate. He treasures us!
The first part of Isaiah 46:16 says, "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."
One definition of engrave is: to fix deeply or permanently in the mind.
Even before we were here on this earth, God had us in mind and he loved us. So much more than we could ever imagine.
If all this is true then why would we ever think of not giving God everything we have? He owns it all anyways. As much as I don't want to admit it, I struggle a lot with putting my friends before God in my life. An example of this is how when I'd be having my quiet time, I'd be texting my friends and every time I'd see a text pop up on my screen, I'd drop my Bible onto my lap and read the text and reply. The past week or so, I've tried to change that.
I think a lot of the time we have in our minds that we're just high schoolers, we have our whole life ahead of us. I mean we aren't going to just turn Amish and get rid of all distractions in our lives. So how can we really surrender all to Christ? We give our time. You may not think you have much free time, because I mean teenagers are pretty dang busy, but I guarantee that if you read a few verses from your Bible and praying in the morning and at night instead of checking Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you will notice God in your life more.
We go through our days, just waiting till we can get done and relax and sleep, but if you spend some time with God, He will renew every passion in your heart for him and you will find yourself so much more full of the Holy Spirit. If you give God your all, then He will give you His all.
We need to watch ourselves so that we don't become blind to our sin. Maybe about 5 or 6 months ago..or longer..I said to myself, "You know I really don't have anything to change about myself.." HOW DANGEROUS IS THIS THOUGHT! (I just screamed that in my head at myself...like forreal though) If we think that there is nothing wrong with us, nothing to change, then we are not spiritually growing. If we are a Christian, then we should be constantly striving to be more like Christ. If we think that there's no life changing sin in our life, then we need to search more closely because there are probably several sins that we've just blinded ourselves to.
"Like a mighty storm
Stir within my soul
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me"
Lord, You alone deserve all of us, every little piece that you so delicately created. For you to mend our broken pieces and to mold us into something so much greater than we could ever imagine to be used for you in mighty ways, to bring bring glory to you alone. Open our eyes to everything that you want to show us and give us a yearning to know you more. Bring us to our knees. Break our hearts for what breaks yours. Let us be desperate for you.
In Jesus' Name, Amen
"Here I am
Down on my knees again
Surrendering all
Surrendering all"
How often am I brought down to my knees? Am I truly surrendering all? Is there any part of me that I'm keeping for myself? That I don't give God?
God is my Father, my Lord, my Creator, my Counselor, my Friend. He cares about me. He hates sin because it separates us from him and when that happens we don't communicate. He treasures us!
The first part of Isaiah 46:16 says, "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."
One definition of engrave is: to fix deeply or permanently in the mind.
Even before we were here on this earth, God had us in mind and he loved us. So much more than we could ever imagine.
If all this is true then why would we ever think of not giving God everything we have? He owns it all anyways. As much as I don't want to admit it, I struggle a lot with putting my friends before God in my life. An example of this is how when I'd be having my quiet time, I'd be texting my friends and every time I'd see a text pop up on my screen, I'd drop my Bible onto my lap and read the text and reply. The past week or so, I've tried to change that.
I think a lot of the time we have in our minds that we're just high schoolers, we have our whole life ahead of us. I mean we aren't going to just turn Amish and get rid of all distractions in our lives. So how can we really surrender all to Christ? We give our time. You may not think you have much free time, because I mean teenagers are pretty dang busy, but I guarantee that if you read a few verses from your Bible and praying in the morning and at night instead of checking Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you will notice God in your life more.
We go through our days, just waiting till we can get done and relax and sleep, but if you spend some time with God, He will renew every passion in your heart for him and you will find yourself so much more full of the Holy Spirit. If you give God your all, then He will give you His all.
We need to watch ourselves so that we don't become blind to our sin. Maybe about 5 or 6 months ago..or longer..I said to myself, "You know I really don't have anything to change about myself.." HOW DANGEROUS IS THIS THOUGHT! (I just screamed that in my head at myself...like forreal though) If we think that there is nothing wrong with us, nothing to change, then we are not spiritually growing. If we are a Christian, then we should be constantly striving to be more like Christ. If we think that there's no life changing sin in our life, then we need to search more closely because there are probably several sins that we've just blinded ourselves to.
"Like a mighty storm
Stir within my soul
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way in me"
Lord, You alone deserve all of us, every little piece that you so delicately created. For you to mend our broken pieces and to mold us into something so much greater than we could ever imagine to be used for you in mighty ways, to bring bring glory to you alone. Open our eyes to everything that you want to show us and give us a yearning to know you more. Bring us to our knees. Break our hearts for what breaks yours. Let us be desperate for you.
In Jesus' Name, Amen
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Living For God Right Here, Right Now
"Our calling is to please Him-- to wake up every morning saying, "Yes, Lord," then to live throughout the day to discover His questions."
I don't know about y'all but I think this is an absolutely genius statement. One that never crosses most people's minds. When Christians hear someone say they received a calling from God, they automatically think God told the person that they're gonna be a pastor of some sort or go on the mission field in some far away country. This quote is specifically talking about everyday callings. He calls us to maybe hold the door open for someone, or to ask someone if there is anything they need prayer for.
I do think that Christians in America as a whole have quenched the fire of God, burying it under all of our lives and our schedules and everything else. We've gotten so caught up in our schedules and being here at this time and there at that time that we've forgotten how Christ really lived His life. If we claim to be followers of Christ then we need to actually follow Christ! He lived as a nomad with no where to truly call home. He went from place to place, stopping to help each person in need. And you know what? He didn't just do it because he was God's son and that's what he's supposed to do; He did it because he felt compassion toward them! He loved each of them! Even the ones that he didn't spend much time with. It would pain Him if they were hurting and it should pain us too.
Just think about how different the world would be right now if our hearts broke for what Christ's heart broke for. God's love is so much greater than ours. If we showed just a tenth of the love that Jesus showed, our schools, our neighborhoods, and our cities would be different. And if we have people around the world with this same attitude to be like Christ then we could make a difference.
It is guaranteed that people will notice you if you live like Christ. Some people followed Jesus to hear him speak and teach and to be healed and some people followed him to try to prove him wrong or kill him. The same will happen to you. There will always be people watching you trying to trip you up.
Every time that something comes to mind that isn't something that would glorify God, we have to say no. For me a big struggle is gossiping. I know I'd get a lot of girls agreeing with me haha. If you have nothing to say to someone except gossip then you probably should just not talk at that moment. I've had to do that a lot lately. God puts people in your life for you to encourage them and for them to encourage you and for you both to have a mutual friendship that glorifies God and if that turns into anything that doesn't accomplish that then it's not how God planned for it to be.
I don't know about y'all but I think this is an absolutely genius statement. One that never crosses most people's minds. When Christians hear someone say they received a calling from God, they automatically think God told the person that they're gonna be a pastor of some sort or go on the mission field in some far away country. This quote is specifically talking about everyday callings. He calls us to maybe hold the door open for someone, or to ask someone if there is anything they need prayer for.
I do think that Christians in America as a whole have quenched the fire of God, burying it under all of our lives and our schedules and everything else. We've gotten so caught up in our schedules and being here at this time and there at that time that we've forgotten how Christ really lived His life. If we claim to be followers of Christ then we need to actually follow Christ! He lived as a nomad with no where to truly call home. He went from place to place, stopping to help each person in need. And you know what? He didn't just do it because he was God's son and that's what he's supposed to do; He did it because he felt compassion toward them! He loved each of them! Even the ones that he didn't spend much time with. It would pain Him if they were hurting and it should pain us too.
Just think about how different the world would be right now if our hearts broke for what Christ's heart broke for. God's love is so much greater than ours. If we showed just a tenth of the love that Jesus showed, our schools, our neighborhoods, and our cities would be different. And if we have people around the world with this same attitude to be like Christ then we could make a difference.
It is guaranteed that people will notice you if you live like Christ. Some people followed Jesus to hear him speak and teach and to be healed and some people followed him to try to prove him wrong or kill him. The same will happen to you. There will always be people watching you trying to trip you up.
Every time that something comes to mind that isn't something that would glorify God, we have to say no. For me a big struggle is gossiping. I know I'd get a lot of girls agreeing with me haha. If you have nothing to say to someone except gossip then you probably should just not talk at that moment. I've had to do that a lot lately. God puts people in your life for you to encourage them and for them to encourage you and for you both to have a mutual friendship that glorifies God and if that turns into anything that doesn't accomplish that then it's not how God planned for it to be.
Monday, February 25, 2013
The Most Awesome Blog
Well I started this blog because my friend basically forced me to. So for all you lovely people who stumble upon this absolutely beautiful work of art aka my blog, I thank you for taking a couple minutes out of your day to read the completely awesome blog of a young 17 year old girl who simply loves her Heavenly Father and wants to show you what He's shown me about Himself and His wonderful creations. I really don't know what else to say sooo hopefully I'll write again soon so y'all can bask in the greatness of Jesus!
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