Yesterday I wrote a blog entitled “...”. It was about being patient in the waiting period of our lives. Unfortunately, something messed up on my app and the body of the blog never made it to the website, just the title.
Funny, how things don’t always go the way we plan them.

God, help me today to seek you. To recognize when you are at work in my life. To recognize when you are the one messing up my plan so you can redirect me, show me something, or keep me from harm. God, help me pursue your ways.

Sometimes I work with a mobile car detailing service.
One day, I went to the customer's house and met the customer's husband. He was an older gentleman and he walked me out to the car. He said, "My wife thinks it needs to be cleaned, she thinks everyone is going to look at our car and think bad of us. I told her, if that's the kind of friends we have maybe we need new people. They should just accept us as we are."

His words stuck with me the entire duration of the detailing. Here he was in this expensive house, in an upscale neighborhood, driving a nice sports car, and he was just a regular guy. He didn't have any desire to impress people. He just had what he liked. He could car less what people thought.

While we were there, he gave us 'the best cream soda you'll ever have' (it was) and a great laugh. 

He thanked us after we finished and looked up at the sky, "Do you think I should pull this into the garage, it looks like it might rain." Then he smiled, "I'm just going to let it get rained on."

God, thank you for bringing me across the path of this old man. Thank you for the reminder to be who you've created me to be and not worry about impressing other people. Help me care more about people than I care to impress them.

Somewhere back in July I felt like I needed to start praying each week. Take one hour and pray with whomever wants to show up and pray. Each week the prayer meeting has been a little different. Sometimes we bring too much of ourselves, sometimes we come very prepared, and sometimes we just show up. 
Prayer is a very important part of our lives as Christians. One hour a week might not sound like much but even the people that walked with Jesus could stay alert and pray for just one hour. 

"He came back and found his disciples sleeping. So he said to Peter, "Can't any of you stay awake with me for just one hour?" Matthew 26:40 CEV

One hour, and they couldn't do it. 

They were in a simple time without technology or sports practice or reality TV and they couldn't do it. 

​God, be with us today. Help us to take time for you. Help us to see you as our one true love and desire to spend time with you. And Lord, let us understand the importance of coming together with one another and standing in agreement for Your will to be done in our communities and around the world. 

dc Talk had a song "Jesus Freak" and one of the lines said 'What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak? What will people do when they find that's it's true?"

The thoughts of others. Oh how they have consumed and directed my life. Sometimes even without my knowing. Good people say good things with good intentions and all of the sudden I find myself doing a lot of good things instead of God things. 

God, guard my heart and direct me. Humble me to be about your business. 

I was looking up something on Youtube and stumbled across a video that said 'the ending will shock you'. So I fast forwarded to around 20ish minutes or so and watched. I had never heard of Jeff Durbin but the words that pastor said while I was watching were impacting.

He said, speaking of Christians, "Don't sign up if you aren't willing to die for it".

Wow!

The early church, the first Christians, were willing to stand for their faith even to the point of death. Are we there?

I'm the one writing the question and that's a heavy question for me to ponder. I can go to church, I can go to prayer, but go to death?

Calm yourself, I'm not talking purple Kool-Aid kind of dying for your faith. These people didn't make some kind of pack to die for their beliefs they just talked about what they believed, they lived out what they believed and they found themselves facing opposition.

They found themselves having to make choices regarding their faith. The world told them to stop talking about their faith and they kept on. They kept talking about it knowing what the end result might be.

"...You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes God's enemy." James 4:4 (NCV)

Loving the world (all the perishable things that have no meaning) is the same as hating God. The reason that James said this is the same reason Jeff Durbin said 'You're not helping us if you're not willing to die for it'. 
If we love the world we WILL eventually quit on God. We will eventually misrepresent our faith when faced with losing something (a physical possession) that we have deemed valuable. We run the risk of watering down the message to make it fit with our plans and our goals in life.

God doesn't want a place in our hearts, He wants our whole hearts. When we choose to give it all to Him, the world will truly see Him through us.

God, remind me daily to give you my whole heart. Everything I can see with my eyes can come and go as quickly as the wind. Let me not lose sight of You because I am too busy fixing my eyes on the things of this world. Let me fix my eyes wholly and completely on You. So that I can speak your message without hesitation or concern regarding what I might lose material wise or who's relationships I might lose. I can everything in the world but if I do not have You I have nothing! Embed this in my heart! 

Below is the link to Jeff's sermon, if you fast forward to 35:50, there is a testimony that will really bless you on just how much God cares for each one of us.​

I've read this book before and for the past few years it has been sitting on my bookshelf. As I looked at my bookshelf today for some inspiration, encouragement, direction- it jumped out at me. (Not literally, that'd probably freak me out.)

I looked at it and thought 'Genetically Altered?' deep sigh, 'Ok, it's going to be one of those days, huh? Let's go.' 

​I opened it up, scanned the table of contents and knew where I needed to start reading. Then I came across this quote and knew that was it. That was all I needed for today.

Salvation is enough to be saved, but in order for us to live victoriously throughout our lives in good times and bad- we need more. What do we need more of? God. Only God. Adding other things to fill the void will only complicate our lives and make them messy.

Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." (Matthew 6:11)

Daily we must ask God for more of Him. Daily, so we can live victorious regardless of the circumstances we may face that day.

Sometimes it is necessary to have a fresh start. I've had a blog in the past and while I had my theme in mind 'be transparent', I was very uncertain as to what that actually meant. I now have a clearer understanding, a better sense of what my purpose will be.
Welcome to that journey!