Someone once said that God is constantly speaking to us. He speaks through our opportunities, failures, through prayer and music and through others. But sometimes God just lays something on our hearts, like a word. Although I thought this idea was pretty cool, (I mean its the CREATOR of the universe) I always thought that when God gives someone a "word" for the year, it was always an old lady thing, just like playing shuffle board or waking up early on purpose. Doesn't it sound like a grandma kind of thing to say, "God gave me a word this year"....? No offense to old ladies and Grandmas...(I have the utmost respect for you :)) So, when a word came to me...I thought my old lady-self must be kicking in.
Isn't God so great? He puts everything into a relationship, knowing he won't get half of it back. At the beginning of this year, I was convicted to take inventory of my life...a scary scary thing. So many things seem to make me frustrated, and anxious. I'm a senior next year already, and I am supposed to go to college?!?! Classes seemed to be getting harder (little did I know that AP Psych was on its way!) and life in general was just becoming busier. During my inventory, I realized how many things I needed to work on this year...mainly my lack of effort in relationships. To be honest, it is not hard for me to make friends, but keeping friends....that's the trick. Just like working out, my relationship or any other struggle is NEVER going to get better unless you work at it. This made me think, and I realized this lack of effort penetrated everything/everyone including my relationship with God. I expected God to come running after me when I fell away from Him, or that He would just maintain our relationship and I could take a break....(fyi it doesn't work). Now, not to sound like God is not all loving and forgiving, but if we aren't interested in having a relationship, God's not gonna make us. According to Mr. Whittaker from Adventures in Odyssey, he's a "gentleman." Also, in Romans chapter one talks a lot about people that fell from God, and that He gave them over to their desires. However, being a human...I am really good at finding a problem, but what could I do to fix it? God provided! The word that came to mind for me was PURSUE, and I have slowly (but surely) been weaving this word into my life.
Last night I came up with a list of things to pursue-
- freedom
- dependence
- confidence
- love
- suffering
- perseverance
- character
- faith
- hope
- relationships
- trust
- discipline
- faithfulness
- servanthood
- humility
- compassion
- forgiveness
- running away
- patience
- non-believers
- God's will
and I've decided that as God and I work on one, or many of them at the same time, that I would blog about how He has worked them into my life.
I want to be like the Church in Thessalonica, "8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere" 1 Thessalonians 1:8
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