Love... Feeling or Choice? Both??

Ah, love.

Or as my sister would prefer it described, “ew, love.”

Whatever your take on love, it does exist. It exists in moms with their children, owners with pets, close friends, families, etc. It’s all around us.

I have learned some things about love recently. I’ve learned that yeah, love is a feeling you have... but actual love... real love... the kind that lasts... is more than just a feeling.

It’s a choice you make. It’s all in the choices you make.

It’s choosing to care about that person even when it’s hard.

It’s choosing to put them first and help them, even if you don’t want to.

It’s choosing to work through the hard stuff because you know that in the end, it’s the best thing for both of you.

Real love is sacrifice.

The best kind of love is found in Christ. He’s the One Who knows everything we have ever done, and chooses to love us anyways.

He’s the One who took the blame for us, took on our sin, our shame, and hung on the cross to die because of it.

Before that, He left His home in Heaven to come down to us, be born as a baby, live among us, teach us, then die for us.

We take time to celebrate Christmas, which is the celebration of the birth of Christ, our Savior. We celebrate how He came to us, how He lived among us to teach us, how He died to take away our sins, and how He ascended into Heaven to be with His Father.

Jesus showed us real love. He showed us what love really looks like. He took on everything for us. He knows who we are, all we have done, yet He still chooses to love us.

I bet He didn’t feel like loving us. I bet He didn’t feel like dying on a cross for us. I bet He doesn’t always feel like loving us every single day, but He does.

He chooses to love us. He chose to die for us.

He chooses to love, and so should we.

Trusting... Well... Trying

Trust.

Such a simple word, but a hard action.

People say, "oh, you can trust me." You soon find out whether you can or not.

You trust yourself to make decisions everyday. Everything, great or small, you trust you can make the right decision. Everything from deciding what shirt and shoes you want to wear to how you want to spend your time and money. But there are some things we don't know if we will make the right decision, so we ask opinions and trust others to give us some good advice. I'm talking decisions like... college.... relationships...  moving...

Sometimes we trust the wrong people. We take their advice and trust them when we really shouldn't.
There is one Person Who we can actually trust, who will make the right decision every time.

That's Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."

I don't know about you, but when I read that, I feel a tremendous amount of pressure that was on my shoulders go away.

It isn't up to me.

I'm not alone to make these decisions.

I can go to Jesus and ask Him, "Hey, what should I do here?"

I can look to the Bible, read it, and see what I can do in certain situations.

Trust.

Trust God with your plans.

I'm a control freak. I love making plans and figuring things out. When I was a teenager, I had a plan for my whole life. I was going to be engaged by this time, have my degree by this time, married by this time, have children by this time, own a house by this time, etc. etc. etc.

Oddly enough, every plan I made got flipped upside down.

At the time, it was so disappointing. Looking back now... I am so glad my plans didn't work out. Cuz God had much better ones, and I am just beginning to understand what those plans look like.

Proverbs 16 has some stuff to say about plans....

"We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer." (verse 1)

"Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." (verse 3)

God has the best plans in mind for us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to do well. He has our best in mind.

God is the one person we can trust. Though it may seem like life is out of control, that God is nowhere to be found, He is right there beside you, trying to help you, if you'd just let Him.

Trust Him.

Trust Him with it all. Your dreams... your desires... your life.

Trust Him to help you make the right decisions.

Find out what He wants for you and for your life by:

1. Reading the Bible - lots of good info in there to show you how to live, and what God wants of you.

2. Praying - prayer is a two-way conversation. I often forget that. God is there to listen to you, and there will be times He will want to talk to you too. You just have to listen.

God knows all our dreams and our desires. Psalm 38:9 says "You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh."

God knows more about us and our lives than we or anyone else could ever know. Let's learn to trust Him with our lives and everything in our lives. It'll make things easier.

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You." - Isaiah 26:3 -

Beautiful Things

Beautiful things happen when you are obedient to God.

I made a decision about a month ago that was difficult. I felt like I was basically giving up everything.

I knew what God had asked me to do, so I did it (even though it took a while).

After a while, God showed me a new direction I needed to take.

So, I trusted. I trusted He had something good in store.

Believe me, He did.

I'm continuing to be blown away by what God is doing in my life.

And all it took was one step of faith.

Then another.

And another.

And... well you get the picture.

Sometimes it's hard to trust and be obedient when you think you know what is best.

Been there, dealt with that.

But because I have trusted God, I have had amazing blessings in my life that I could never have dreamed of a month ago.

A verse has stuck out to me a lot lately. For my birthday, my grandparents gave me a necklace with a Scripture on it... Jeremiah 29:11.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

I've been holding on to that verse for dear life lately. I am trusting that God has amazing plans and I'm getting to see what He is doing in my life, and it is just amazing.

Don't waste time like I did. You don't have to. Decide now that you are going to trust God and be obedient to what He asks. Don't fight Him. If He is asking for your heart and life to be His, and asking you to follow Him no matter what, just pray. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to come and be with you and live with you, teaching you how to follow Him well and love Him well.

If He is asking you to do something small, just do it. It may be hard in the moment, but trust me friend, blessings will come from it.

God loves you and has your best at heart. Why not trust in His plan and let the pressure off yourself?

Be Careful of the Words You Say

It is easy to speak without really thinking.

I do it all the time.

Let me just remind you, it is not really a good plan.

There are a lot of times we can say things without thinking that can be really hurtful to the person we say them to.

I know there have been times I have been talking with a friend, and then something comes out of their mouth that can totally wreck me.

I think, "Really? Did you really just say that?"

I think again and go, "Yep. They did."

I know they don't mean any harm, but sometimes it can really hurt.

If you read through the book of Proverbs, which is one of the books in the Bible known for its wisdom, you can find a lot about how your words are important.

Here is one:

"Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit" (Proverbs: 15:4).

Or later, in verse 23,

"Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!"

Check out 18:4...

"Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook."

Chapter 18:13 tells us to be careful in how we reply to others:

"Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish."

And check out verses 20-21!

"Wise words satisfy like a good meal; the right words bring satisfaction. The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences."

And skipping to 24...

"There are 'friends' who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother."

This is not all the Bible says about your words. This is merely scratching the surface.

All of this to say...

Be Careful with Your Words!

Give life through what you say, do not tear down.

Encourage by what you say, do not discourage.

Be gentle in your words.

Be loving with your words.

Seek God's wisdom in what to say and how to say it.

Where your Treasure Is...

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. (Matthew 6:21, NLT)

It is easy to store up treasures here on earth. Sometimes we don't call them treasures... we simply have an excessive amount of stuff. I know I am no one to talk to be honest. I have way too much stuff.

How many of us have multiple Bibles? How often do you pick it up to read it, study it, reflect on it?
If you are like me, not often enough.

But I will pick up different items in the store that I don't really need and buy them, keep them in my house, never to be used and just collecting dust.

Our Bibles should never do that, but oftentimes they do.

Our Bibles are full of treasures and full of things to be learned, but we take them for granted and we forget how important they are.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be...

Why don't we start storing up more heavenly treasures instead of focusing on earthly treasures? Why don't we get out our Bibles more and start learning more about our heavenly treasures and become better people?

In the end, we can’t take these material things with us. But we can build now for our eternity.

Let’s foster a life of love and kindness, and a deep desire to serve God by serving others around us.

Let’s learn all we can about God now.

Let’s build up the right kind of treasure.

Letting Go and Letting God

This one is quite personal y'all. I wrote parts of this in my journal that no one sees, but I think someone out there needs to read this, cause they will be able to relate.

Here goes...

The fact that I can talk about it without getting choked up tells me I made the right choice.

The fact that my heart feels at peace tells me I made the right choice.

The fact that I feel free tells me I made the right choice.

The fact that I am able to feel closer to God and able to better worship God tells me I made the right choice.

What is this choice you ask?

I had to let go of something... someone.

I don't need to go into more than that.

I know that God forgives me for fighting Him for so long. I know that He still loves me.

I just wished I had listened to Him from the beginning.

See sometimes... okay, let's be real...usually it is hard to trust when we think we know what is right.

But if we say in one breath that we trust God, but in the other say it's my life, I get to decide... how is that full trust?

Ouch. I didn't like that thought.

See... God will work through my life. He will work through YOUR life.

But you've gotta let Him.

Unless you're willing to surrender, He won't.

God's a gentleman, and won't force Himself on you.

The struggle I have with _______ won't go away unless I call on Him and trust Him with it, and get His help.

See I can try to follow all the rules on my own, but I won't succeed.

Until my desires change, I will not be able overcome my struggle.

I need His help to overcome my struggles AND to change my desires.

[Check out Colossians 2:23 specifically. I highly recommend reading the whole chapter, and even the whole book.]

Now, back to this thing.

I need His help to figure out what to do with my life.

I need His help to figure out healthy relationships.

I have to trust Him at every step of the way.

Every twist.
Every turn.
Every mountain.
Every valley.
Every high.
Every low.

In everything, I have to trust Him in order to allow Him to work in and through me.

I'm in this journey with you all.

I don't have all the answers.

I probably don't have any of the answers.

I'm right there beside you looking for them.

If you need to chat, have a prayer request, etc. drop a comment for me/shoot me an email.

God bless y'all.

New Beginnings

Ever have a decision you needed to make; you know what answer is best, but you don't like the answer?

Yeah, let me tell ya, I have been there.

There was something going on in my life, and as I was praying about it a bit, I knew what I had to do, but I didn't like what I felt God was leading me to do. It was something that I knew would hurt and make me uncomfortable.

I wrestled with this over a month. Events happened that made it even more clear that this thing God was asking me to do was what I needed to do to fix what was going on.

Eventually, I finally listened. And it was hard at first. But I can say that because I did that thing God was leading me to, I am able to feel a lot lighter. I have confidence that the right decision was made because of the things that have come from it. I have been able to grow closer to God and have been able to take more time to try to really seek Him. I do not feel the stress I was feeling. I feel free.

Some of you really just want to know what the situation was. It doesn't matter. It's personal, just like the things you may be facing.

I'm going to wrap this up with a few more words.

I encourage you to do two things:

1. Take time to seek God in prayer. He will show you what you need to do, if you really are genuinely listening.

Now, the harder one.

2. Actually do what He is asking you to do. There's no point in fighting God. As my friend told me... when we wrestle with God we never win... we only defy what He wants for our lives. Gonna have to remind myself of that a lot sometimes.

Submission

Submission. Often this particular word is viewed in a negative light, especially among women.

Why is that? My suspicion is because it suggests giving up what we want to be servants to someone else. Who would want to do that? Definitely no one I know!

One thing that God asks Christians to do is to submit to Him and to His will. One thing that is different about submitting to God though is God has your best interest at heart. There are manipulative and evil people on this earth who do not care about your or have your best interest in mind. But God does. He cares about you and what is good for you. Submitting to God is one of the best things you can do, because you are entrusting your life and your future to Someone Who knows it all, and Who knows what you need before you do.

Does knowing this make submission easy? No. No way. It helps, but submission is an action that must be repeated daily. I'll be honest, I am not good with submitting to God. It has to be something you think about daily, pray about multiple times daily, remind yourself of over and over, and spend time with God asking Him to help you submit, and looking to His Word for guidance.

Submission is a work in progress for me. One book I have been working through, and actually doing a study on is "Disciplines of a Godly Woman" by Barbara Hughes. Here is something that she has to say about submission: "All the disciplines of a godly woman are about submitting your will to God's loving rule in daily life" (Hughes 2001, 40). That is a good way to look at it, I think!

A Child, a Memory Verse, and a Revelation

Sometimes, you have a lightbulb moment from God, and you just think, well, duh! But it is a profound revelation to you.

This happens to me all the time.

See, sometimes your head knows the answers, but your heart needs an extra nudge.

I’m not going to lie; these past couple weeks have had rough patches. I’m looking at my “to do” list for today, tomorrow, and Friday of assignments due; part of me wants to laugh, the other part wants to cry. Ya’ll know what I’m talking about.

Yesterday while helping out at a children’s ministry program, I had a child who told me he was stressed and worried because he had some choices to make and he didn’t know what to do. We had just gone over one of their memory verses, so I recited it back to him; “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.” (Philippians 4:6, NLT).

Throughout the time, he would come back up to me and keep asking. I would read it back to him and try to encourage him a little.

This morning I was thinking about it, and everything clicked.

Duh.

Here I am, worried about my assignments, worried about getting everything else in, and the answer is literally right in front of me. God used that child. He wanted me to keep reciting the verse to him; it was not just for him; it was for me too. It was to help me remember it and commit it to memory.

That clicked as I stood at my sink, in the process of getting ready for the morning.

So, two things:

1) Reflect on things. Your Bible reading, your devotional reading, your prayers, and sometimes, even your interactions with others. (Now, don’t overthink interactions with others. So be careful with that one.) It’s amazing some of the things we can pick up on after the fact, especially with our devotional time.

2) PRAY. Prayer is literally the answer to anything. Worried? PRAY. Scared? PRAY. Overwhelmed? PRAY. Happy? PRAY. Depressed? PRAY. You get where I’m going with this. Don’t believe you should always pray? Well….

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV; emphasis mine).

Look back at the verse we quoted earlier, Philippians 4:6 … it says to “…pray about everything.”

I’m sure there are more verses on this. Why don’t you check it out for yourself?

All in all, I know this was something I needed to hear. I hope that it helps you in some way.

Love ya’ll! <3

 

Growth

Hey everyone, it has been so long!

So I've been back at University for a few weeks now. Time is flying by. This semester has felt a little different than normal. At first I thought it was because of some of the changes I was getting used to; some of my friends graduating and no longer being here, stuff like that. But, I think there is something more going on here.

This semester, I have felt way more open to God than I was before. I have been more excited to be reading the Bible, I listen more intently during chapel services; I just feel more eager to learn.

And boy, when you are eager to learn, the things you will learn are incredible.

I've been spending some time reading in Colossians. This is an amazing book of the Bible to read. It's a letter from Paul to a church in the city of Colosse. Paul wrote a lot of letters, as you find out when looking at the New Testament. This letter is just... it's so encouraging to read.

I feel like God has really wanted me to be closer and to grow more in Him. As I was thinking about that, guess what verse I saw? Colossians 2:7, which says, "Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on him."(NLT)

I started at the beginning, and in chapter 1, I saw another verse about growth; "Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better." (Colossians 1:10)***

Growth isn't always fun, and it definitely is not easy. But God can place an excitement and a desire for growth in your heart; and He will if you really and truly want it. It will mean doing some hard things, like confessing you are wrong to God and maybe even to an accountability partner. But in the end, God will work some amazing things out and will be able to take your life, and help you "grow as you learn to know God better and better."

Taking time in silence with God is a way to grow. Reading the Scriptures is another. I have found value in reading the Scripture I am studying more than once. It helps me to digest the ideas more, and reveals new things to me. Reading our Bible is only boring if we make it boring.
Always go into your time of devotions open and ready to learn. You will come away feeling refreshed and energized and excited about what you are learning.

Keep learning.
Keep seeking.
Keep growing.

*** I have a side note about this verse that I want to include. Whenever something starts with the word "then," it means that you need to go back and look at the rest of the context. Paul is writing about how people had been praying for this church, and how this church had heard the Good News from Epaphras, who was a beloved co-worker (v.3-7). Paul continued on, saying that they have not stopped praying for the believers in Colosse since they had first heard about them. They asked God to give spiritual wisdom and understanding to these people so then they could live in a way that is honorable and pleasing to the Lord (v. 9-10).

Two things I want to point out:
1) Having people who pray for you is good and a necessary part of growth. Having someone who you know is praying for you is encouraging and helpful in your growth.
2) Praying for others is another part of growth. Praying for others helps them grow, and helps you grow too.