Iron Sharpens Iron.

Proverbs 27:17 : “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

As I look on my own faith, I realize that so much of the growth I have experienced is thanks to the people in my life. I have been blessed with so many great friends who are such strong Christians. Those people have inspired me so much, and I know that my faith wouldn’t be the same without them. I have a great family, great friends, and ultimately a great community. I cannot explain how thankful I am for them and the motivation that they have given me.

Reading that verse again makes me want to live in a way that would sharpen the faith of the people around me. Being an example of Christ to others sharpens their faith and helps them grow too. I encourage you to find those people in your life who will help you grow, and to be that kind of person to others.

Struggling.

Lately, I’ve been struggling spiritually. I want so badly to make my faith real and change my life according to God’s will, but I’m stuck. It’s like my faith is trapped in the pages of my Bible and in the words in my journal, and it never goes further than that. I want to make my faith alive, to truly live out my relationship with Christ. I so earnestly want to live out God to the people around me, to be a walking witness for my Savior. The only problem is I need to actually do it. In my head I desperately want this and I know that to do this. I need to daily die to myself and my sinful nature and to live for God instead. If I know all of this in my head, why can’t I live it out in my life?! It’s a frustration and a struggle, but I need to persevere. God will teach me new things and use me in ways I can’t even begin to imagine; I just need to let Him.

God, make me yours.

Back to the Beginning.

So today during church, we were asked to flip through the Bible and find your “life verse”. I flipped through Philippians, trying to find the verse that was essentially the inspiration for this whole blog. I knew it was in one of Paul’s letters, and I was pretty sure it was Philippians, but unfortunately I didn’t know the reference by heart. I was just looking for the word “shine” in one of my underlined verses. I saw a verse in Philippians that started with “do everything without complaining or arguing”, and after skimming over it I continued to look for my verse. I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere in Philippians, Galatians or Ephesians, so I went back to the formerly mentioned verse in Philippians. However this time I actually read the entire verse, and I realized that it was my verse! I had completely looked over it, and hadn’t even recognized it! That isn’t good at all!

That verse was my inspiration for this blog, as well as my motivation in my faith. I know I’ve put it on here before, but the whole verse says:

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.”

This verse is so powerful, and I have clung to it many times when going through hard times. The fact that I completely forgot what it said, even when I was specifically looking for it, kind of shows how my attitude towards my faith has been lately. I haven’t been focusing on what needs focus, and I have been absorbed with me and my life. Even my devotions have been scarce, and they haven’t received my undivided attention. And complaining and arguing? Don’t even get me started! I feel like every sentence that comes out of my mouth has some complaint or argument strung along with it.

This morning made me realize that I need to refocus. I need to refocus my writings on here, my devotions, and most importantly my dedication to God. He deserves my everything, not whatever left over time and energy I decide to throw His way. I want to start my mornings by giving the day to Him, not just fitting Him in whenever I get the chance.

I am taking this opportunity to refocus myself onto God, and to go back to where I need to be.

Shine.

The Word

“The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

I’ve heard that verse many times, and never fully understood what it meant. The part that always really confused me was why Jesus was labeled “the Word”. I had a slight comprehension of how Jesus was with God and how they had the same qualities, but I just couldn’t grasp why He was referred to as “the Word.”

However, the more I read the scriptures, the more this is beginning to make sense. I’ve been in the word more in the past five months than I ever have in my life, and it has taught me a lot. Granted a lot of my time has been spent reading the Law of Moses in the beginning of the Old Testament, so it’s been a little bit of a struggle. But even as I read those books of the Bible, the qualities of God are made so clear to me. God had great love for the people of Israel, and He dearly wanted them to follow Him. He provided for them, He protected them, He was their judge and their leader.

God was all of these qualities, but He didn’t act them out physically. He didn’t physically live as a human among the people; rather He worked through His messengers and resided in pillars of cloud and smoke. He showed His great qualities through His words and His actions towards the Israelite people, but not in physical movements. He was still with the Israelites, but not exactly on their level. That is where Jesus comes in.

Jesus came to earth as a man. Not as a pillar or through a messenger, but as a human. He embodied all of those qualities that God described and showed to the Israelites, but He performed them first hand. Rather than teaching the Israelites about Himself through words, Jesus showed them. He became the living example of all the things God spoke about in the Old Testament. All of the great, mighty traits God shows from a distance in the Old Testament, Jesus showed them through His actions on earth. He took the qualities of God and performed them as a human on an individual scale.

This is kind of hard to wrap your mind around, and I’m even struggling with this as I write about it. Jesus and God are the same, each equally part of the trinity. However, Jesus showed the people around Him those qualities of God. The people didn’t just have to read about them in the Old Testament to learn from them, they simply had to witness Jesus’ actions.

This encourages me even more to read the Bible, and it creates even more of a link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Rather than God simply being the father and Jesus being His Son, Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the qualities of God mentioned in the Old Testament. Not to say that God didn’t fulfill them Himself, Jesus was simply an individual human (just like you and I) who possessed all of those wonderful and glorious traits of God. Jesus is our example of Godly perfection, and we need to strive to be like Him.

Control.

I never really understood why people would be scared to give God control. Granted I never really gave this idea much thought, but when it would pass through my head I thought it sounded good. I mean logically, it makes sense. Giving the creator of the universe (including your life) complete control of you? Sounds good to me. At least, it sounds good in theory.

However, this summer I have had a lot of time to think about this. As I examine my own life, I see the areas that I just don’t give God control of. It’s easy to say “okay God, my future is yours” when I don’t even know what my future looks like. But then I think about the areas of my life that I really want to go one way, and the thought of giving God control and risking it going in a completely different direction is terrifying.

Some of you may be thinking “well duh! It’s hard!”, so please forgive me. Maybe I’m just a little naïve, but I never really considered it before. I think that is partially is because I never really thought of what it meant to give God control. Yes I have prayed for a while that God would be the center of my life and that I would give up control, but I never really thought about what that looked like. And now that I’m thinking about it, it’s so scary.

Life with God in control isn’t predictable. He does things far beyond our imagination, especially when we aren’t expecting it. Rather than calling our own shots and doing what we want, God does things His way. Life with God in control is open ended, with you as the passenger and God in the driver’s seat.

This idea scares me! I know I shouldn’t be scared, but that part of me that craves control just doesn’t seem to warm up to this idea. I know that the Bible is full of verses all about how God is good and works for the good of those who love Him, and all the ideas sound wonderful. I’m not saying that they aren’t true, it’s just hard to truly believe when it seems like so much is at stake. But then I realized that I am faced with a decision. Either I can choose to live for myself and do whatever I want and ultimately be unhappy, or I can choose to give God control. I can choose to give Him my time, my relationships, my future, my everything.

I’m still working through this concept. I know that it’s something that is needed in my life, but man I’m having a hard time giving it up. I've written about it before, and I hope this all isn't repetitive. I'm processing this, working through it. God is teaching me something here, and I am slowly understanding. It scares me, and God is working through that.

I was talking with a friend recently and she was talking about she is working on living life open handed. God has given us everything, we hold nothing on our own. We can’t take the things God has given us and close our fist around them, determined to do with them what we want. Instead, we need to give it to God. Let Him place it in our hands, but also allow Him to take it away when the time is right. Living open handed, with everything open for God to use. I don’t know why, but this is a huge struggle for me. Like I just can’t get it through my head that this is good.

It’s not God’s way of tricking me or making me pay for the sins I’ve done.

This is God’s way of being in control and giving me the best life possible.

The only thing getting in the way is me.

God is Good.

I was recently talking to some friends from high school (the same ones I briefly mentioned going to Starbucks with before), and we got into a really great discussion. We just started talking about how we couldn’t possibly imagine life without God. I then started to think about everything God has given me, and I was so overwhelmed with how great God is.

I mean honestly, God provides everything. He gives me:

· Joy.

· Unconditional Love.

· The ability to love others.

· Selflessness.

· Humility.

· Wisdom.

· Relationships.

· Unlimited Opportunities.

· Comfort.

· Contentment.

· Thankfulness.

· Purpose in life.

· Assurance.

· Peace.

· No need to worry about the future.

· Appreciation for His blessings.

· Faith.

· Hope.

· More blessings than I could ever count.

· A personal relationship with Him.

· Life.

And that’s just the beginning. God is good.

I couldn’t do life without Him.