Obedience.
I am definitely not the greatest writer but if I'm propelled to share something, I will. I can't promise that I'll always get straight to the point - I tend to over explain things... like right now. But most of the time, I'm writing for myself so my short-term memory loss won't win my brain over. And since I'm pretty much writing to my future self, you'll find that I'm pretty open and try to be as real as possible. I don't have anything to hide from myself anyways - if I do, that's kinda weird.
Obedience. What I've learned is that it's not just doing what God wants you to do for the sake of doing it, it is putting your heart, soul and mind into it. 100%. It's complete submission to God's will. It's knowing what he has commanded us to do, who he has made us to be, why we were created in the first place and of whom we are representatives of. The biggest ways I've tried to play out full-out obedience in my life is at work and at school.
I've had a job in retail for about six months now and I'm really enjoying it. But at work, surrounded by so many different people every couple of minutes, it's hard not to let the fear of man overcome you. You try to impress your boss by doing a good job at being a sales associate - pushing promotions, converting customers (retail term, not to Christianity), perfectly completing the tasks they assign you. You want to do your best, you want the hours, you want the recognition.
I'll admit, it bothered me when my coworker who got hired after me was recognized as employee of the month. I'm not usually the jealous type when it comes to recognition for things like that, but I thought I was working pretty damn hard.
They just don't see it! They don't pay attention to me enough to see that I work really hard.
I mean.. I work hard, don't I? I think I work hard enough to deserve a chance at being employee of the month. They just don't give me enough shifts so they aren't able to see me reach my potential.
It hurt, it bummed me out; going to work just wasn't as enjoyable anymore. I came to work with a different mindset now: to be recognized by my managers as a good worker. During my shifts, I worked hard. I worked even harder when one of my managers were around in hopes that I would receive the slightest bit of praise.
And then there's school. Oh, dearest university. We all know how much no one wants to do readings and study. And yet I tell people all the time,
Don't take your education for granted! There are people in the world who would love to have the opportunity that you have. Just thank God for putting you in a good school, that you are even able to attend school, and take complete advantage of it! He gave you a brain - USE IT to its potential.
But there I am, being a hypocrite. Watching foodwishes and jennamarbles on YouTube 'til I get tired enough to knock out instead of studying for my Spanish quiz the next day. Thankfully, God spoke to me in such a small yet powerful voice:
"Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless."
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ." - Colossians 3:22-24
Going to work, studying, doing homework - all these things, I found so much more joy in doing them with pleasing the Lord in mind. Think about it: God put you where you are right now and wants you to glorify him regardless of circumstances. He never gives you more than you can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13), so of course you can do it!
What I learned is that with obedience comes complete submission. That means giving it all up and being willing to give it all up.
"If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it."
- Matthew 10:39
Putting God first in your life, desiring him above all else makes the hugest difference.
Emotions are my biggest struggle. Having them not get a hold of me, not letting them get the best of me, being able to control how I react to them, how my brain reacts to them - all that good stuff. It isn't easy, especially when you have feelings you can reflect onto someone. It's one thing to fantasize about getting married with that faceless man giving you the James Marsden in 27 Dresses look, but having those thoughts with someone in mind is just ten times worse.
I'll admit, emotions have always been the part of my life that I was afraid to give up to God. I thought, if I feel this way, there must be a reason for it. And if life seems to be going in the direction I want it to go corresponding with my feelings, I'll want to hold onto them; I tended to trust in myself more than I trusted in God. But I realized,
HEELLLOOO! If you say God is the God of your life, and that he is in complete control, and that he is sovereign, and he knows everything, and planned it ALL out before you were born, why are you forgetting that HE GAVE YOU THOSE FEELINGS TO BEGIN WITH! Of course you can trust him with them! Because they're FROM GOD. DUHR. He made love and passion as a b-e-a-utiful thing, and luckily for you, he has given you some strooong passion there. You gotta use it for his glory, silly!
(By the way, this is actually how I talk to myself. And to God sometimes. If you don't believe me, just ask people how awkward I am when it comes to sharing what God has shown me this past year of 2012.)
So I've learned and I'm still learning what it means to offer all that up to God. I've grown to know that since the Lord gave me these feelings to begin with, I just have to entrust them all to him; trust that He will do what's best for me with them.
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?... For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- Matthew 6:26, 32-34
If God takes care of birds, and trees, and flowers, and all of nature, OF COURSE he's going to take care of me and all that I care about. He made us in his image, he created us for his glory, he died so I could be saved! I'd be crazy not to trust.
"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires." - Psalm 37:4
I used to think that if I delight in the Lord he'll give me what I want. Wrong. A good friend of mine helped me to see a different perspective: if you delight in the Lord, He'll become the desire of your heart; therefore, delight in him and he will give you more of himself! What a beautiful awesome truth :)
See, it's crazy. Obedience is completely about giving glory to God because he deserves all the glory. Having been taking delight in the Lord, in pleasing him, in wanting to know more and more about him; by digging into the Scripture, seeking his face in all that I do, listening for his voice wherever I am, I have been blessed.
There's an unexplainable sense of joy and peace that has washed over my life. I don't struggle as much when it comes to holding back my reactions to my emotions. Don't get me wrong, they're still there; if anything, they're more present now than ever. The difference is that I've lifted them all up to God - my struggles, my passions, my emotions, my heart. I've asked him to do with them what He will, and asking for a submissive and faithful heart, I've been doing my best to obey his commands for me, to be the woman of Christ he wants me to be.
And strangely, yet amazingly enough, my obedience which was only made possible through Christ, has resulted in some pretty flabbergast-ful phenomenal blessings. I'm overjoyed in knowing that my God is real. He is alive. I know this because there's no way that my life would be the way it is if he wasn't; there's no way I'd be this blessed if he hadn't blessed me himself.
Soli Deo Gloria - All glory be to God alone. :)
Obedience. What I've learned is that it's not just doing what God wants you to do for the sake of doing it, it is putting your heart, soul and mind into it. 100%. It's complete submission to God's will. It's knowing what he has commanded us to do, who he has made us to be, why we were created in the first place and of whom we are representatives of. The biggest ways I've tried to play out full-out obedience in my life is at work and at school.
I've had a job in retail for about six months now and I'm really enjoying it. But at work, surrounded by so many different people every couple of minutes, it's hard not to let the fear of man overcome you. You try to impress your boss by doing a good job at being a sales associate - pushing promotions, converting customers (retail term, not to Christianity), perfectly completing the tasks they assign you. You want to do your best, you want the hours, you want the recognition.
I'll admit, it bothered me when my coworker who got hired after me was recognized as employee of the month. I'm not usually the jealous type when it comes to recognition for things like that, but I thought I was working pretty damn hard.
They just don't see it! They don't pay attention to me enough to see that I work really hard.
I mean.. I work hard, don't I? I think I work hard enough to deserve a chance at being employee of the month. They just don't give me enough shifts so they aren't able to see me reach my potential.
It hurt, it bummed me out; going to work just wasn't as enjoyable anymore. I came to work with a different mindset now: to be recognized by my managers as a good worker. During my shifts, I worked hard. I worked even harder when one of my managers were around in hopes that I would receive the slightest bit of praise.
And then there's school. Oh, dearest university. We all know how much no one wants to do readings and study. And yet I tell people all the time,
Don't take your education for granted! There are people in the world who would love to have the opportunity that you have. Just thank God for putting you in a good school, that you are even able to attend school, and take complete advantage of it! He gave you a brain - USE IT to its potential.
But there I am, being a hypocrite. Watching foodwishes and jennamarbles on YouTube 'til I get tired enough to knock out instead of studying for my Spanish quiz the next day. Thankfully, God spoke to me in such a small yet powerful voice:
"Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless."
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ." - Colossians 3:22-24
Going to work, studying, doing homework - all these things, I found so much more joy in doing them with pleasing the Lord in mind. Think about it: God put you where you are right now and wants you to glorify him regardless of circumstances. He never gives you more than you can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13), so of course you can do it!
What I learned is that with obedience comes complete submission. That means giving it all up and being willing to give it all up.
"If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it."
- Matthew 10:39
Putting God first in your life, desiring him above all else makes the hugest difference.
Emotions are my biggest struggle. Having them not get a hold of me, not letting them get the best of me, being able to control how I react to them, how my brain reacts to them - all that good stuff. It isn't easy, especially when you have feelings you can reflect onto someone. It's one thing to fantasize about getting married with that faceless man giving you the James Marsden in 27 Dresses look, but having those thoughts with someone in mind is just ten times worse.
I'll admit, emotions have always been the part of my life that I was afraid to give up to God. I thought, if I feel this way, there must be a reason for it. And if life seems to be going in the direction I want it to go corresponding with my feelings, I'll want to hold onto them; I tended to trust in myself more than I trusted in God. But I realized,
HEELLLOOO! If you say God is the God of your life, and that he is in complete control, and that he is sovereign, and he knows everything, and planned it ALL out before you were born, why are you forgetting that HE GAVE YOU THOSE FEELINGS TO BEGIN WITH! Of course you can trust him with them! Because they're FROM GOD. DUHR. He made love and passion as a b-e-a-utiful thing, and luckily for you, he has given you some strooong passion there. You gotta use it for his glory, silly!
(By the way, this is actually how I talk to myself. And to God sometimes. If you don't believe me, just ask people how awkward I am when it comes to sharing what God has shown me this past year of 2012.)
So I've learned and I'm still learning what it means to offer all that up to God. I've grown to know that since the Lord gave me these feelings to begin with, I just have to entrust them all to him; trust that He will do what's best for me with them.
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?... For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- Matthew 6:26, 32-34
If God takes care of birds, and trees, and flowers, and all of nature, OF COURSE he's going to take care of me and all that I care about. He made us in his image, he created us for his glory, he died so I could be saved! I'd be crazy not to trust.
"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires." - Psalm 37:4
I used to think that if I delight in the Lord he'll give me what I want. Wrong. A good friend of mine helped me to see a different perspective: if you delight in the Lord, He'll become the desire of your heart; therefore, delight in him and he will give you more of himself! What a beautiful awesome truth :)
See, it's crazy. Obedience is completely about giving glory to God because he deserves all the glory. Having been taking delight in the Lord, in pleasing him, in wanting to know more and more about him; by digging into the Scripture, seeking his face in all that I do, listening for his voice wherever I am, I have been blessed.
There's an unexplainable sense of joy and peace that has washed over my life. I don't struggle as much when it comes to holding back my reactions to my emotions. Don't get me wrong, they're still there; if anything, they're more present now than ever. The difference is that I've lifted them all up to God - my struggles, my passions, my emotions, my heart. I've asked him to do with them what He will, and asking for a submissive and faithful heart, I've been doing my best to obey his commands for me, to be the woman of Christ he wants me to be.
And strangely, yet amazingly enough, my obedience which was only made possible through Christ, has resulted in some pretty flabbergast-ful phenomenal blessings. I'm overjoyed in knowing that my God is real. He is alive. I know this because there's no way that my life would be the way it is if he wasn't; there's no way I'd be this blessed if he hadn't blessed me himself.
Soli Deo Gloria - All glory be to God alone. :)
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