My God is so BIG...

I just got home last night from New York, where I had been since Friday. My parents and I went as my graduation trip/ spring break. But because we came back yesterday, that leaves me with the rest of the week to sleep late and get some stuff done like cleaning out my room and closet and washing my dirty, pollen-covered car. I can't wait. Here are some thoughts on what God's been teaching me lately.


-taye


. . . So strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do



Throughout this entire year so far, I can see that God has been continually showing me the same few things over and over and over again. Since January 1st, I have grown so much closer to God and taken my relationship with Him to such a different place than it has ever been before. Although that closeness with Him has not given me a free pass from sin. I see my sinfulness so much more clearly now that my mind is more in tune with His will for me. The more I see Christ's love for me and the depth of His affections for me, the more I am saddened by my rebellious nature. I have a tendency to run away from the things I fear. For some reason I have been afraid to let God love me. That sounds absurd, I know. I suppose that I feel like people I love tend to let me down so often, and so I fear that I will just be let down again if I trust to let God love me, or if I trust myself to love God wholeheartedly. But God is not a person, He is so unfathomably more. So, He has been showing me recently that I can trust Him, and I need to trust Him, because that is sometimes the only thing I can do.



Another thing God has been showing me throughout that past four months, is my insignificance. Compared to Him, I am so incredibly small. When I was in New York, I went to the American Museum of Natural History (The museum that inspired the movie Night at the Museum), and while there I saw the IMAX movie of "Journey to the Stars" narrated by Whoopie Goldberg. Although I did not agree with everything in the film (the mention of evolutionistic theories), the movie was amazing. The visualization of all of those beautiful stars! And to think that God created every one of them and knows each one by name . . . it bewilders me! However, I got to thinking: all of those stars are like people. There are so many of them and one huge, powerful God. Compared to God, we -I- am so immeasurably small and puny and completely incapable of doing anything significant . . . on my own. I realize my weakness and my inadequacy.



Though this is not nearly the final thing God has been showing me, it is the final for this post (because it's 12:06am and I am tired). For the past month or so, I have been reading off and on in David Platt's book "Radical" . . . WOW. My full thoughts on the book are so numerous that they are for an entirely other post (and I am only half way finished with it!), but two major things have struck me from the book.
First, that as a follower of Christ, it is my job -my duty- to proclaim Christ to the world . . . and that does not mean just to LaGrange, Georgia, or Jackson, Mississippi, or even just the United States, but it means to the whole world. That really hit me because I have always been one of those Christians who say that not everyone is "called" to be a missionary. But guess what: everyone is called to be a missionary, check out the great commission.
The second major thing that God has shown me through the book is that we are to live our lives serving others. Now at this you may be thinking, "well hold on, I thought we were to serve Christ, not people." And you're right, but, in order to be a servant of God, we serve others. Serving others is serving God. Putting others before ourselves is putting God before ourselves. This thought has changed me perspective of my life completely.

You Make Me New

Senioritis is starting to kick in . . . big time. Plus, lately there has been SO much on my mind, and I have got to let some of it out.
-taye


You are making me new

One thing that has been continually on my mind lately is myself. Not in a selfish, I-think-about-myself-all-the-time way, but in a critical, judgemental way. I am so weak, I am so sinful, I am nothing . . . especially compared to Christ and His glory and strength and power. But the problem lately has been that I have not been comparing myself to only Him, I have been comparing myself to other people AND Him, and I still fall short.

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in weakness.' "
2 Corinthians 12:9

Also, I have really been struggling with my thoughts being consumed by what I want, and it has been difficult to accept the fact that what I want may not be what God wants for me. But I think to myself, "Why would God give me this desire for something if He is not going to give it to me?" But God does not always work that way. I may have desires that He will not give me so that in spite of what I want, I learn to give up my desires for what He wants for me. I am just not there yet, though. It is a constant struggle.

I see all this -- all these faults and flaws in myself, and I see them as negative things. Some of them may be negative things that need to be changed, but there are also there for me to see that I am not perfect, and cannot be perfect, but that God is perfect and I can always find perfection and faithfulness in Him. I can constantly turn to Him and find strength and stability and rely on Him without worry, for He is faithful and He loves me.

MY grace is sufficient for you

I woke up this morning to no power...which means no alarm clock, and no coffee, but also it means no heat. Luckily after about an hour or so the power came back on...which means I got coffee, and heat, and my dad even went the extra mile to build a fire...he's pretty cool. Anyway, since I have been home from Passion (read my last post if you don't know what that is or if you want to know more about it), I have really been digging into the Word and God has really shown me a lot through that. It's been incredible. Here's a passage that Paul (Once Saul) wrote to the Corinthians.
-taye


MY power is made perfect in weakness

"I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
~2 Corinthians 12:1-10 NIV


Lately, one of the many things God has been showing me is just how weak I truly am. Therefore, I really do have nothing to boast of, apart from Christ. Compared to His surpassing greatness, I am nothing, and I feel so small and weak in comparison. That is a good thing to feel, and to realize how truly GREAT our GOD is, but I cannot go through life feeling lousy and helpless, I would get nothing accomplished for Christ. That is why, in His great power and strength, He lifts us up to be able to do great things for His name. HIS power is made perfect in our weakness; in my weakness.

I once heard this quote that goes well with this passage of scripture and is definitely an encouragement to me:

"God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called."