There is just something about getting together with a friend
and talking about God!
I have this friend whom I love dearly! We have been pretty
good friends since high school. He is one of my favorite people to hang out
with and talk to, because some how, no matter what we start off talking about,
we always end up talking about God. I love it so much because I not only get to
see a fellow Christian’s love and heart for God, but I get to see a MAN’s heart
for God. Every time I am with him I just think to myself…”This is what a REAL
MAN looks like!” A man after God’s own heart…someone who is actively pursing
Him and working to better himself in every way possible.
I believe every single
girl needs that single guy friend who
shows her an amazing example of what a TRUE, HONEST, GENUINE, RESPECTFUL,
CHRIST-LIKE MAN looks like.
Ladies…if you’re afraid (like I have been so many times)
that all the “good ones” are taken…don’t lose hope!!! The GOOD ONE for you is
out there waiting for you to come along, just like you are waiting for him!
Anyways…back to what I was saying =]
So my friend and I started talking about God and he was
telling me about this book that he has been reading and how it is really
convicting him and helping him see where he needs to better himself and prepare
himself for his future wife!
He does not have too many other Christian friends that he
hangs out with so he started talking about how it can be difficult for him at
times because the people he hangs out with most, are not really the best of
influences, and it can be easy, at times, to be influenced by them.
It was perfect because yesterday morning in Sunday school,
the main pastor at our church spoke to the high school and junior high about
God’s “crush”! This is when you have sin in your life that you are consciously
aware of and you are feeling guilty about it.
I thought I was the only person who had ever been there.
When I am struggling with something and I know it’s not
right, but I want to ignore it so badly because I want to live the way that I
want to live at times. So I continue on with whatever I know I should not be
doing and then eventually it’s like I lose all excitement in life. And I do not
find joy in the things that I once found joy in, because this sin has taken
over so much of my life and just suffocates me! I get to the point where I am
just miserable and miserable to be around!
Believe it or not…this is a GOOD thing!!! It is God
convicting me and pulling me back to Him and making me realize that I am NEVER
going to be satisfied or find joy in anything BUT Him!!! He is crushing me!! Crushing me to the point
where I have absolutely no choice but to turn back to Him and repent and get
rid of my sin! It is God telling me He loves me and He will not allow me to
sway too far from Him because He cares about me way too much to allow me to
find joy and fulfillment in something other than Him, especially in something
as disgusting as sin!
"For whom the Lord loves, He corrects..." - Proverbs 3:12
I have seen this SO many times in my life…but I don’t think
I have ever been able to describe exactly what it was before. I think I just
thought that something was wrong with me! Which is both right and wrong at the
same time. My sin is WRONG…but I can rest assured that God has not forgotten
about me and me being so miserable without Him is RIGHT!
I was talking to my friend about the story of Moses and
Aaron and the Israelites from Deuteronomy 9. After he lead the Israelites from
Egypt, Moses went to Mount Sinai to meet with God for forty days. During this
time the Israelites grew impatient and starting complaining, so Aaron made a
golden calf for them to worship out of all of their treasures. God told Moses
what was happening and told him to go back to the Israelites and He wanted to
destroy them, but Moses pleaded with God for their safety. Moses had just spent
forty whole days in God’s presence!!! How incredible is that?!! And Aaron, who
was not in God’s presence, became swayed by the people and tried to please
their wishes instead of God’s. But Moses could not be swayed because His faith
was so strong in God!
How incredible is that?!
Just imagine being so immersed with God’s presence that
NOTHING can sway you!!! Sure, you may become tempted from time to time…but your
heart is so focused on Christ, that you have a strength greater than any
temptation in the world, you have Christ’s strength!
If you’re like me…then thinking about something like this
can be very overwhelming…
“That’s just not even possible for me…” I automatically feed
myself defeat.
Believing EXACTLY what the enemy wants me to believe…setting
myself up for failure.
But then I just think…or rather…God REMINDS ME:
The SAME GOD who empowered David to stand up against and
defeat Goliath (1 Samuel 17:20-51),
The SAME GOD who saved Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from
the fiery furnace (Daniel 3),
The SAME GOD who caused the walls of Jericho to collapse
(Joshua 6),
The SAME GOD who caused Gideon’s army of 300 men to conquer
an army of 135,000 Midianites (Judges 6-8),
The SAME GOD who changed the heart of Saul of Tarsus into
Paul the Apostle (Acts 9),
The SAME GOD who empowered Peter to walk on water (Matthew
14) and Moses to part the Red Sea (Exodus 14),
The SAME GOD who kept the lions from eating Daniel while he
was in the lions den, but then allowed those lions to eat the men who plotted
Daniel’s death (Daniel 6),
The SAME GOD who interlaced every single detail of Josephs’
CRAZY life (Genesis),
The SAME GOD who sent His only Son to this earth to become
human and take on ALL of the worlds’ sin, and die on the cross to pay the
ultimate sacrifice so that we never have to…
Is the SAME GOD whom we worship and follow!
He is the God who not only LIVES in us, but who GIVES US
LIFE! He lives and breathes in us. He inspires us and moves us! He gives us
direction and purpose.
He is OUR GOD!!! MINE! YOURS!
He is GREAT and MIGHTY and POWERFUL!!!
And He has ALREADY defeated the enemy!!!
And He LOVES and PURSUES us CONSTANTLY!!!!! He DESIRES us!!!
HE DESIRES ME!!! HE DESIRES YOU!!!!
“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes I have
loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn
you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt…’” – Jeremiah 31:3,4
And if you are His, then He will not allow you to be without
Him.
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with
manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you
know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” – Deuteronomy 8:3
