The Journey's Still Going!

I haven't blogged in such a long time. I am still here and the journey has not ended. I question over and over again whether God has a spouse picked out for me. People continue to encourage me that He has someone special picked out, but the time has not yet come. Deep down inside I want to wait for His perfect timing, but I keep hearing a voice that discourages me. What I want to share tonight in my blog post is something that was spoken to me at church today.

My pastor shared from 1 John 3:19-24 and it was an incredible message. It felt like he was speaking directly to me, but I could feel the entire congregation being spoken to as well. He spoke about how Satan sends his demons out to speak lies in our heads to condemn our hearts and make us feel negatively about ourselves and our self-image. We need to push those feelings aside and allow God's truth, His good and perfect Word, to enter into our minds in place of those negative thoughts.

I have had so many negative thoughts entering into my mind and I let them take over my life. This explains a lot of why I have felt down about myself and why I've been grumpy to those around me, specifically my family. When we allow those thoughts to overtake us, we lose our confidence. We then don't have the confidence to come before God and our prayer life has been hindered. I have found that my prayer life has been sort of at a standstill as of late. I have not been able to figure out why it is hard for me to come before God. I have now realized that it must be for this very reason: I have lost my confidence to come before God because I feel like I am not worthy and I need to somehow earn back His love.

Please be encouraged friends, you do NOT have to EARN His love. He freely gives it to EVERYONE. He wants everyone to know how much He loves you. My pastor reference the song "Jesus Loves Me" today and I think that goes back to the innocence of a child and how important it is to keep that part of us alive, especially in our relationship with Christ. We tend to make things too complicated and our Heavenly Father just wants our love. He doesn't require us to do good deeds in order to come before Him. He wants us to love Him and that will lead to serving Him, which will lead to more love all around.

Here is a cute video of "Jesus Loves Me:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AAloccjo3Q Listen to the lyrics all the way through, there are some that I am not familiar in as I remember singing only the short version when I was younger. :)

As we grow in our confidence in Christ and we grow closer to Him, His Spirit will fill us up and we will begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. This is something that I want to experience in my own life. I have been made anew and from this day forward I am devoting to memorizing scripture and filling my mind with His truth rather than the lies Satan sends my way. I am going to put those aside and let in the Truth. Be blessed, friends! =D