Category: God, Life, and Love

“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought, because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He is right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you”

Deuteronomy 31:6 MSG

 

Sometimes we feel lost. Other times we just feel like God isn’t present at the moment. While reading Deuteronomy tonight I was reminded, that no matter what, God is always with us and he will always be with us. Just like he promised Joshua when he was called to lead the Israelites across the Jordan River to the promised land. God will never abandon you. Call on him and he will be more present than you ever imagined he could be.

 

Tonight, before I sat down to read my Bible, I felt like God was just observing but he wasn’t speaking to me. I started to call out to Him: “Are you listening? What do you need from me God?” I then realized, I wasn’t opening myself up fully to the Lord. I started listening to one of Hillsong’s new songs called “Touch the Sky.” It’s such an amazing song. We sing it at church almost every Sunday. As I listened to the words, I began to weep. The words of the song made me realize that I have to be living in God’s presence in order for God to be present. I have to fully offer my heart and soul to Him, and let him lead, in order to fully know Him.

 

I prayed my heart out asking God to speak to me when I sat down to read my Bible, and He did. God said to me “I never left you!”. He was always there. I just wasn’t listening. God knows all of our wants and needs and he is ready to fulfill them at any moment. He’s listening and waiting. All you have to do is ask.

 

In the Old Testament God was loving to those that were loyal. In Deuteronomy God speaks through Moses telling the Israelites that he will destroy any man that worships other gods. He was not as forgiving as He is now. When God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, He did that so that we will always have a chance. So that we know we are always forgiven. God sent his son to death so that we will be forgiven and Jesus willingly died for our sins. There is no man I know that is willing to die so that I will be forgiven. We are so lucky to have such a loving God. A God that forgives us and shares his unending grace. I am so grateful to have such an awesome Savior; we all are. I am learning everyday about God’s unending love and His passion for me as an individual. I learn through small things some days and on days like today, I learn through bigger lessons.

 

God never stopped loving you and He never stopped listening. God is just waiting for you to call out to him.

I am so new to this so please share your thoughts and advice!

Recently I have started a cover to cover 90 day bible challenge, and boy is it a challenge! I will say first off for me reading my bible from beginning to end is not easy. I often forget. I get distracted and I really have to remind myself everyday to read my bible so much so that I have taken to just carrying my bible with me everywhere I go (which is not a bad habit whatsoever). Through this journey though, I have already learned so much about patience and kindness and the love God has for not only me, but all of his children. I have really been working on myself and my thoughts my habits and also what I put into my mind.

I love reading and so the reading part of reading my bible is really great. The discipline of sitting down and reading is another thing, but through learning that discipline I have learned to have a lot of discipline in the rest of my life. I am able to control habits I wasn’t able to before. I have come to realize in the few weeks I have been reading my bible god has worked in me even if the text that I am reading that day does not speak to me directly.

In the process of cleaning up my mind and what I put in it, I have started listening to Jeff and Alyssa Bethke’s podcast. I have been following Jeff’s videos and Facebook page for a while now and I was so excited to see that they were so high up on the list in the Christian podcast category on iTunes. They have such a great mentality on life and happiness and gods grace! I have learned so much from them and because of them I have started to look at life so much differently and more positively.

Alyssa co-wrote a book with Robin James Gunn called Spoken For that has seriously inspired me. It’s written for girls and women, but is really for girls between 13-18. As a 21 year old though I have really benefited from it. They write all about how before time God had already claimed you as his own. You don’t need the love of a boy or a girl or anyone at that, because God loves you and he always will whether you are following him or not. I have been so extremely inspired by this book and its taught me a lot about the self love and self worth that I never thought about before!

I am extremely excited about God’s work in my life and I will continue sharing not only about gods love but all my happy travels throughout Europe and Switzerland!