The Power of Prayer

Prayer. I talk about it a lot and I most certainly do it a lot. Occasionally it's because I feel like it's my job as a Christian but that kind of prayer is mundane and does no good for my heart or my relationship with God. What I'm talking about is real prayer where I pour my heart out to God and he listens. Colossians 4:2 says "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." The word that most catches my attention there is devote. Devote means to apply or dedicate oneself to some pursuit or cause. How often do we actually devote ourselves to prayer? Have we dedicated ourselves to it? I know personally my answer to that would most of the time have to be no but, how cool would it be if we all actually did devote ourselves to prayer? Prayer is powerful! I have first hand experience with how powerful it really is and guys it's truly awesome to watch God work in situations of turned over to him in prayer. But lets not just be prayerful, lets pray powerful prayers! Lets devote ourselves to praying the types of prayers we as christians so often avoid because we are afraid God really will answer them. It's time to stop holding so tightly onto this world and our lives here and just give ourselves over to God. Prayer is the best way I've found to do that and powerful prayer is what has led me to the place I'm in today. God wants to hear from us. That fact alone astounds me but, the fact that he wants to work in our lives is the part that's really impressive. Why not let him?

Joy:)

Alright so I've spent sometime thinking about God's will and praying today and while yes I could go on and on about why those two things are so challenging I don't feel led to do that right now(maybe later). Something else I've thought about today is how often I experience spritual highs and lows and how my lows almost always lead me farther and farther away from God. I hate that fact and it makes me feel extremely guilty and angry at myself. Now here is the really cool thing, God always welcomes me back! He really does! He never pushes me away or makes me feel bad, he simply opens his arms and pulls me to him and holds on tight. God really loves you, like a lot! It's demonstrated for us in Luke chapter 15 verses 11-32. It's the parable of the lost son and I've talked about these verses before but the love demostrated by the father to the son really gets me because that's how my heavenly father feels about me. When the father says "But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; He was lost and is found." The fact that this is how God feels when we come crawling back to him excites me! He doesn't get mad, or disappointed he simply gets excited and showers me with his love! He feels me up with the greatest joy I've ever known! I want to let his joy radiate through me because it feels me up to the point that I am overflowing and it's awesome! I challenge you to get back to God and let him feel you up with his love and have his joy feel you up:)

Missions

Sorry I have been slacking on posting the last month. I have no other excuse except that October has been a crazy month. Between school work, extracurricular activities and working on college applications I've been letting other commitments fall away but, I will try to refrain from doing that again.
Okay so on to what this post is about, Missions. Missions is my calling. Seriously God has called me into missions, which is scary and makes me uncomfortable but, also excited and passionate. I can think of no better way to spend my life. Now maybe you're not called to spend your life in foreign countries doing missions like I am but, let me assure you, whatever you're called to do you're called to be a missionary. Acts 1:8 says"But you will recieve power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." See, Jesus tells us that wherever we are and whatever we're doing, as Christians we are supposed to be witnesses for him! Pretty cool huh? That includes teachers, firemen, highschoolers, even Walmart workers. As Christians our purpose in life should not be to make the most money we can or marry the right person or have the perfect family but, to win souls for the kingdom of God and trust that God will take care of the rest and his good and perfect will, will be done. In Acts 20:22-24 Paul says "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem,not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Pretty cool right? Paul has the kind of passion for soul winning that we should all have. Do I want to sit in prison? Negative. But hey if I have to sit in prison because I was sharing the gospel then I say lock me up because that's a pretty noble thing to go in for. I'm not afraid of what my future in missions holds for me because I know who is in control and my Abba will have his way in me but, what race are you running? Are you ready to step out and face the hardships that may come with being mission minded? I challenge you take take this call seriously and see what God can do through you for his kingdom:)

Tuesday Poosday

So happy Tuesday. It's not been a terrible day but, I have to say that Tuesdays are not fun at all! I just want it to be Friday. I have had the hardest time just focusing(as you will notice this post will be scattered). It's truly awful and I hate this feeling but, on the plus side I'm having a pretty good week. Today I had to take a few minutes and just refocus. Have you ever gone through those times where you just needed like ten minutes to just be alone with your brain? Yeah well I did that today but, instead of being alone with my brain I turned it into time just being alone with my Savior. My pastor(good ole Dan Dan the preacher man) challenged me to do just this and I took the challenge and guys let me just say...it was incredible. I just gave up all these stresses and time consumers and distractions and God just revealed himself to me. I didn't have a huge spiritual breakthrough or anything guys but, I just refocused my week and gave up everything. So I challenge all of you who are reading this to spend sometime alone with Abba(That means no cell phone, facebook,music, ect.) and just focus on Him and being with Him. He loves you and He craves this kind of attention from you. Focus on him and I promise you will learn more about Him and yourself:)

Lazy Saturday

As I type this right now I am laying lazily on my bed listening to music and reflecting on my week. I have no idea where my week went to be honest. I had it planned out and I just followed my plan and then boom the week was over. It's so strange to me that I just go through each day so unaware and only focused on what I have to get done. What's weird is I don't consider myself a selfish person generally but, now that I am thinking about it I am faced with the fact that I am incredibly selfish. My awseome youth pastor got my attention with these fun facts this week-1.There are over 4.5 billion people right now who don't know Jesus Christ. 2.There are ovr 2.7 billion people who have never had even the opportunity to know him. These facts hit me hard. If this is the case in our world then we as christians are not doing our job. We are called to take the word of the Lord to the nations. Now I know not everyone is called to go to foreign countries and do missions like I am but, there are a lot of things we can do from the comfort of our own communities. Aside from offering prayer and financial support to those who are doing international mission work, we need to consider what we can do in our towns. What about that elderly neighbor who is hurting or that kid at lunch who sits all alone? Believe it or not this is a huge mission field. How hard is it to go visit your elderly neighbor and just spend sometime with them or ask someone if they would like to sit with you? These kinds of small things make us different. This is how we let our lights shine and spread Christ's love. I challenge you to pray that God would use you to make a difference for him and his glory. Ask him to use you and then take the opportunites he gives you.

Suprise Weekend Post!

Nice huh? I don't usually post on the weekends and even as I write this I have no idea where it will go I just found myself in my room with some free time(Shocking I know!) and decided to spend a few minutes with this here blog.
So it has beed a busy,stressful,weird week but, I have finally, by the grace of God, made it out of the awful funk that consumed me this week. I have never in my life been in that kind of funk for en entire school week! It was terrible but, I am moving on now.
So, last night was Friday night, and in my little small town world that means Friday Night Football (we won our game:) Love my Jackets) and a rousing good time socializing, dancing to the bands music, and pulling my own hair out. Yes, it is a blast thanks for asking! I seriously had the best night and on top of that my best friend came home from college for the weekend and did I mention we dominated last night? Seriously I look around at my life a feel truly blessed! Funk or no funk my God loves me and has blessed me beyond belief...That radical thought gets me all choked up I wont lie.(Maybe that makes me an emotional girl, whatever.) I deserve none of this, what I deserve is to spend an eternity in a terrible place, miserable but, because my Savior loves me I not only get to spend my eternity with him in paradise but, I also have a pretty great life here on earth. That is insane to me. It's like the Parable of the Lost Son in Matthew. This kids dad gave him everything he ever desired and still the kid wanted more so he took his enheritance and left his father's house to find his own way. Well that so obviously did not work for him and he was soon crawling back to his father with nothing. Now if I was that father my son would have to just keep on walking but, this father ran out to meet his son, clothed him in his best robes, served him a feast, and welcomed him back. He even rejoiced that his lost son had returned! Crazy right? Well it's this kind of crazy love that our heavenly father feels for us! Just in case you didn't catch that let me repeat it- Our heavenly father died for us and we forsake him everyday and still he welcomes us back to him with open arms! If that doesnt excite you I have no idea what will. In return all God asks from us is our lives, which to me, seems like a pretty small price to live forever in paradise with the God of the Universe. I'm willing and waiting on him. I have given my life to him and his will, and I wont lie it's kinda scary but, if our God is with us what do we have to fear? Have you given it all to him?

Blah...

So I haven't blogged much this week, partly because I have been pretty darn busy and partly because I have been in this funky mood. Now I'm a pretty moody person I'm not going to lie but, I have been stuck in a terrible mood for three days and it has been awful. I have tried to beat it and I have only found two remedies:1. Hanging out with my hilarious friends and 2. Spending time with Abba.
I love my friends but, I feel like I have made that perfectly clear to you guys(see other posts) but, I'm telling you if you're in a funk nothing is better that spending time with those who always love you and like to laugh with you. Now I can't lie to you, this remedy is pretty temporary and only really lasts as long as your friends are around and maybe five minutes after but, by the time you get in your car and drive anywhere significant you're off of that friend high and back in your funk. So now enters the second remedy, spending time with Abba. He knows our hearts like no other so while I was in this awful mood for no reason that I could really think of I just decided to spend sometime in my Bible and in prayer and guys I'm telling you it totally helped! I'm not going to lie and say everything was fixed and I'm now all happy again but, I will tell you God showed me where this funk was coming from and reminded me that through everything he is with me. Now yes I'm still in my funky mood a little but, when I think about the fact that my Savior is holding my hand through it and healing my heart I feel significantly better:)