Challenges

   I am continually amazed by the work God is doing in my heart! The more time I spend with Him, the more His desires become my desires; His view becomes my view; His love becomes my love. The way that I have been maturing is far outside myself; I know that it isn't from me, but Him!

   A few days ago, I was up in the morning and praying that God would speak to me and reveal some kind of truth through His Word. I didn't want to have an idea of what I wanted to hear, but instead I wanted to be open to whatever He wanted to say (as we all should pray for). What followed next was very cool and challenging! I had opened to and read three different passages in Scripture. All three passages talked about the exact same thing: being lights in this world. I was very amazed at the "coincidence", which, obviously, I don't believe was a coincidence. Clearly, God was making a point to me and it challenged me to be a light in this dark world. It wasn't something that I read for that particular day and then forget about it as time went on, this is something that I have been meditating on and striving to be and do each day following! In the future, I'm not sure where God is going to place me to minister, but right now, in this present time, He has placed me where I am and I need to minister each day. It was a really convicting and challenging revelation from Him that spoke directly to my heart! I strive to grow in Him each day until He calls me home!

   And here is a thought that I have been dwelling on for a while. As Christians, our lives are supposed to conform to God's likeness. As one of my Bible college professors said: we don't do goods works to get saved, we do good works because we are saved. But here's something to think about: we can say all the right things in front of people, we can do all the right things, and we can even post the most "Christian-ized" statuses on Facebook all the time. That's all good and fine, but the question we should ask is this, "Do my words, actions, and thoughts conform to and glorify God in the privacy of my own time?" When nobody is around to see you, do you still live in a godly way? Think in a godly way? When I ask this for myself, I regret to say that I indeed have my own failings at this. It just makes me more thankful for God's saving grace because I sure do need a Savior! And I have one! So I have been challenged in that way as well, conforming to God's likeness in all areas of my life! That includes the thought life as well (Philippians 4:8).

   "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13, 14