'All I see is the wonder of you, Lord, around me. Accepting all those who seek, in the power of Your grace.'
I haven't had much to say on here in a while, and I guess that's probably because, if I'm honest, usually I'm here to have a whinge about my life, and lately everything's been pretty awesome, so I've just not been in an emotional enough mood to write some lengthy post about how I feel about something, but here goes. Jesus, is someone I feel very passionate about. Sometimes, even the strongest of Christians go through doubt, trials, and 'dry spells' in their spirit, and thats all g, however the passion for God still remains, and thats where I'm at right now. Simply not quite knowing what move to make next, but knowing I want it to be for God, because even though I'm feeling a little lost, I still know within myself that anything I do, its gotta be for God.
I just bought this song off itunes which my lovely boyfriend introduced me to, called 'Wondrous Grace' from C3 Church, and I've gotta say, something in the chorus' and bridge of that song makes me feel so fired up for God, that I just had to come here and talk about him. Thinking about the other posts I've written about Jesus, all I ever really talk about is how things in the church could change, and the rest of it, I keep pretty basic. So here we go, I'm going to talk about my faith, and how I worship my God. Legit.
My approach to lovin' Jesus is three simple steps.
Faith. Hope. Love.
Now those three little words are thrown around a lot when christians talk about God, but I'll explain what they mean to me.
1. Faith.
I believe that faith is essential for any christian. Not just in the fact that God exists, but also in his mercy, his love, his worthiness of trust, in that he created every single thing that man knows about (and beyond that), and in that he sent his one and only son, the embodiment of himself, to this earth, to die for our sins as a sacrifice, so that we may come to God and spend eternity living in him.
Belief is such an important part of my life, and often I'll sit in class, look around and think "I wonder how many of the people in here are christians. Man my life would be empty if I didn't have God.". That statement is wholly true. My entire life's purpose, I believe, is totally for God. I have chosen to live out my days studying his word and singing to him, and I will do that with great joy and exuberance. I think when people feel a little run down in their love for God, its because they've lost focus of their faith on its own, and are just relying on their own particular giftings or attending church on a regular basis to get them through their daily, christian lives. I'm not saying I don't do this, because believe me, I do. I'm just saying without faith, whats the point of even being a christian? You need it both initially, and always. You need to believe whole heartedly that God loves you, created you, and sent his son for you. Yeah.
I'll combine 2 and 3 together here, because I reckon Hope and Love go pretty well together.
Hope and Love are so vitally important for any person on the face of the planet, not just christians. The difference is that whilst worldly things will fade, God is eternally standing strong and will not fail us, ever, no matter how much we screw up or abandon him. I love knowing that when I earnestly seek God with a hope in my heart, he's gonna show up. When I put in 1% of the effort, he puts in the other 99% and meets me where I'm at. He's ready when I am, and thats what I love about God. He's not gonna push me away, nor is he going to yank me back towards himself without me having a say in it. He gives me freewill, but hes still in control and knows what I'm giving. He gives us countless opportunities to accept him into our lives, and that right there, is hope enough for me. Those who accept God have hope in heaven, and I'm pretty keen for that.
Love. My favourite word in the english language. The whole Christian faith is based on love. The whole bible is based on love. Jesus is love. God is love. People need love. Where better to seek it than God? He's forever there, ready to accept us with open arms no matter what, and I love that. Jesus could've saved himself when he died on that cross, but he didn't, because he was thinking further ahead. He could see the bigger picture. He knew that after all the suffering he went through, he'd be able to enter relationships with us. So as he took the weight of the entire worlds sin, he did it for everyone he knew he'd get to meet and love on whole heartedly.
The term 'christian', literally means 'little christ'. All God asks of humanity is to live with him, and try to live as Christ lived. The one thing I think christians, as people, need to work on most is being christ-like. Jesus never once ignored a person. He never condemned a person for being different. He never put others down. He never fought or cheated at anything. He was totally sin free. While being sinless is simply impossible for humans to achieve, it is ridiculous for Christians to shove their beliefs down the throats of others and not give them a chance to speak, and its even more ridiculous to keep their minds totally closed off to the world. We need to know whats happening in order to do our job we were given to do on earth. What was that? Love God, and love others. Relating this back to my initial quote from 'Wondrous Grace', to be Christ-Like, we've got to be accepting, and God accepts all those who seek him. We should accept people, no matter how different they are to us, like God accepted us. None of us are perfect, and lets face it, even us Christians can be pretty effed up sometimes, but God still loves and accepts us hey. Probably the main reason I worship him with everything I've got, He's so worth it, for what He's done for me.
So there it is. Faith, Hope and Love.
I'm not trying to say I'm a perfect christian. Such a thing doesn't exist. I'm just saying that no matter how you approach your faith, just make sure its Christ-Centred.
I'm gonna go sing to Jesus now, cause thats how I roll. Its funny how i intended to write this post about worship and ended up talking about something totally different. God works in mysterious ways. Ha.
'I will sing songs of praise to You my King. That You my God, be exalted.'
