Another answer to the question " Why? "

We often think why did I have to undergo that circumstance or trial. Then we realize maybe it is because God wanted me to learn something from the experience to help mold me into a better person. I heard something this morning that adds yet another perspective on the " Whys " of my life.

We read in Mark 1:17, Jesus tells his disciples ""Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." The key thing here is : I will make . None of us are a natural at going out and leading a person to Christ. The things we go through in life both good and bad are what prepares us to go out and do this. Andy Stanley puts it this way, " It's not the message that wins a person to Christ, it's the messenger sometimes". What he means by this is that sometimes when a person is in a particular spot, God will use someone else who has been through a similar situation to help make sense of things to someone.

It never ceases to amaze me at how God is constantly at work in our lives in so many different ways. :-)

Be Persistant

We always need to come to God in prayer. The bible tells us this. In Luke 18 verse 1 it tells us Jesus told his disciples that they should pray and never give up. Never give up! We all know we need to pray, that's no secret. How many of us come to a point sometimes where we think we have given it all to God and there is no sense praying any more for something? Sometimes we pray for little things, sometimes we pray for miracles, but aren't those petitions one in the same to our heavenly Father who loves us? No matter what the situation, don't just stop!

What if the people stopped marching around the walls of Jericho after 6 days because they felt they had given enough? God calls us to be persistent, to not give up. By giving up we tell ourselves we don't believe God has the authority over a situation in our lives. Whether it be finances, relationships, health or Gods will for your life, be desperate in prayer until He gives you what you seek.

Change

I love when God starts doing a changing work in my heart. One that draws me closer to Him. I will admit, it does come fast and furious and sometimes hurts a little.

Yesterday I was reading the Andrew Murray Daily Reader and it talked about how we need to meet with God First thing each day, not somewhere during the day. I have always read my bible at sometime during the day, but never really made it a first priority. That's change #1.

Change #2 came this morning when I was listening to the devotional they do every morning on Shine.FM . They talked about how when we pray we need to not only pray for the things around us, but we need to pray for ourselves as well. We need to ask God for things such as the Fruits of the Spirit to be more evident in our lives as well as for God to use me to help others to know his love.

Both of these are things I am definitely putting into the forefront of my life. I love when God changes me from the Inside Out. We do a worship song in youth group entitled From The Inside Out that talks about just this and how it draws us closer to God. Here is a part of the lyrics to that song:

" my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out "

When we let God change us from the inside out, it is more of a genuine lasting change and it will stay with us. 

Integrity

A friend of mine posted the bible verse "Nehemiah 7:2 I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do."

I decided I want to be like this man Hananiah, I want to be known for my integrity. This I feel would be a good thing to have as I go through life ministering to students as well as adults I God may lead me to. If I don't have integrity, who would want to listen and actually believe what I have to say.

After I make this decision, I go and check some email. I have an email from Netflix stating that they had some technical issues last night that interfered with the streaming portion of the service I have with them. They stated in the email that if I expereienced this difficutly, I could click on a link and I would be refunded a full 3% of my monthly payment. All I need to do, is click on the link, no questions, just click!

I thought wow, I make a decision to have integrity and not 10 minutes later I get tested on it. Needless to say I did not click on the link. There was day when that might not have been the case.

I am glad I can serve a God who cares enough about me to test me to make me a better person.