The great irony that many of us face in our Christian walk is that the things we think that we need in order to live the life we want, are the same things that will lead us down a path that will ultimately cause us to lose our lives. We're like drowning men holding onto a sinking ship, because we're afraid to swim. God calls on all of us to follow His will, and sometimes He calls on to make specific changes. Maybe God is calling you to speak words of kindness and love to someone who doesn't have any friends or maybe He wants you to change the way you speak to or about people or maybe He's calling you to join a serving team at church. In any of those circumstances you have to let go of certain things that feel extremely important and vital to you, but they also hinder you from following God's will and leading the lives He calls us to. We're afraid to speak to a lonely person because we would have to let go of our need to be inside our "comfort zone" at all times, and no one wants to feel awkward. We choose to gossip and cut people down all the time because we would rather be funny and interesting then let go of our drive to be cool. However, when we finally let go of the things we believe are so important and follow God's will, we find that there is more joy inside of God's will than anywhere else we could look. So, where is God calling you to change or go? What is it that you need to let go of in order to follow that calling?
But don't wait until high school is over or college is over to start answering God's calling. Believe it or not this isn't the time for you to "make mistakes" or just "have fun" or to "discover who you are", because if you're a follower of Christ, THAT is who you are. Stop trying to figure out who YOU are and what YOU should do, but figure out what GOD wants you to do with your life, then do it. You have relationships and friends right now that you, more than likely, will not be involved with, within two or three years of graduation, this might be your only chance to reach them. Just like the Ninevites knew how long they had to repent (which basically means to an extreme change in your life, because you're so sorry for something that you've done), you can view the time that you have left in high school as your "period of grace" to reach those in your high school. Don't get to the end of your high school or college career and realize that you could have gone on an amazing journey with God, but you were too afraid to let go of things that you didn't need to begin with anyway.
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Pray
That God will make His will evident to you, and that you would have the strength to let go of your own fears and desires to follow Him.
Runaway
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
I hope you can enjoy the (not-so clever) Bon Jovi reference for the title of this week's blog post, but more importantly it brings us to our topic for further discussion this week. If you were at church on Sunday then you know that for the next four weeks we'll be talking about the Bible's favorite runaway, Jonah (don't get all "Bible quiz-bowl" on me and point out the prodigal son...it's a fictional story). The book of Jonah recalls the story of a prophet of God (this is Jonah), who is called to leave Israel (his home), and go preach against the Ninevites (these are the people Jonah's afraid of). Since the Ninevites are a group of people who strike fear into the hearts of the nearby nations (including Israel), Jonah is understandably a little nervous about telling them that God will destroy them. So, instead of following the will of God, which was laid out before him, Jonah decides to charter a boat and run from God, which is never a good or logical plan. As most of you know, things don't go according to Jonah's plan, but that's not the point of this blog post. What I'd love for you to take away from this story is that we all have, currently are, or are going to find ourselves in a place where we will know the will of God, but be tempted to runaway from it. Most often we choose to runaway from the will of God because, just like Jonah, we're afraid of what might happen to us.
How does one know what God's will is? When Christ left our planet to fight the evil Cylons to save the planet Caprica...wait, that's not right...What I meant to put was when Jesus ascended into heaven (which also has a sci-fi feel to it, but I guess since He came back from the dead, I can believe anything), Christ left us a "Counselor", who is the Holy Spirit, and when you become a Christian, by believing and accepting what Jesus did on the cross to forgive you of your sins so that you can live in relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit lives in you (John 16:5-11). The Holy Spirit is probably the most powerful way, that God communicates His will to us. Have you ever felt the feeling that you should go talk to someone or do something that you don't quite understand, and later on you realized that it probably would have been the Christ-like thing to have done? If you have, that was probably the Holy Spirit prompting you to follow God's will. However, sometimes out of fear of rejection, being mocked, or just because we don't want to stand out, we choose to ignore those promptings. God also lays out His will through the Bible, by giving us guidelines to live by, but because we want to "fit in" often we push against these boundaries. We choose to ignore gossip in our conversations, because we don't want to be gossiped about in return. We join in inappropriate sexual activity, because you're not really a "man" or an "adult" until you do. We get involved in a multitude of activities which we know to be against God's will, but because of our fears we, like Jonah, choose to run from God's will and miss out on what He's doing in the world.
God is constantly doing work in our world, and He has called us to join Him in changing lives all around us. However, if we let our fears dictate our behavior, then we'll never fully embrace and enjoy what God has in store for us. Jonah foolishly believed that he could outrun the God of the universe, how long do you think you can? You can try and avoid the guilt you feel from the sin that has trapped you or you can continue to ignore where it is God's will is pulling you, but you'll miss out on everything God could do through you along the way. Maybe through serving in the church you could be apart of bringing someone to Christ, maybe through overcoming a sinful habit you could be an example to others, maybe God just wants you to fill up someone's car with gas, or maybe He wants you to stand up for someone that needs a kind word, but all of these things require you putting your fears aside and choosing to run "with" God instead of "away" from Him. Are you getting tired from running? All of your guilt and regret weighs you down, God just wants you to lay all of that in front of Him, so you can run together, and together make a difference in this world.
Explore
In order to be entered into the contest to win this week's prize: Click Here.
Pray
That you can have the courage to lay your fears aside, and run "with" God.
How does one know what God's will is? When Christ left our planet to fight the evil Cylons to save the planet Caprica...wait, that's not right...What I meant to put was when Jesus ascended into heaven (which also has a sci-fi feel to it, but I guess since He came back from the dead, I can believe anything), Christ left us a "Counselor", who is the Holy Spirit, and when you become a Christian, by believing and accepting what Jesus did on the cross to forgive you of your sins so that you can live in relationship with Him, the Holy Spirit lives in you (John 16:5-11). The Holy Spirit is probably the most powerful way, that God communicates His will to us. Have you ever felt the feeling that you should go talk to someone or do something that you don't quite understand, and later on you realized that it probably would have been the Christ-like thing to have done? If you have, that was probably the Holy Spirit prompting you to follow God's will. However, sometimes out of fear of rejection, being mocked, or just because we don't want to stand out, we choose to ignore those promptings. God also lays out His will through the Bible, by giving us guidelines to live by, but because we want to "fit in" often we push against these boundaries. We choose to ignore gossip in our conversations, because we don't want to be gossiped about in return. We join in inappropriate sexual activity, because you're not really a "man" or an "adult" until you do. We get involved in a multitude of activities which we know to be against God's will, but because of our fears we, like Jonah, choose to run from God's will and miss out on what He's doing in the world.
God is constantly doing work in our world, and He has called us to join Him in changing lives all around us. However, if we let our fears dictate our behavior, then we'll never fully embrace and enjoy what God has in store for us. Jonah foolishly believed that he could outrun the God of the universe, how long do you think you can? You can try and avoid the guilt you feel from the sin that has trapped you or you can continue to ignore where it is God's will is pulling you, but you'll miss out on everything God could do through you along the way. Maybe through serving in the church you could be apart of bringing someone to Christ, maybe through overcoming a sinful habit you could be an example to others, maybe God just wants you to fill up someone's car with gas, or maybe He wants you to stand up for someone that needs a kind word, but all of these things require you putting your fears aside and choosing to run "with" God instead of "away" from Him. Are you getting tired from running? All of your guilt and regret weighs you down, God just wants you to lay all of that in front of Him, so you can run together, and together make a difference in this world.
Explore
In order to be entered into the contest to win this week's prize: Click Here.
Pray
That you can have the courage to lay your fears aside, and run "with" God.
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