Well this is my first post as a "real" adult aka I am 21 years old now. It's so crazy for me to think that I only have one more year left of my undergraduate career. Thankfully God has shown me that I should go to graduate school so I get to play college for another 2 years and procrastinate the "real world" even longer. I will get a taste of that this summer with my internship at Data-Tronics in Ft. Smith, Arkansas though and I am thrilled for the opportunity.
I titled this post "Not Just Another Year" because I now have 21 years to reflect on. I can't really remember the first couple, so we'll go with about 17ish years that I can actually think back on and see how God has been moving in my life. One thing I always wondered about was if I would ever reach a "plateau" if you will. I wondered if my spiritual growth would ever just flatline because maybe I would figure everything out and just get it so there wouldn't really be room for growth. Boy was I foolish to ever think that haha. God keeps speaking and moving and I am so thankful for that.
One thing I've noticed more-so recently is that I have truly amazing friends. I'm really lucky in that I'm surrounded by such encouraging and Godly people that want others to know Christ as badly as I do. I have several friends who are overseas sharing God's love and I am grateful for their service so please continue to pray for our missionaries who are overseas because they are doing a good work and need our prayers. I also have many friends who are working some kind of church camp this summer and that is not a pushover job. It can be a drain physically and emotionally because you have to constantly be active to get your kids motivated and you grow attached to some people and the pain that they have to go through. Please pray for the staffers at awesome camps such as Fuge, Camp War Eagle, and Camp Kanakuk.
Something that God has made extremely clear to me over the past couple of weeks is that nothing else can possibly satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts except Him. We try time and time again to fill up our lives with money, relationships, sex, alcohol, drugs, or whatever we can find to fill the void that is in our hearts. This goes for Christians as well. I've been guilty of trying to find joy and happiness in other things besides Christ. It just makes me feel empty because all of these things will perish one day and I know that God wants to hold me tightly and give me life. If you're trying to find joy in one of the things I mentioned above, or even didn't mention, then my prayer for you is that you STOP. True joy will only be found in Jesus because He is the Author of all creation. He is Lord and until we make Him the ultimate Lord in our lives we will never be truly happy. All else will fade, but one day we will bow before the Creator of the universe and these things won't matter. Do you think God cares how much money you've made? Do you think God cares how long you've been in a relationship? Do you think God cares how much alcohol you can consume? What God cares about is us and He cares deeply. This is why we should love the people in our lives compassionately because of how God has loved us.
I heard a sermon from a friend recently and he said we should daily consider how lost we were before we knew Christ to kind of put us in check. The reality is that everyone of us was dead in our sin and separated from Christ. Jesus came down and died for us and once we accept that gift we have been given a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Why do we try to fill this new heart with anything else other than God!? I understand we're still sinners, but sometimes we are so DUMB. God has made us new and we act like we carry the weight of the world on our shoulders sometimes!
Maybe you're in a different place than that though. Maybe you understand that God has made you new but you just can't get over that one thing. We all struggle with something, myself definitely included in that. Sometimes you try to fight it and beat it in the ground and it'll work, for awhile. Other times it may sneak up on you and you stumble and fall. First off, know that true Christian friends will still love you and more importantly God loves you. God knew He was getting His clean hands messy with us. Sometimes when we can't beat something on our own we have to lean on the strength of other Christians. This could take place in an accountability parter or sharing your struggle with your small group. This could be the trick to holding you accountable, but sometimes even that isn't enough. What are we supposed to do then? My answer to you is to look to Jesus. When the soldiers came to take Jesus from Gethsemane they said they were looking for Him. What happened when Jesus revealed Himself? John 18:6 "When He told them, 'I am He', they stepped back and fell to the ground." This is the power of Christ. When He reveals Himself every knee will tremble and bow and I can't wait for that day. This is the power of God and the power we should rely on when we're struggling. Instead of fighting, we may have to just step back and allow God to do the incredible work that He alone can do.
I really felt like God wanted me to write this so if you read this and need to talk to me about something please contact me. This is the start of (hopefully) a conversation because the worst thing we can do as Christians is be silent about how God is working in our lives. I don't ever want the conversation to end when it comes to my faith. We must be bold in sharing and unconditional with our love.
In Love,
Bill
