"Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights." Habakkuk 3:18-19
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say it, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4
What is my reason for rejoicing today? Well, there are many, but right now I feel like rejoicing because I know who my Lord and Savior. It's really been on my mind since church this morning. Today we read from Matthew 1, and the phrase the pastor kept repeating was "He is with us." That is what I have had to constantly remind myself of and place my hope in over the past month or so. Emmanuel: God is with us. He never leaves or forsakes us, and He is with us wherever we go. He is our hope in time of need, and He is our rock and our shelter, our fortress and our shield.
About two years ago, I decided that I wanted to have a relationship with God. I realized that I had made God a part of my life, but my life was not centered around God. It's easy to do this in high school and when you first get to college because there are so many distractions, temptations, and worldly things that, at the time, matter a lot more than they should. I had some Christian influences in my life, but no one had been keeping me accountable, and I never wanted to be very involved with church activities. I remember being busy with sports and school, and being a perfectionist about school especially. My excuse for not going to youth group was either school or the fact that I hadn't been going consistently and everyone else had, and they had made their friends already. It's so sad that I thought that way. I was completely missing out on God because I cared so much about what other people thought about me, and I also lived to please other people. I think I wanted to please other people to make me feel better about myself, and maybe because I thought it would get them to like me more. Sounds a little immature, right? Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but until the end of my senior year, this is what my life looked like.
At the end of senior year, I started to grow up a little bit, and read my Bible every now and then. It started with my college decision: I wanted to go to God for that because I couldn't decide on my own. So I started praying a little more than normal, and for some reason I landed on Samford. God already had that in His plan for me, and He wanted to do big things with it. I had absolutely no clue about this, and I couldn't care less at the time. I thought I was a good person; I was fairly satisfied with my life, and when I came to God with a problem, it usually got solved eventually.
After some serious self-examining and searching, as well as being surrounded by a few friends who were living for God and growing, I finally figured out where I wanted to find my identity, and that was in Christ. A lot happened in between, but I'm making a long story short. This is a VERY short version of my testimony. Haha. Basically, God did a LOT of work in my heart during my first semester at Samford, which I am SO thankful for today. God really is so good.
I just wanted to share a little with yall today because I am feeling so thankful that, for the past few years, I have felt God's presence with me and not ignored it! Of course there have been some times when I have, but overall, He has been there and I have been letting Him work in me and I hope through me a little as well. God has ALWAYS been by my side, I just didn't acknowledge it much for most of my life. I went to Him only when I needed Him for something, not because I desired to know Him better and because I loved Him with all of my heart.
We all struggle in our relationships with God, but we are all imperfect, and that is a part of walking with Him. When I thought I was a good person, I was 100% wrong. I am a sinner, and I am dirty, but Christ cleanses me and makes me into a new creation, and I am only worthy because of His grace and mercy. We can rejoice in the fact that we are not good people, but we have a Savior who loves us with all of His heart and who is with us ALWAYS!! My heart hurts for those who do not know Christ. It is impossible to fully express what He has done in my life, but He changes you, and it is amazing! I can rejoice because He has a plan for my life, and He forgives me every day. We can rejoice in the good times and in the bad because God is sovereign and God is good.
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I agree. He is with us. Even when I haven't pursued him hard the last few weeks- I kind of have the feeling like you feel with a friend you haven't seen in awhile- you don't feel as familiar with them. Yet despite how close I feel with him, he always goes to find his one lost sheep.
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