Declaring His Splendor.

I am just going to start with saying that if you are God's child, and are following His voice, the places your feet go, are for a purpose. I spent this summer at home and ended up staying this semester. (I'll talk more about this in a little bit) Throughout the summer I became a very different person. The change for me in my life, is that I have stopped just speaking the words that I know are true (like Jesus loves me or Jesus has good for those who love Him) but I have started proclaiming those things in my life.

Now you tell me...Do you proclaim God's word in your life or are you just making statements? Don't get me wrong, this is not in any way me bragging on myself because I am far from where I should be. I have a long way to go. But I have finally realized that rather than me just making statements, I need to live my life as God intended. I do hope though, that if you aren't proclaiming what is already yours that this encourages you to hop on board. Let's live as though we are free, because we are.

Such a beautiful thing it is, to know that God freed us. Once this truth was again revealed in my life; things started to change drastically. This is when I decided to stay home and go to school here, rather than go back to the school I've been at for two years.Despite the trouble I went through to transfer and no matter how much I miss my truly amazing friends, God was doing a work in my life in all of this...one that I hadn't even acknowledged. Don't get me wrong, it was not an easy transition, as a matter of fact it was incredibly difficult. But this transition called me daily to proclaim God's joy, rest, strength, and love in my life. And as of right now, I can confidently say that I love my classes, I love my environment, and I love seeing Christ work in the lives of others.

To talk more about what God is doing, I'll tell you about my wonderful grandmother. She lost her husband of 40 years to the same illness that she lost her mother to. Cancer. It's such a depressing word. But despite the incredibly hard time she's had dealing with his death (I can't imagine what it's like to lose someone so precious...well I can. But not in the sense of a spouse, obviously) and her own fits of sickness, I have seen Jesus bring a spirit of peace and joy to her that she has not had in many years. She is relying on Him as her strength and I believe with all my heart that He is healing her body, but more so her heart. God is concerned with the motives of the heart more than the actions we take out of a habitual lifestyle. My grandma is choosing to be different from the world in many ways, and that in itself is praiseworthy. She is beautiful and God is pleased with her.

I guess for the most part, I'm in a place where it's like I am standing back behind the crowd of people, watching the world just happen. It feels so much like an outer body experience. My heart is breaking so much for the hurt in this world. But at the same time, we are the ones bringing the hurt upon ourselves. I feel like we as Christians have bought into so many lies and religious rules over the years that we have lost sight of Jesus. I feel like we have learned how to fill our time here on Earth well with acts of service. But what's an act of service if we aren't doing it for the glory of Christ? We have just learned to fill our time. We have stated what is acceptable and what isn't and have chosen to agree with those standards. Anything outside of comfortable, normal, or easy...we just turn our heads away. I believe whole-heartedly that we need to refocus our eyes. Not on ourselves, but on Him. Let's not just fill our time by saying and doing the right things. Let's fulfill God's purpose by leading and drawing others closer to His presence.

"My mouth is filled with Your praise, declaring Your splendor all day long." - Psalm 71:8.