God's Will

Being human, it's extremely hard to wait on God to move in our lives, instead of just going ahead and doing what we think we want for our lives. Sometimes, I feel like it would be easier if God didn't have a plan for us, and we were allowed to create our own plan. Though, if this was reality, I'm sure there would be a lot more unhappy people in the world. We don't know what is best for us in our lives. We can't see the future and see if how things will play out for the better. That's why, no matter how hard, we have to wait for our God in Heaven to guide us down the path that he has for us. He knows our likes, our dislikes, our ambitions, our hopes, our dreams, and He won't let us down with the plan that he has sewn together for us.

 I know that I fail at waiting for God's will every single day. There are so many dreams and things that I want to accomplish in my life, but the question is, is this what God wants for my life as well? How am I supposed to know what God wants? What happens to my own dreams?

My absolute dream is to move somewhere in Europe. I want to experience the culture and live independently. I want to meet new people and gain more knowledge. Sometimes, I want to go so bad, it makes me want to pull my hair out. I start to feel as if I will never get out of the area that I've lived my whole life. Unfortunately then, I get frustrated with God because I don't want to go if it's not God's will, but, I still really want to go. I question God by asking why He would want me to stay where I am and be partially happy, instead of allowing me to follow my dreams, so that I could be happier. But who am I to say if I would be happier somewhere else? I can't answer this question. Only God can. God could be setting up a way for me to move next month, or He could be opening up a great opportunity for me at the area I'm currently in. I simply can't rush God. He has a time set aside for every thing that is going to happen in my life. He is looking at my timeline right now, and seeing what I will be doing a minute from now, an hour from now, a month, year, ten years. He has it all under control, and I've just got to wait on Him. If I'm meant to move, I believe God will bring me happiness, if I'm meant to stay, I believe God will bring me happiness. God isn't God of dread, He is God of light.

My advice for anyone that is waiting for God to show you His will is to surround yourself with happiness. Read your Bible every day, talk to God, pray that He would show you His will for your life, find things that you love, try new things. Anything that is going to keep you happy. God isn't trying to make you unhappy by making you wait, God is making you stronger and preparing you for what He has in store for you. God wants you to become closer to Him by reading your Bible and talking with Him. He wants you to find things that you love in life; reading, basketball, video games, or whatever the case may be. Surround yourself with the things that make you happy, and God's will will play out before you know it.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." -Proverbs 3:5-6

Unequally Yoked

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"- 2 Corinthians 6:14

Being equally yoked in the Bible simply means that both of the people in the relationship are saved and serving God. Finding someone in this era that you both love and are equally yoked with can be really tough. Also, it can be really hard to pass up the chances that you have with people that are unequally yoked with you. There's going to be really decent people that aren't saved that you will really like and maybe even love, but God doesn't want this for you. God doesn't want you to be with someone that is going to disobey Him. God wants someone for you that will serve Him along side you and help you grow closer to God. If you were to marry someone that is unequally yoked, then they would just bring you further away from your relationship with God.

I know how easy it is to fall for someone that isn't equally yoked. I've done it plenty of times. They know all the right things to say, they put up a good act, and they sometimes try to be Godly for you. But sooner or later, if they don't get saved, their true colors are going to shine through. All the sins that they have had hidden will soon come out, and you will be left with the person that took you away from God. Currently, there is this guy that I really like and care for very deeply. He's obviously not saved. He has a lot of sin in his life and he seems to get worse. But the thing is, he is such a great person beyond that. He's super funny, his laugh gives me butterflies, he's very genuine and intelligent. But no matter what kind of person he is, at the end of the day, he still doesn't know God. How can I care so deeply for someone that doesn't see what the amazing things that God has done in his life? I pray for him daily and I have done so for almost a year now. I pray for the day that he will get saved, and I might have a chance with him. But I know that if he doesn't get right with God, I can't be with him. I can't leave God, who sent His only son to die for me. God deserves my praise, and I want to be with someone that is going to praise Him with me.

It seems that as time passes, there are more of the wrong guys out there compared to the number of Godly guys. More and more people are living a life of sin, and we might be surprised who is and who isn't. But God does have someone out there for everyone. Someone that they can pray with, praise God with, read the Bible with, and so on. A person that is going to love you beyond belief because God put that love for you in that person's heart. The love that comes from God is greater than anything else that you could think of. It's so strong, and it can never break. Waiting for this person can be hard. I experience a lot of loneliness from the idea of being alone, but I must have faith that God will send me someone soon. While you are praying at night for God to send you someone, you could be praying for someone half across the world and not even know it, and that person could be fixing breakfast while doing the exact same thing. Remember that there is a special person out there that loves you. You might not have met yet, but there is someone. God's love will never fail.

Long Awaited Prayer

Praying for people can get really hard when you see no change in them. It can be very discouraging to see the person stay in the sin that they have always been in, or even get worse.

I have been praying for the same person for almost a year now. He is going down a really bad path at the time, and it seems to only get worse with time. I've been praying that God would open his mind and heart up, so that he can see that he needs to be saved. I have complete faith in God that He can save my friend, and I do believe that my friend will eventually see that he needs to be saved by God's grace, and I hope and pray that he will ask for forgiveness if God allows that to happen. Although I have faith that God will save him, I still get so worried and discouraged sometimes. My mind wanders to thoughts about what if he never asks God for forgiveness? What if my prayers for him has been useless? This leads me to the point of even doubting God. How could God, after a year of praying for my friend, not do anything to change his life? How could God hear me crying out to Him, and not reach out to my friend? This is when the true test of faith of patience comes in. At a church I used to go to, there was this man that said that he prayed the same prayer for twenty years before it came true. It wasn't that God wasn't listening, and it wasn't that he was punishing the man for something, it was simply that God was waiting for the right time to answer this man's prayer. The faith and patience that the man had even helped his testimony in God. Someone that is able to have that much faith in God, will receive blessings from God. God wants us to show our faith in Him. He wants us to trust Him to do what He says he will do. God states in the Bible, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." God doesn't want us to lose faith in Him, but instead, gain more faith through praying and praying continuously. God will see the pure desire in your heart, and He will answer your prayer. 

Therefore, I must have faith that God will help my friend. The desire in my heart to see my friend saved is too great to lose faith in. I believe that God will answer my prayer and He will answer yours if you will just ask Him. 

How I Fell Away from Christ

I am ashamed to say it, but after receiving God into my heart, I didn't commit to Him like I should have. I continued in the majority of my sins, even though, God would now speak to my heart every time that I did something sinful. I would feel God in my heart telling me not to do something, and I would do it anyways. I continued in this way until after I graduated from high school. By this time, I had really started to doubt my salvation. God didn't talk to me like he had right after I got saved. Looking at myself from the outside, I hadn't been a good witness for God, which is why God hadn't talked to me like He had before. I pushed Him out of my life over the years, I hardly ever prayed unless it was convenient for me, and I never read my Bible. I wasn't a very good friend to him, even after He gave me the greatest gift that anyone could receive, being the gift of eternal life. The summer after high school, I went to a Bible Camp with my best friend. I had been there before, but that was the year before I started high school, and I hadn't had the understanding of the importance of a relationship with God then. I went into the camp thinking that it was going to be an exhausting week of going to class everyday, then having to go to preaching, and I was honestly kind of bitter about it. So, I get there on a Sunday night and the actual camp begun on Monday morning. All the people that had came early, all sit around talking and playing games, and I was so surprised at how comfortable I felt around these people. I am a rather reserved person, but being around the people there just felt right. When we went up to our cabin to sleep, I was dreading what the next day would bring.

On Monday, the teacher taught his lesson on assurance, which is having the knowledge and security that you are saved. Having been doubting my salvation, I had to wonder if God was directing that lesson at me. So, I went to the church service that night, the preacher preached on assurance. My heart was beating out of my chest when he started to preach on that subject. On Tuesday, the next teacher taught on assurance. Okay, now I'm getting a little freaked out to be honest. That night, the preacher preaches on assurance. After service that night, we went to our nightly devotions with the other girls, the leader of the devotion talked about assurance. By this time, I knew that these lessons and services were being pointed right at me. God wanted me to commit my life to Him, so that I could live my life for Him. On Wednesday, the teacher taught his lesson on...you guessed it, assurance. I hadn't felt so pointed out so much in my life. I had came to this camp with a strong doubt in my mind, and I was finally beginning to get some peace about my salvation. That night, the preacher taught on assurance. Thursday, the last day of classes and preaching, the lesson and preaching was on...assurance. By this day, I had found such peace in my heart. I was singing the songs that we sung daily louder than I ever had, I had joy like I had ever had, and I honestly just wanted to jump on the table and tell everyone what Jesus had done for me. When I left the camp on Friday, I wanted to just keep going. I wanted to stay around the Godly people that I had come to love, but unfortunately, I had to go back and face the world. After we left camp, we went out and ate. I had noticed such a difference in the world. No longer did it appeal to me, but it completely disgusted me. There was sin all over the place, and I could feel it strongly around me. Since that feeling, I knew that I couldn't go back to living the way I was. I had to continue my journey with God in hopes that I could be a witness for Him and encourage other people to be open to the idea of a life with God. When I got home, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't let a day go by without reading my Bible and praying to God. I have kept this promise, but I definitely haven't been perfect since then. I have sinned, but God always brings my mind back to the place where He saved me, and I know that I can't go back to a life of sin. The joy that comes from following God doesn't compare to anything in the world.

How I Came to Christ

Before I started in on the actual blogging, I wanted to share my story of how I became a Christian and began my journey with God. My whole life, I have been in church. I have always been taught the ways of God and what it means to be a Christian. When I was about eleven or twelve, I started feeling a tugging at my heart when my pastor would preach about being saved. I would feel that God was wanting me to come to Him to ask forgiveness. I believe that it was in middle school that I felt the tugging, or conviction, very strongly at a Bible School at my church. I'm not going to lie, it is a very scary feeling of coming to realization that you must be saved if you don't want to go to Hell, but it is completely worth it in the end. I went to my teacher and told him that I wanted to be saved, and he prayed with me. I confessed to becoming saved, but God hadn't really come into my heart yet. I had asked God to save me without having offering a complete understanding that I was a sinner. I went along thinking that I was saved until I was a sophomore in high school. The December within my sophomore year, I started to feel the conviction again, and I tried my best to ignore it, but there was no hiding from God. When January came, the conviction became worse and worse. Then February, then March, and the conviction was completely awful. I was constantly worried that I was going to die and go to Hell. I couldn't drive without being scared, I couldn't sleep without worrying about what was going to happen once I fell asleep, and just being alive scared me because I knew that at any moment, it could be my time to die. I'm not complaining though because this was God's way of opening my mind and heart to the idea that I was in great need of accepting Jesus into my heart. So on March thirty-first, my pastor at the time preached a sermon on Hell and the importance of accepting Jesus. That night, I accepted Jesus into my heart. It was the best decision that I have ever made in my life.

What is a Christian?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of a Christian is "a person who believes in Jesus Christ and follows his teachings."  I'm going to try to be brief with this because there is so much to explain, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Becoming a Christian begins with learning about God, Jesus Christ, and His Word, or the Bible. The Bible teaches us that we have all sinned and come short before God. Sin began when Adam and Eve took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge after God clearly told them not to. When the devil came in the form of a serpent, Adam and Eve chose to listen to the devil's words when he told them that it was okay to eat of the tree. Once Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they came to realization that they had sinned. From then on, people have had knowledge of sin and they have sinned anyways, which is exactly what makes it wrong before God. In the beginning, people had to sacrifice animals to redeem themselves of sin because Jesus hadn't yet came to be able to take away their sins. Later on, when Jesus was born to a virgin, Mary, and grew up, he became a teacher to the world. He told the world that he was the Messiah, and that he would be able to save them from eternity in Hell once they died so that they could live with Him in Heaven one day. Some followed Him, but others did not, which led to the crucifying of Him. Pilate, who had power at the time, didn't like Jesus and His teachings, because he wanted to rule instead. Pilate made Jesus out to be a fake and liar. He got a lot of people on his side, and he sentenced Jesus to be crucified. Jesus was placed on a cross, nailed onto it by his hands and feet, with a crown of thorns in his head, he was spit on, cursed at, and mocked. There was two people on each side of Him, and one of them happened to ask forgiveness, or get saved, before dying, but unfortunately, the other did not. When Jesus died, he died to save the world of their sins; present and future. He took on the fire of Hell for us, so that we could live forever in Heaven.

So, what does that mean for us? How exactly do we ask for forgiveness? Well first, like Adam and Eve, we have to come to realization that we have sinned. We have to acknowledge before God that we have sinned and that we are sorry for it. All that we have to do is genuinely tell God that we are sorry for our sins and ask him to come into our hearts. If we really mean what we say and we acknowledge that we are sinners, then God will save us from our sins. I realize that this sounds like it is too good to be true because it sounds so easy. I was even surprised as I typed how easy it sounded, and it is. God isn't asking for a lot, especially compared to how much He has done for us. All He wants us to do is ask forgiveness, and live for Him in our daily life. He wants to be our friend, and for us to live by His Word and set of commandments and laws that He has set before us. He wants us to live forever with Him in Heaven one day, which sounds pretty great to me.

I hope that I did God justice with what I wrote. I hope that it is clear and understandable for those that might not know about God. But like I said before, if you have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them for you. Please remember that God loves you no matter what you have done. He is full of mercy and will save you if you come to Him.