This post has been brewing all week. I could feel it inside me just swishing around and trying to come together. Finally, today at church God really gave me the clarity I had been searching for all week. I feel like I can put it all together coherently now.
There have been so many things going on in my life recently that I have struggled to deal with. I have had to work very hard at giving my troubles to God, and letting Him show me how to deal. From family troubles, to work, to being a good wife and mother, and most importantly being a good Christian, this week has been slap full of things I didn't know how to handle. God has seen my struggles, and He has worked in my life majorly. Specifically, I received words of encouragement and support from two different people, and their words changed my outlook!
For each and every trial, He has provided me with comfort and peace as soon as I let Him take over. I can already feel this post taking shape, and I'll go ahead and warn, it might be long. I hope you'll stick it out.
One of my most serious struggles as a Christian is my habit of judging other people. I'll be the first to say that I've been guilty of being judgmental, and until Christ took His place in my heart, I was vocal about what I thought of other people. The entire time I was talking about how everyone else needed to get their life straight or do better at this or that, I was dishonoring God. I find now that I am trying to live a life that honors God, people who I used to gossip with, are judging me. Calling me fake, and tearing me down. I know what it feels like to be the person who does that. Looking back now, I think it came from a place of jealousy.
I've always believed in God, and I've always known that He was real. I could see people who were pursuing Him with a real passion, and I could clearly see that they had real peace, and I was jealous. Now, having allowed Jesus to come into my life and change my heart, I have that peace and I understand the feelings of jealousy that cause these people to tear my character apart. All I can do now, is pray that they will see that there is only one way to happiness and peace, and allow Him to work in their hearts. Instead of retaliation, or arguing, I just have to forgive them and try my best to set a good example. Which is why I now try to be even more vocal about my love for Jesus Christ, than I was about my judgment of others.
None of that is easy to admit. It is embarrassing to tell you that I used to sit around in a circle of other women and act like a 17 year old child. Gossiping and speculating about the lives of people who had never done anything to me. People who I hurt with my words. I'm sorry for every having had the nerve to act as if I knew better than God what these people should or shouldn't be doing. I didn't know their story, and I didn't take the time to even try to find it out. I am so sorry to have ever been that way and being on the receiving end of the same treatment now, I am even more sorry.
I feel like God is telling me to to share my imperfections, and the things I've done in the past, to prove that He really can change a person's heart! He can take the angriest, most bitter person, and transform their heart for His glory!
Church today was amazing. After a week of feeling depleted emotionally and spiritually, God filled me up! The moment that He spoke to me the loudest, was during one of my favorite songs. He did exactly what it said, He set a fire in my soul today and I couldn't be more excited about it! He has laid some very important things on my heart and I can already see that wonderful things are coming!!
There have been so many things going on in my life recently that I have struggled to deal with. I have had to work very hard at giving my troubles to God, and letting Him show me how to deal. From family troubles, to work, to being a good wife and mother, and most importantly being a good Christian, this week has been slap full of things I didn't know how to handle. God has seen my struggles, and He has worked in my life majorly. Specifically, I received words of encouragement and support from two different people, and their words changed my outlook!
For each and every trial, He has provided me with comfort and peace as soon as I let Him take over. I can already feel this post taking shape, and I'll go ahead and warn, it might be long. I hope you'll stick it out.
One of my most serious struggles as a Christian is my habit of judging other people. I'll be the first to say that I've been guilty of being judgmental, and until Christ took His place in my heart, I was vocal about what I thought of other people. The entire time I was talking about how everyone else needed to get their life straight or do better at this or that, I was dishonoring God. I find now that I am trying to live a life that honors God, people who I used to gossip with, are judging me. Calling me fake, and tearing me down. I know what it feels like to be the person who does that. Looking back now, I think it came from a place of jealousy.
I've always believed in God, and I've always known that He was real. I could see people who were pursuing Him with a real passion, and I could clearly see that they had real peace, and I was jealous. Now, having allowed Jesus to come into my life and change my heart, I have that peace and I understand the feelings of jealousy that cause these people to tear my character apart. All I can do now, is pray that they will see that there is only one way to happiness and peace, and allow Him to work in their hearts. Instead of retaliation, or arguing, I just have to forgive them and try my best to set a good example. Which is why I now try to be even more vocal about my love for Jesus Christ, than I was about my judgment of others.
None of that is easy to admit. It is embarrassing to tell you that I used to sit around in a circle of other women and act like a 17 year old child. Gossiping and speculating about the lives of people who had never done anything to me. People who I hurt with my words. I'm sorry for every having had the nerve to act as if I knew better than God what these people should or shouldn't be doing. I didn't know their story, and I didn't take the time to even try to find it out. I am so sorry to have ever been that way and being on the receiving end of the same treatment now, I am even more sorry.
I feel like God is telling me to to share my imperfections, and the things I've done in the past, to prove that He really can change a person's heart! He can take the angriest, most bitter person, and transform their heart for His glory!
Church today was amazing. After a week of feeling depleted emotionally and spiritually, God filled me up! The moment that He spoke to me the loudest, was during one of my favorite songs. He did exactly what it said, He set a fire in my soul today and I couldn't be more excited about it! He has laid some very important things on my heart and I can already see that wonderful things are coming!!