What are we doing with our lives?

This afternoon I was taking a walk and listening to some Christian music. At one point, I decided that I really wanted to focus on God and so I decided to close my eyes so that I could block out everything around me so I wouldn't be distracted (it was a quiet street with no traffic or activity). As I was walking with my eyes closed, all of a sudden I felt myself begin to trip and immediately opened my eyes and caught myself before I fell to the ground. Then, I suddenly realized that what had just happened to me is a picture of how so many Christians live their lives.

As a Christian, there are many times that we want to only focus on God and block out the rest of the world. Naturally, there are times to do this. We need to focus purely on God. We need it in order to know God. We need to know what He is thinking and feeling. We need to tell Him how we are doing. God desires these times with us and we should desire and even desperately seek these times with Him.

We should always have intimacy with God, but not to the extent of blocking out the rest of the world. What I mean by that is that while we are not supposed to be "of the world" (John 15:19) we are still very much living in the world and we need to stop hiding behind our Christianity. So many times I have heard, oh I can't be around this person or that person because they ____ and as a Christian I need to stay away from them. When someone uses their Christianity as a guard against allowing someone "in the world" in their life they are doing the exact opposite of what Jesus wanted. After all, who did Jesus hang out with while he was on Earth? Did He restrict Himself to only being around men and women of God? NO, He was constantly around the sinners, the people that we immediately shut out of our life because they don't know Jesus. Let me ask a question, how will they get to know Jesus if they are never told, or even better, shown His love? If we don't show them who Jesus is and that they need to get right with God, who will?

It is time to stop hiding behind our church walls and go out and be little Christs (Christians). We need to start doing what Jesus did, which was be around all people. It is time to stop being afraid of the devil and start believing that our God is bigger and much more powerful than him. That we have nothing to fear because we have God on our side. So who's with me?

Who Is In Control?

There is a song called "I Believe" which is by the Deluge band and within the song there is a line that says, "Never gonna change my mind about You". I have seen people (including myself) "change" their mind about God; anywhere from a complete turning away from God, or rejecting Him in the moment when we don't think following Him is very convenient, or even simply not doing what He wants because it's not what we want. All three of these instances are examples of when we put ourselves on the throne and decide what we want to do and don't particularly care what God thinks.

Anytime that we ignore God and His desires for us, for our destiny, for our day-to-day living style we are essentially saying that our opinion is more important that God's and that we have changed our mind about God being our Lord. Oh my, how self-righteous we can all be, because let's face it, we have all done it at some point, and if we don't think so, then we're in denial because nobody is perfect. But, oh, to one day be the person He desires me to be, someone who does everything He wants and always put myself and my own feeling to the side and ignore them when they don't agree with His will, oh, how I do long for that, how about you?

I know that when I read my Bible and worship Him through prayer and song that I become transformed because He is welcomed into my life and I am able to continually keep Him as Lord over my life. But yet, I know that it is not enough to do these things, I need to allow Him into my life completely, to choose to listen to and follow Him every moment of every day and truly never change my mind, even in a split second, about who God is to me. The only way I can ever become all that God desires for me to be is through reading the Bible, worshipping Him through prayer and song, and most importantly, having his Holy Spirit not only living in me, but through me. The Holy Spirit must penetrate my entire life so that when people look at me, they see Him and not the selfish person that I am without Him.

I love God with all of my heart and want God to be in control of my life, and I will never change my mind!

Thought for the Day - Be Yourself

Have you ever noticed that some people you come in contact with seem phony; like they aren't who they seem to be? So many times we try to not be ourself by acting like someone else because we think that they're better than us. Perhaps we think they're more eloquent than us, or more spiritual, or more popular. We compare ourselves to people around us or on television and think, "if only I could be like them, they're so....", then we do everything we can to imitate them.

God has made each person unique and special and loves everything about us. We are supposed to be different from everyone else, not carbon copies because we all have a unique calling. He has a purpose for each of our lives, and if we become who He has made us to be, we will be able to fulfill our purpose. Our life is a journey, and we are always seeking to be the perfect creature that He desires us to be through prayer, worship, and reading the Bible.

The very first step to being able to fulfill our purpose is to accept and love who He has made us to be. How could our purposes be fulfilled if we are supposed to walk in love but yet we don't even love ourselves?

God made us the way we are on purpose, it wasn't a mistake. We are His beloved, and He is ours. God loves us no matter what!!