Thrive, the student ministry I'm involved with, took hold of me before classes even really started and I was glad to be around a group of friends who loved Jesus and would push me to do the same. Before I got to school I pictured that my education would be the biggest thing I would take away from college. Man was I wrong. While I am receiving an excellent education (plug for the U of A cuz I love it!), the most important part of me that's grown over these past couple years is my faith. For anybody still in high school or just beginning your college journey, if you haven't noticed it yet, you don't have to live out the faith you've been raised up in your life when you reach this stage. Maybe some of you understand that and now you're just apathetic towards your relationship with Christ because it's what you did while you lived back home. My prayer is that this is the time you take your stand for believing in something, not because your parents believed it, but because you believe it and it is the truth. Now is the time to live out your faith on your own. The habits you develop now will most likely be the habits you continue after you graduate college too.
I say a lot of this to point you to the fact that God desires what is absolutely best for you! A lot of times we think that God is holding out on us. When I didn't get into Vandy, I was disappointed in myself honestly. I thought that I wasn't smart enough to get in. I could get into a pointless conversation about how can you really measure someone's intelligence, but what I want to focus on is that God had my best intentions in mind through it all. The Father's heart looks like this: He wants to lavish His mercies on you. He wants His lost and broken child back.
"When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called My son.
2 The more they called them,
the more they departed from Me.
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning offerings to idols.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them in My arms,
but they never knew that I healed them.
4 I led them with human cords,
with ropes of love.
To them I was like one
who eases the yoke from their jaws;
I bent down to give them food."
-Hosea 11:1-4
We don't often know how God is working in our lives until He decides to reveal it to us and that's OK. The Israelites had no clue how God was healing them and watching out for them. In all honesty, we will probably never completely understand God's Will. (Notice the completely) What we are called to do is obey and walk in His ways and there is joy in that. Something that took me awhile to understand is that God often doesn't care about our actions as much as He does the attitude of our hearts.
“'I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'and I will accept no offering from your hands.'"
-Malachi 1:10
The priests didn't have the right attitude when they made their offerings to God and He didn't even want them sacrificing if they weren't going to do it with the right heart. God doesn't NEED us to accomplish His Will. He's God after all. What He desires is our hearts to love Him, to depend on Him, and to want Him because He desperately wants us. I'm working on being more transparent because that's what this generation of Christians needs and that is why I blog. When we waste our efforts on rituals and behind metaphors that sound nice but don't actually mean anything to us then the Enemy wins and I don't want to see that happen. Every day I understand more and more how lost I am without Christ and my prayer is that you depend on Him because He has your best interest at heart. Give Him your heart and not just your actions. As I take this "Plunge" into the semester, I pray that you understand your need for His presence as I know I'm lost without it.
In Love,
Bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhM87eFRqpk
The Pursuit
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