God's Will Part 2

A little while ago, I did a post on God's will. I said that I had been convicted lately that I need to be seeking God's will in my life. But what is God's will? I mean, some things we won't know until later, but what is God's will for right now? A couple weeks ago in youth group, my pastor did a message on just that. He told us some practical things that are God's will for us today and for the rest of our lives.

1) Salvation ~ God desires for each and every one of us to accept His free gift of salvation.
~2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4

2) Submission ~ God wants us to be submissive to those that He has put over us here on earth, and ultimately to Him.
~1 Peter 2:13-25

3) Sanctification ~ God wills for us to be sanctified and made more like Him.
~1 Thessalonians 4:3a

4) Soul-winning ~ God wants us to win souls for Him while we are here on earth. We must know how to answer those who question us about our faith.
~1 Peter 3:15

5) Surrender ~ We must be surrendered to God.
~Romans 12:1-2

6) Speech ~ God wants our speech to build others up and glorify Him.
~Ephesians 4:29

7) Spirit-filled ~ God wants us to be filled with His Spirit so that we can accomplish His will for our lives.
~Ephesians 5

8) Saying Thank-You ~ God wills for us to be thankful for everything that He has blessed us with.
~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

God's Will

The other night in church we sang "I Am Thine, O Lord" by Fanny Crosby. Like a lot of other songs have, this song convicted me. We got to the third stanza which reads:

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the pow'r of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.

The fourth line really got me. The Lord has been convicting me lately about His will. Not really anything specific that He has for my life yet, but just that I need to be fully trusting in and following Him. I decided to look up verses about God's will and see what they had to say. I found one that I really like: Proverbs 1:33. It says: "But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil." I really like the promise that that verse gives. It tells us that if we listen to God, we won't need to fear evil.


I then started thinking about what keeps us from God's will. I guess that we, as humans, just like to be in control. Most of the time, I LOVE being in control. Whenever I have a group project that I have to do, I want to be the leader. This isn't a bad thing, necessarily, but it is if I want my will over God's. This song and verse just inspired me to be so caught up in God's will for my life that I don't even think about mine. I hope it inspires you too! Later this month I'll talk about what God's will is for our lives...

Trust and Obey

The other night in church as I was singing Trust and Obey by John H. Sammis, the third stanza really impacted me. It says, "But we never can prove the delights of His love until all on the alter we lay; for the favor He shows, for the love He bestows, are for them who will trust and obey."
That just really hit me and reminded me that I must always trust in God for everything. I did a post a little while back on worry. Like I said, I worry a lot! This song was just another one of God's reminders that He wants me to trust in Him fully. I know this post is a little short, but I hope that it is an encouragement to you!!!

Faith

Have you ever had to put faith in something? Of course you have! Especially if you're a Christian because we have to put our faith in Christ to believe that He created the earth and that He will save us from hell. Recently someone in our family was diagnosed with a fast growing tumor in his nasal cavity. He was told that if it was not removed quickly, it would kill him. If that wasn't scary enough.... he also didn't really have any way to pay for it. We had no choice but to put our faith in God to work everything out; His way.

When it looked like there wasn't any hope, he got a phone call. The phone was about his insurance; He got it!!!! Blessing number 1!!!!!!! Then, last week he got a call that MUSC was going to look at him and talk about doing surgery. Blessing number 2!!!! They went down there last Sunday and his appt. was on Monday. Monday, they found out very early that he would have surgery on Tuesday - something they were not expecting at all. After the surgery we were told that the surgery was very successful and they removed it with no problems!!! Blessing number 3!!!! He is still continuing to heal but, through prayer and faith in God, he is on the mend and should be out of the hospital by the beginning of next week.

God played out this entire trial right before our eyes. It made it very clear that there is no other way to do things except through Christ!!! I want to leave you with one thought.... If you haven't put your faith in Christ, please do so today. It will change your life for the better. And don't forget, keep trusting Him!!! Have a great day!!!

A Heart That is On Fire

As I was singing May the Lord Find Us Faithful this evening at church, something convicted me. The third line of the third verse talks about us having a heart that is on fire. I really strive to have a heart that is on fire for God, but sometimes I just feel like my fire is going out or dying away. I think this is probably something we all struggle with. I just get wrapped up in school and just life in general and forget that I'm supposed to be serving God. Then I realize that, as a Christian, God is my life. All those other things that are taking up my time aren't really important. I should be finding a way to serve God in everything that I do. And not only that, but serving Him with my whole heart. That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy those other things, because God did put things here on earth for us to enjoy, they should just come after God. And, I should be serving God while I'm doing them. I hope these thoughts help you!

Following Christ 100%

I read this quote from a book by Beth Moore called Praying God's Word: "The giant step in the walk of faith is the one we take when we decide God no longer is a part of our lives. He is our life." I love this quote because it shows what a true believers' life should be like. We shouldn't just read God's Word and pray to Him when we're having a good day or when we get exactly what we ask for. We shouldn't be one person at church and a different one online or with a different group of friends (This is really easy to do and something I struggle with a lot). We should be trying to follow Christ and obey Him 100%, 100% of the time. Christ wants us to have a close relationship with Him, but we can't have that if we aren't striving to follow Him all of the time. It's so easy to try to get around living a radical Christian life and just acting like we're a Christian when we're at church. But God wants us to be good witnesses for Him all the time. We should want to show others what being a Christian is all about. If they know that we profess to be a Christian, yet we act just like them, they will have no reason to want to change and become a Christian. They will see no difference in our life and theirs, and therefore no reason to change what they believe. As I said before, this is something that I really struggle with and know that I should do better on.
The first commandment says that we should only have one God: the One True God. But that doesn't just mean that we shouldn't bow down to a wooden carved statue of a "little g" god. Anything, including ourselves that we put above God is an idol. God deserves every second of our time. More time than we spend chatting with friends, updating our statuses, and putting on make-up. We should meditate on Him day and night. Like I've said at least twice already, I really struggle with this so there isn't a whole lot I can say. I'd kind of like to hear any thoughts y'all have on this subject, so maybe we can help each other. I hope that this post is encouraging and insightful!