Faith.

Many times in life we come across the big question... "What is my purpose?" or maybe this one..."Why am I here?" You hit rock bottom, or maybe you just get lost in thought and you really are just wondering. If you're like me, I analyze just about anything in life that God throws my way. If a boy smiles at me my immediate thought was "wow ok did I have something on my face or in my teeth??? wait even worse..Dear God please don't tell me I had a party going on in my nose." That's just how I am! I'm human. I think that way. And it's okay to wonder. Some people get to the point of wondering why they're here that they hit rock bottom and don't see a way out, they get thoughts that they don't have a reason or purpose..and they take their own life. Life is so so precious and fragile. If God brings you here  ( which He brought us all ) YOU HAVE A PURPOSE. Did you hear me? YOU HAVE A PURPOSE. And honestly, the only way you will find your purpose is if you give your life to Him, because when you do that He will show you, IF you allow Him to. That's the beauty of it. You have to drop everything you're doing and take that leap of faith for a life you couldn't possibly ravel up even if you tried. One of the most famous verses my Sunday school teacher always said was in Luke. "Then He said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me.'"Luke 9:23.  I capitalize 'daily' because every day is battle. I say battle because we battle with sin everyday, there is something that we struggle with. You know yours and I know mine. That's something we have to wake up every morning and say "I won't let you have control over me." Every morning is a fresh start. Every choice you make determines the road ahead. If you get lost in all the temporary things in life : drugs, alcohol, sex, money, whatever it may be, it will not last. You will eventually get bored of it and constantly look for more and more, and it won't be there. You are looking for something that will make you happy and fill that void in all the wrong places. The best way to find love, happiness is God. He can fulfill the desires of your heart,and when you reach Him, His desires for you life become what HE wants for you. So when I say He will give you the desires of your heart, I'm not saying you pray for gold and you receive it  (which He could do that). The desires of your heart, become what God desires for you.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8 And all of that brings me to this..Now as Christians do you ever notice how life gets rather.. difficult than non-believers? Not saying that people who don't believe always have it easier because that is not true by any stretch. Let me say this and I want to put this out there now and when you face trials keep this in mind..: THE devil DOES NOT CARE TO MESS WITH PEOPLE WHO ALREADY DO NOT BELIVE IN GOD BECAUSE WHY WOULD THEY IF LIFE IS GREAT THAT MEANS THEY WOULDN'T NEED FAITH. YOU NEED FAITH IN TOUGH SITUATIONS. That's what everything boils down to; faith. That also brings me to this..sometimes we go through things so we can help comfort others. A while back I went through something and I felt like NO ONE on this earth could possibly understand..welp.. My Momma did. She went through a VERY similar situation so she could help me! God puts us through things to 1. help mold us to who we need to be 2. help comfort others 3. help add disciples to His kingdom. Notice everytime we hit rock bottom God lifts our head and redirects us? Sometimes we need to be refocused on what's truly important. This is where faith comes in again.. when life takes a turn for the worst.. you start praying to a God you put on hold while you were living this great life and you finally realize... "wow I can't do this on my own." HELLO He's been there this whole time. That's something we all do, we leave God hanging, but when the going gets tough that's when we suddenly remember Him. God loves you so much. Don't put Him on a shelf when life is going great and decide to pick Him up when your world falls apart. He will always be there to pick up the pieces, but imagine if someone treated you that way. How would you feel?

Where's my Prince Charming?

Your first thought when reading this is probably that I'm about to write about how God has a perfect person and I feel like I can't find mine...well that's not what this is about at all. I understand that I'm very young to be talking about "love." But  God has definitely given me knowledge about some very important information in the topic of love. So saying that...

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity." 1Timothy 4:12.

Finding that perfect person, who isn't perfect but perfect for you is awesome.  And I'm sure that God does put two people together and they're awesome for eachother and grow in their spiritual walk together. I hope and pray that God blesses with me a man of God that really does love God, and Loves God MORE than me. We all crave that person. I know I sure do. Now here is when I'm about to "get real" with you. Not everyone is suppose to be with someone. Shocker? I know. And no I'm not trying to be negative. One of my favorite quotes from the amazing movie "Finding Normal" says, "I think I could spend the rest of my life by myself and be completely happy, but I'd rather I didn't." And that's something that has been glued in my mind. You can't constantly focus on searching for this someone to spend the rest of your life with. If you constantly search for love you're missing the whole true definition of love, God. God is love. 

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8

The best way to find love is to find God.  And I completely understand the thought of getting lonely but if God is uour main source of love, He will keep you company. We're suppose to be madly in love with God. I was at a Women's Confress and one of the speakers literally says God is her husband. She was THAT devoted. And she is still single. She's single in flesh but not in spirit. I'm not saying this to discourage you because God could bless you with someone to spend the rest of your life with. I'm saying don't focus only on that. Because everything God does, He does it right in in time. Don't go out searching for Mr. Prince Charming, because He could bless you with someone even better, a man of God and if you're a guy reading this, a woman of God. Either way your life turns out keep in mind that God is more than enough for us. 

Apologizing

Apologizing for most people is one of the hardest things to do. I mean seriously, who likes to admit they're wrong? And on some occasions just apologize to smooth things over just so the disagreement will cease. Something one of my best friends told me, is how she was raised, is when you apologize you apologize for what YOU did. You don't bring up what the other person did, because you've done your part. It's up to the other person to apologize. Something that's always been hard for me is when I apologize, I want an apology back. And sometimes I didn't get one and never did. I've learned.. I have to be OKAY with that. A forced apology means nothing because they didn't mean it! When you were younger and your parents made you apolgize, did you honestly mean it? I know I didn't. What you have to understand is that it doesn't make you less of a man or woman to admit you're in the wrong. It makes you more of a man or woman . 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

You can't control what other people do, but you can control what you do. 

If Tomorrow Never Comes

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the song "If Tomorrow Never Comes" by the amazing Garth Brooks, it's not a Christian song but It's awesome. Anyways, the song has nothing to do with what I'm about to post except the lyrics in the song "if tomorrow never comes will she know how much I love her." You never know when someone's last day is, and in the Bible it talks about how short life is. If you think about how fast time flies anyways, you blink and yesterday ends up being last year or even a couple of years ago. It's kinda scary actually. People argue over such silly things and get angry so fast, and end conversations on such bad notes. And most of the time no matter how angry you are, you still love hem. Two things. 

1." ...Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. And do not give the devil a foothold." Ephesians 4:26-27 

2. "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered- how fleeting my life is." Psalm 39:4 

Two huge things we need to keep in mind. God even tells us that our life is short on earth. A while back my mom ran across an old couple who had been together a little over 50 years. My mom asked her what her secret was and her response was," Never go to bed angry." Our time on earth is so so short and don't ever think "I'll just fix things tomorrow" because tomorrow is never promised for you or anyone else.  

Who do you wanna be?

One of the last things I want to hear when I'm upset is....take a guess... Godly advice. What? I know, crazy huh? I get so frustrated when one of the people closest to me starts telling me about God while I'm upset. But you know what? That's when I need it the most no matter how much I don't think so. When I'm angry for example, I'm letting the devil have control of me. All that time I spend angry, I'm missing opportunities in my life I'll never get back when I could be happy. God brings joy, peace, laughter, happiness, and so much more. If I would look to Him in my discomfort and my sadness as much as I do everything else in life I'd be a lot happier and handle things differently. So when I say I need it the most when I don't want to hear it, I need my focus re-directed to what matters more than anything in this world, God. I have to remember that God can bring me peace while I'm in these crazy storms of life. "I have told you these things that in me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world!" John 16:33. He already says that's we're going to have trouble and obstacles we are going to have to face! We will. And we have to look at them in a positive attitude. I, for one, definitely struggle with this, but I know that I'm going through it for a reason. I know that God wouldn't make make me go through heart ache for no reason. Everything you go through in life is to help you prepare for what you'll face in the future and shape you into who God intends for you to be. It's up to you whether you become who God intends you to be or whether you become bitter. That may sound harsh but who you become in this life is entirely up to you.

Why do we face trials?

Many people wonder why people have to suffer and endure things that hurt us and others. And that if you have such a loving God why does He allow bad things to happen? Well this is the answer I've found. "Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises dead." 2 Corinthians 1:9
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of ALL comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
If we didn't face troubles, what would be the point of God? God allows things to happen to show us we can't go through this life alone.

All the proof I need.

 

When people say, "How can you trust a book written from so long ago?" Ok. God told the many writers of the Bible what to say. He literally spoke through them. Newsflash the things in the Bible are still going on today. Real world events that are going on today and the ones that will happen in the future, God has ALREADY warned us about, so yeah I will believe and live by a book that was written from so long ago.