God’s Timeless Story Of Love :)

“Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.” -1 Chronicles 16:11-12

Do you every hear a story over and over again and wonder why so many people still find it entertaining or funny when you find it so old and boring?  I wonder how God feels when He tells us over and over again of His love, His mercy and His grace and we treat it like a broken record.  The first few times we are moved and we find hope and strength and follow Him with a steadfast heart.  Then after we have heard it, experienced it and taken of it a few times we get tired and want a new story.  Wow, what a joke.  Getting tired of God?

It is so easy for me to judge others and feel judged.  How many times I find myself looking down at others for the mistakes they make over and over again.  What right do I have to do that?  Do I not deserve the same punishment, the same death they do?  I’m completely covered in sin, I hardly do anything right and there are countless faults I could list about myself.  The amazing truth is that because of who Jesus was and what He did on the cross, my debt (The death I deserve) has been canceled out.  Those who were dirty can now be clean.  Those who have fallen can now stand.  Those who have failed can now succeed.  Those who walked in darkness can now walk in the light.  Jesus Christ brought a revolution, a world changing light that puts to shame all worldly ideals and morals.  We can’t put limits on God and turn Him into a religion, an ideal or a good role model.  He is above all of our worldly attempts to contain Him.  What an amazing story!

It is simply incredible how big of a blessing it is to be apart of God’s story.  I certainly don’t deserve to be apart of it. It’s so hard not to beat ourselves up over and over again because of our constant failure.  When I find myself completely helpless in a situation I always start asking that common 6-year-old question (why??).  Why is life so hard?  Why does bad always follow in the footsteps of good?  Why do I struggle with this?  Why can’t God just fix everything for me?  Why wasn’t Adam allergic to apples?  Wait a second… WHY do I need to know?  I have a faith in a God that is one and complete.  Nothing is outside of Him, nothing can control Him and there is nothing that He NEEDS to explain to me.  I don’t need to know why.  I just need to trust that the reason has a purpose.  God knows why… and I trust His judgment.  We serve one God (Father, Son and Spirit), we have one faith with one baptism and one purpose… to love God.  Love can definitely be broken down into many different things, but the root to all those battle plans in the spiritual war we face is love.

Have you ever tried walking on water?  I did once!  I remember asking God to give me the ability to walk on water and then stepping off our dock into the lake hoping that I would experience what Peter did.  However, instead of a cool stroll across the lake, I found myself swimming.  I wondered why God let Peter walk on water, but not me.  There’s that word again (why).  We always look to God to perform the impossible and do all these big and grand things to prove that He cares. In reality though, all the small things are the foundation to the big things. For example, when a window breaks, most people go and get a new window and replace it.  The cool thing about God is that He doesn’t get a new window.  He doesn’t replace us.  He doesn’t forget about the old window and then put in a new one.  He sweeps up the pieces and puts the window back together again.  He makes pure and complete, what was damaged and torn.  Deep down we don’t really need God to do big miracles; we just need Him to be near us and take care of the little ones.  I don’t need to walk on water physically to know God’s with me, I need to walk on water spiritually and trust in Him.

“Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” – Psalm 103:1

I find myself in many moments where I’m overwhelmed with an intense passion about something.  It’s like every fiber of my being is screaming the same emotion.  It wants to get out, be heard and not be trampled or taken advantage of.  I believe that deep down every one of us has something to say, something to express that too often gets trampled down into a quiet whisper; a whisper that no one hears or pays attention to.  Our faith can be easy to hide in a closet, but what a horrible waste of passion and existence!  We exist to bring glory to God, to honor Him, to be one as a body in Spirit and truth!

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”- John 4:23-24

We can’t let the world take away what is promised to us.  We can’t allow circumstances, struggles, pain, pride or sin distract us from the race we are running.  We may live in dysfunctional families, we may have addictions, we may fight and lose everyday, but God’s grace is never to be taken advantage of in any circumstance.  God’s grace is a gift of beauty and love, not one of excuse and childishness.  We are responsible for the things we do and when we enter a relationship with Christ we become responsible to Him for the things we do, both good and bad.

God is good.  Don’t ever grow tired of sharing that truth!  God is GOOD!  He is amazing!  His story is exciting and worth sharing!  God is so beyond my-self I almost feel silly trying to express how important this is.  There is no way to avoid God’s existence.  He is in us, around us, above us and beyond us.  We can definitely invent fantastic excuses to deny His existence, but He is STILL there.  Life is so hard and I often want to give up and drop down in a helpless heap.  God created me for more than that though.  God created us all for more then most of us are living for.  Why do we stop at being content, why do we live in the comfort zone.  If we really wanted life to the full, abundant and rich in God’s blessings… then we would move out of our comfort zone and enter God’s arena, where the impossible IS possible and lives are changed.  Don’t ever forget God’s story.  We have the opportunity to be apart of it!  Everyday God writes another page in the lives of millions.  We may look at the same old stories around us in boredom, but why not become apart of a story that is never the same? Why not give the pen to God and allow Him to include you in the next page?  Something tells me that once you pick up God’s story… you won’t be able to put it down

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

- 1 Corinthians 9:24-27