Fully Obey, Right Away!

"Happy are those who live pure lives,
Who follow the Lord's teachings.
Happy are those who keep His rules,
Who try to OBEY Him with
Their whole heart"
Psalm 119:1-2


Has God ever asked you to do something really hard?

Do you think about how wonderful it is to live by God's truth, or do you constantly try to think up ways to avoid having to be too serious about living right? If you find that you are more interested in doing your own thing, maybe it's time to rethink a couple of things.

DAILY God will speak to me, and I know he is telling me to do something. But it is so hard to put what you are doing on the backburner and do the right thing for God, right then. God is looking for wholehearted followers, and we CANNOT say to Him "Okay Lord I will do that later"
  Because you do not know what God's intentions are of you completing this task, maybe it needs to be done RIGHT THEN. It could fully impact someone elses life. Only He knows. God wants you to live your life as an offering to Him (Romans 12:1) The bible tells us that we should constantly offer up to Him in our daily walk as beleivers. There is so many books in the Bible on Obedience, obviously God wanted to make it clear to us- that He wants our Obedience! In 1 Kings, all of their behavior in response to God's commands summed up their whole existence! It also tells us in 1 Chronicles that obedience brings blessings; disobedience brings judgment. While God is loving, merciful, and generous by nature, he reserves His greatest blessings for those who submit to His GUIDANCE. 

If you are struggling with the attitude that obeying God is just a big, boring chore, ask him to help you. He loves you, and once you start truly loving Him back, obeying Him will stop feeling like some kind of unpleasant task; it'll becomg your greatest joy!

One more verse for the road! :)

"I enjoy living by your rules,
as people enjoy great riches.
I think about your orders
And study your ways.
I enjoy obeying your demands,
And I will not forget your word"

Pslam 119:14-16

Being a Patient Person

“Patience is better than strength.”  –Proverbs 16:32

Human beings are naturally impatient! I know that everyone has gotten aggravated that you either had to wait an extra hour in a doctor’s office, wait in line, or even in traffic. But that kind of waiting is not the only kind of impatience that exists. You can be impatient with people or even friends when they sin or just make you mad. God tells us that no matter if we are waiting on people or even trying to be patient with our Lord that we should be patient and know that God works perfectly in timing. Because there is a reason God wants you to wait for certain things. Often when we are impatient, it can bring out the absolute worst in us. Ranting and raving and letting loose a fury of hurtful words is extremely destructive. But patience draws on the Holy Spirit’s strength and holds on to peace. There are many important examples of people in the Bible that had to be patient, pray through all the waiting and they were all blessed for it! Examples are: Job & his wife, Hannah in 1 Samuel, and Sarai in Genesis. God is abundantly patient with you, and we are told to be like our Almighty Maker! Sometimes I think, “Well, if I am patient I can’t just get these things done.” BUT actually the bible tells us…. True power often comes to us in the unique form of patience. I know that it is hard to pray and pray, wait and wait, for God to move in a person’s life, or to get you out of a bad situation. BUT God will surely move and while waiting for Him to work His miracles we have to seize every moment we have been given, and introduce others to our AMAZING Savior! God doesn’t put you in situations that you can’t ultimately get through.

So pray to God that He will take away your impatience and help you to know that He IS listening!

Worldly Things

"Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Jesus Christ is not in him. Worldly things are not from our Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live FOREVER.” I John 2:15.

John here tells us that the love of the world thrusts the love of God out of our hearts. We can be growing SO close to God, but as soon as we participate in worldly activities (i.e. Partying, drinking, ect.) we can no longer be able to keep drawing nearer and nearer to Jesus! I feel like you have to work much harder to get that walk back with Him after we have sinned in such a worldly way!

Some of your friends may ask you, “Why is drinking and smoking so bad? I don’t see why God would care if I did those things?” Well, in 1 Corinthians 6:19 is tells us “Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you & was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you at a high price. So you MUST honor God with your body.” God gave up His one and only Son for us, the least we can do is LIVE for him! (Plus if you are my age….it’s illegal! Haha! And of course God tells us to obey the laws of the land! J)

It also tells us in Romans Chapter 12 NOT to copy the behaviors and customs of the world, not to let this world shape us; but to let God transform the way you think and you will no longer have a desire for these worldly things.

Another thing God says to us in the Bible is found in Philippians 4:8-9. “Brothers & Sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable, right and pure, beautiful and respected. Do what you learned and received of me, what I told you, and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you!”  

Do everything you do in God’s name! He will surely bless you for it! <3

Blessings in Disguise

 "God can work ALL things together for good." Romans 8:28

We are so blessed in so many ways. Just think of all the ways we are blessed; whether it is a roof over your head, living in a country where we can express our beliefs freely or having people that really care for you. No matter who you are, YOU are blessed. Most of us know that we ARE blessed but sometimes we take these things for granted. But, have you ever thought about ways that God could be blessing you that you didn't think were blessings at the time? I like to call these 'Blessings in Disguise'!

When something happens in your life that you feel shouldn't be there or is hindering your walk with God you may think 'Why is God letting this happen to me? Doesn't he love me?'

And the answer is, if you trust God in this tragedy, He will bring you through it, and bless you in ways you can't even understand! God will always use the bad things that happen if your life for good.

God can use terrible circumstances for an awesome plan! Trust God at all times and know that He does not intend any harm on you.

You may even be SO shocked that God put you in that situation that you think you are not big enough to overcome it, but with His help you CAN overcome anything! If God is for us, no one can defeat us (Romans 8:31). 

And when you DO overcome the situation, which if you stay true to God you WILL, the results may be the opposite of what you wanted but they will be so rewarding that you would not want it any other way! 

God KNOWS what is best for you, and when you can't see that…He will show you, and you may not want to do it at the time but in the long run you will NEVER regret doing the right thing for Jesus! 

Listening to God!

"Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” -John 8:47

Listening to God is SO important, because when you listen to God he can reveal His will that He has for you. I was feeling really down in the dumps for a couple of weeks and was wondering why God wasn't running to my rescue and solving all of my problems because I was praying really HARD! But somehow I had forgotten that earlier in the month I had prayed for God to show me what he wanted me to major in. I was sitting in my economics class, zoned out, as usual; and I heard a small voice in my head say "nurse, be a nurse". I immediatly thought, 'No, I can't be a nurse! I am scared of needles and I cannot stand the sight of blood! I  am not even smart enough to be a nurse, much less go through all the hard courses! That can't be God telling me to do that.' Soon enough, I found out that it was the devil putting these thoughts in my head. But at the time I immediatly pushed this idea of being a nurse away. So far away that I forgot all about it! So, the next two weeks were miserable. I didn't know why and I was feeling like problems were all around me. I am such a joyful person and I was depressed!!!! I kept praying and praying, going to church, and praising God through all of this asking him to 'get me out of here!' Last Sunday night, I went to Elevation (a college ministry at New Life Church), and the preacher spoke about how you can push God away and that we should all take a minuite and pray that God will show us anything that He has tried to tell us and we just ignored. I prayed and all of a sudden NURSING flooded back into my mind. Right then I gave it all to the Lord & I figured He knows what is best for me, I sure don't! I came back to my dorm and started getting SUPER excited about this whole nursing thing! I have decided that I want to be a nurse practitioner, did some research and I changed my major! The very next day blessings poured my way! Everything that I had been praying about God started acting on! I had not been so happy in a while!!!!

When you listen to His voice, and let Him tell you His will for you, He will work wonders!