By Your Side

Do you ever feel like the world is against you and nothing you do is right or good enough? When it felt like I hit rock bottom, God sent me His truth through a song on my Ipod that for some reason I couldn't skip... now i know though. The song: By Your Side by TENTH AVENUE NORTH. God was speaking to me so loud it was hard to believe that it all wasn't a dream. The lyrics were money and truth. "Why are you trying to earn grace...Let me lift up your face, just don't turn away....Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough...My hands are holding you." I do things but never believe that I do them. For example, I broke down and gave everything I was struggling with to God at youth group last night but when I woke up this morning I felt like He wouldn't accept it or want it. I now realize that this is all the enemies masterpiece. He is feeding me the lies and false feelings and I am accepting them. I am so lucky to have friends that care and check up on me and help me see that my worldly life gets harder the closer I get to God. Now that i have opened my eyes to Gods grace and unconditional love I am going to push through the enemies plans and become stronger. Do you need to become silent and listen for the Lord to speak?

Obedience = Confidence

If I have learned one thing so far this year it is to obey God and His commands. I know that sounds corny and obvious but it never really hit me until the time came where I had to follow through with His requests. Recently I was told by a wise and highly respect mentor (Pastor Jon) that confidence comes AFTER obedience and I seriously thought he had it backwards.... or God made a mistake. Both were very unlikely. Well, the time came to test out this old confidence and obedience thing the other night and man can I tell you it's the absolute truth! I felt a sense of peace and confidence as soon as I fulfilled my mission. Don't ask me why God would want to give you the confidence once you have completed the nearly impossible task. So I guess the moral of the story is to always listen to God no matter what the task (moving, confrontation, standing up, etc.)and in the end you will be so glad that you did. Remember: God never gives you anything you can't handle.

Simple Song

It's funny how you can know all the words to a song but not actually know what your saying. I was listening to All Day by Hillsong when it dawned on me that the lyrics are so simple but at the same time so powerful. "I don't care what they say about me It's allright.... I will read my bible and pray. I will follow you all day." That song describes the day every christian wished they had. Not caring what others thought.... just living for God. After listening to the song over and over I made a commitment to myself that that is the way I am going to start living my life. Just reading my bible and praying without worrying whose talking about me. How do you live your day? How does God want you to live your day? Evaluate your life and how God is involved and be inspired by the simplest songs.

CLEAR look at life

Just got back from a kickin' winter camp. God had so many things in store for us that He needed us to be at a different camp, so He threw in a snow storm and persuaded us to another camp. I met so many new people but what I got out of it the most was that I need to look at my life more CLEARly and not let the word cloud my vision. This camp was a reassurnace that I was on the right track with God as well as the next stepping stone in my relationship with Him. The picture activity, where we wrote down what God was speaking to us on a picture of us taken earlier that day, was one of the best things I have ever done. It made you think really hard about what you saw in that picture and if it was truly what you wanted to see. Not only that but God spoke through a permanent marker and it was fullfilling. Words cannot explain how amazing this camp was. Worship was beyond belief and being able to pray for people was even better. Friendships and relationships were mended every where you turned. God wanted me to go and showed me that NOTHING would get in the way of that. All history has been pointing to our generation to rise up.... It's our time!!

Luke 12:26

Luke 12:26 says "If you are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?" I came across this verse, which was highlighted in my bible, and paused. If I strugle with the fact that one day an oppurtunity will come along to share my faith with someone, how can i keep looking to God to answer my prayers. If I can't answer God when He calls, why should He answer me when I call? It was an awakening moment that I realized I need to fully live my life for Him and not worry about what the world will think of me but instead what I can do to change the world. God is my father ; I wouldn't disobey my worldly father and then turn around and ask him to to do something for me so why should I do that to my heavenly father? Life here on earth is short so we should live it to the fullest, honoring and pleasing God.

WORSHIP! or worship?

Have you ever found yourself bored with the worship at your church? Maybe it's because the songs are all new and all you do is "hmh hmh hmh..... God... hmh hmh hmh hmh..... Loves us.... hmh" cause you can only catch a few words. Or maybe its because its all the old songs that you thought were so last month. And then there are just those bad days where the being at the church worshipping is the last place you want to be. I have been there and done that, but until those awesome worship experiences are taken away from you, you don't realize what an impact they have on you. Last night i was laying on the couch, fooling around with my sisters Ipod when I came across the Hillsong's playlist. I suddenly started having withdrawals of the worship we have Sunday nights at youth group. The loud music, the powerful and true lyrics, and the room where no one is there to judge but instead to be there worshipping the Lord. I wanted to start jumping up and down and praise God. Youth Group has been canceled for the last couple weeks and I missed it but after realizing that my bad attitude was affecting everyone around me, I finally realized I missed the time with God I usually had on a weekly basis. God is always there and allot of people take advantage of that. I know I did and didn't realize it until the devil started taking advantage of the "breaks" I had away from God. Now, camp is at the end of the week and I can't wait to start feeding my extreme hunger for the Lord but what I realized last night is that we can't depend on the church to spoon feed us the Word but we need to do it ourselves and make our relationship grow. "Highs" are great but they are pointless unless you follow through and continue living your life with God at your side. So next time worship is just something your doing cause everyone else is, take a step back, think about the words your saying and realize the power of God through them.