How do you live a godly life while ensuring that your pride doesn’t get in the way, that people see the reflection of God rather than a super-human being or a perfectionist? How can we show the world the light with our lives? How can we enact change and inspire others to live life with an ultimate purpose or meaning? How can we bring Christ to them?
I am so far from perfect, but there’s always this temptation to pressure myself into thinking I have to always be perfect so that people would come to Christ. I think I am realizing that its this mentality that draws people away instead. I think actually, its this mentality that makes me, myself, more reluctant to trust God and instead try to go it out alone, try to live on my own strength and am consequently limited to my own ability or at least my self-perceived ability.
Today in church, I felt God was try to teach me that its not about that. God always has something bigger planned for our lives; whenever we dream something and trust God with it, whenever we break through challenges, acting on faith instead of fear, God brings us to a place greater than we could have ever imagined to begin with. Its so easy to get caught up in the glam of the “prosperity” gospel, but definitely its important to realize its not the end-result that changes peoples’ lives. Its the process, its the relationship between trusting God and overcoming challenges. Its the daily transformation of your own preconceived notions of the world, your thoughts, your beliefs and becoming more like Christ. Facing obstacles, taking on real-life challenges and actually believing and hoping for something greater. Hope, faith, trust — these are the real things in life that make a difference.
Knowing that at the end of the day, God loves me, just as I am. At the end of the day, whatever stupid thing I may have said, whatever impressions I have made on others whether good or bad, whether people hate me or not, whether I was just… not as cool and confident as I thought I was yesterday… God loves me just as I am. God is not like us. He cannot lack faith like we do. There’s a reason for this. It makes a huge difference. Just think, a life trusting in God, believing, not worrying, how much one could overcome. Life is challenging at some points because as humans we have to learn how to trust God and to have faith even in difficult circumstances. But God, it is who He is. God sees something in me because He is hope, He is faith; we all are a reflection of who God is, and I believe that God does not give up on this until moment we die.
God has so much in store for you, wherever you are in this walk of life. I mean, I could say all these wonderful, wordy, supposedly “Christian” words and not live it out perfectly. To be honest, the last week I hadn’t prayed or spent time just in reading the Bible, talking to God, trying to hear what He wants to teach me. But that’s just it. I am a work in process and expecting to be perfect just because I am a Christian is impractical. At the core of our being is a desire for earthly things. Granted, being perfect does not mean that you pray every day. But, I find that when I don’t spend time with God on a regular basis, I start getting distracted with other things which are really unnecessary noise in my life. Like watching movies on and on and on, spending hours on the internet, playing games, I mean these things aren’t bad, but I always have this laziness lurking inside of me, wanting to just lie in bed all day and be on my laptop. And to be honest, its not a pretty sight.
I’m not really happy when I do these things, being lazy, that is. I want to be purposeful with my life and spent every minute trying to make a difference. I don’t want to be shy and keep to myself anymore. I want to be out there, sharing who I am with the world because Christ is in me and people need to experience God. I can see it. I’ve been there. It feels empty. It feels lonely. It feels desperate and deprived.
Only God can fill this void if you’re feeling it today. Sure, you can have many friends around you, you can have all the success in the world. But what happens when you go home at night, what are you thinking just before you go to bed? Are you truly satisfied?
When you’ve experienced God your life just isn’t the same anymore. Things of this world don’t satisfy and just, a relationship with God is not the same as the greatest relationship you could have with another human… Whoever is reading this, God loves you so much. God wants you to know that you are so valuable to Him.. that whoever you are, whatever you have done in the past, God wants you to lay it at His feet and realize that He has always been there and that He is waiting for you to come to Him. Just ask. There’s no special way to say it, just talk to Him and say whatever it is that’s on your mind. Then, listen. Christ died for us so that we could live and know God personally. He died for our sins, the things we have done that don’t please God and offend the spirit that lives inside of each of us. There’s a life that’s waiting for you that God wants you to experience and He’s not ever going to abandon you and He’s never going to betray you, take advantage of you — He is perfect, He is not like that people that have disappointed you in the past.
Friend, I hope that you got something out of this, whoever you are.
Love,
Me.
