Still Stuggling

1 Peter 5:10
 "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."

I wanted to share a simple piece of my heart. I wanted to take a moment to be vulnerable and honest in hope that it might make some type of impact on one person. I have been a Christian since I was 8 years old. I knew at that young age that I believed in Jesus and that he died on a cross for my sins. Yet there was a time after that I questioned that decision. A time when my life was so low I didn't make sense because The Lord I was believing didn't seem to care. There were times in which I felt like death was the way out but my God is so good. He sent someone to show me the way. Someone to help sow the seeds that had been planted in my life and showed me what I was missing. When I was 16 years old God met me in my brokenness in the time in which I knew something was missing but didn't know what it was. He met me and showed me that knowing who He was wasn't enough. I had to learn who I was in Him to truly have a relationship with my Savior. So with that life should be easy right. Once you accept Christ and start a relationship with him your life is smooth sailing. Well I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. Life as a Christian isn't easy. There are moments in which I mess up. Moments when I find myself crying myself to sleep wondering what God's plan for me is. I still question things and try to take control when I know I shouldn't. Yet one thing remains the same my God still loves me. I'm still his daughter and nothing can ever change that. So what makes life different as a Christian. Being a follower of Christ makes life worth living. Accepting him didn't make my life easy it made it worth it. Knowing that My God is so much bigger than every problem makes my job easy. I just simply believe in Him and continue to peruse him the best I can. But I will always be a sinner and so what I need to do is continue to walk the path I know is right and forgive myself for the mistakes along the way. So I challenge you to do the same today. If today was a bad day tell yourself it was good because God gave you another day of this earth. Know that nothing can separate you from him and rest assure that he has it all planned out no matter what.

Worship the Great I Am

Psalm 86:9-10
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name.  For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

I had this revelation over the weekend as to what it means to Worship God. As I stood in my children's ministry classroom I watched as the young students before me worshiped but as I looked around I noticed that as the ages seem to progress the older they got the less them seem to worship. Then I thought about my experience with my church's youth group and how it seems to be the opposite.  In that setting the younger students, those in middle school and starting high school, seem to struggle with worshiping where those who are older are giving all they have. So I thought to myself what is the secret ingredient to worship? When you think about it more in-depth every church has a different way in which they use the term worship. For some it might be what their Pastor or Reverend calls their offering. He might say something like " let us worship the Lord together in our giving and with our offering" as the plates are being passed around. Others might believe it is the prayer they say together or the moments in which they kneel as a sign of respect to the Saints. Where I go to church they refer to worship as the time before the sermon in which we as a congregation come together and praise God. We sing but to us its more than that. Its about having a few moments to completely connect with the Lord in an intimate way. So as I continued to ponder this I just brushed it off as everyone does it their own way and it can mean whatever we want it to mean, but then God reminded me of something. He reminded me that when it comes to His word nothing is gray and so ambiguous. Everything is black and white. In our modern world we like to cover up having to make a choice on things by saying that they fall within a gray area. However when it comes to truth that area doesn't exist. So what does it really mean to worship? Now before people start going crazy I understand that worship can be done in many ways and I have already addressed some of those ways above but that is not why I decided to write this. I wanted to dig deeper I wanted to know what it means to worship the Lord. I wanted to know what our heart behind it should be doing because sometimes we allow the action to simple be enough and I know that is not what worship means. If worshiping meant to simple do what the Pastor declared was worship then we would be a very legalistic society, but I know church around here are all of the same team fighting against an enemy bigger than we understand and I wanted to find out what it meant to worship so that I too could be armed in battle. So I dove into the word and time with God so that he could share with me what his thoughts on it were. Worshiping is complete surrender to the Lord serving him and allowing him to use you as vessel for his word. Those moments when you give it all to him and your faith is all you are relying on. As it states in Psalm its allows Him to be praised for who He is the Great I Am. He is the ruler of the universe,  creator of all things new and he loves us unconditionally. To worship Him is to love him in return knowing that you are loved despite your sin. You are loved because you were redeemed by the blood of the lamb. So with it being Valentine's Day I thought of what better way to celebrate then worshiping the one true King. Allow his love to fill us and spending time with him through worship so that we can then turn and pour love onto others. Remember today is a lonely day for some, it might even be lonely for you but remember you are never alone. You are loved by the one who created you so worship Him for he is good and loves you no matter what.