Day 213: Timeless Love

We’re going to start this week off talking about love. Yes I mean the love of God but also, I’m talking about romance. I mean we can’t truly love someone without first knowing the love of God and falling in love with Him.

Jeremiah 31:3

"I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With that unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

God’s love is everlasting, it stands the test of time, it stands through everything. There was never a time where God did not love us. His love is unconditional. He loves us throughout all of our ups and downs, everything. God’s love for us is so great that nothing we do can make Him love us less. This is the type of love that we should seek in every area of our life. No one will be able to love us in the exact way that God loves us, but the type of love He shows to us is how we should strive to love others and be loved by others.

We’ve talked about loving our neighbor and we’ve talked about loving our friends, we’ve even hinted on relationships. However we’ve never dived into the idea of falling in love and how God’s love for us influences the way we love, in a romantic way. Sounds crazy right, but God teaches us how to love in every area of our lives.

Genesis 29:20

So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.

One of the earliest instances of true love I can remember in the bible is when Jacob worked seven years in order to marry Rachel. Now for those of you who know the story you know Jacob, the trickster was tricked by his uncle Laban into marrying Leah. Leah was Rachel’s older sister. So he worked seven more years to get the woman of His dreams. Yeah I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s how it happened. A lot went down in the old testament, if you think reality tv is something read the old testament of the bible. That’s something! However back to what we were talking about. Jacob worked fourteen years in order to marry the woman of his dreams. When he saw her, he was like ‘I like that girl and I’m going to marry her.’ I’m sure he didn’t think that He would have to work fourteen years to marry her, but he loved her so much the time flew by. He was so in love that the time he has to work to get her was nothing to Him. I mean what was seven or fourteen years compared to a lifetime? Many of us can’t imagine waiting that long to marry someone. We can’t imagine waiting that long for anything, but when love is involved it changes everything. Love can change things, and if it’s the right type of love, it will always change for the better. I know some of us are like, ‘love won’t change me’ and saying how you’ll never do things for love. Yeah okay, fall in love and see how that changes. I’m pretty sure Jacob thought he wouldn’t have to work fourteen years for love, but it had him in those fields everyday and the time felt like the speed of light.  

Now I’m not sure how many of you have been in love. I’m assuming quite a few of you have been in love this is the age where many of us are either falling in love, have been in love, or are currently in love. I’ve been in love before and first let me start by saying that I hope your first love ended much better than mine. However when you’re really in love with someone, time flies by. It’s timeless, you believe at least for the time being that you will love this person forever. It’s like Jacob, his love for Rachel was so strong that seven years felt like a few days.

When it comes to love I believe that there is both a healthy way to love and an unhealthy way to love. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard the term blinded by love, but it’s not really a good thing. This is the type of love that is run by infatuation. The times when we are so into a person that we are blinded by all the red flags that God is flashing in our face. This is the type of love that leads to heartbreak. There’s a few things that we must learn about love as we grow.

We learn how to love from the love we have been given. For those of us who are Christian we have come to the knowledge that God’s love is unconditional and full of grace. We learn how to love properly because we serve a living God and He is love. His very essence is love. Everything about Him screams love. His love is unconditional. He sees our sin and sees our mistakes, yet He still chooses to love us. Seeing that this is the way God loves us, this is how we must love our others. Which leads me to my next point.

We must love ourselves before we can love anyone else. My mom always told us growing, “No one will respect you, if you don’t respect yourself.” I say that to say, sometimes we go looking for love and validation is someone and we end up ruining a great thing because we don’t love ourselves, and therefore we cannot grasp the idea of someone else loving us. Meaning we can sometimes stand in the way of being loved. The bible tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves but if we do not love ourselves how are we going to love someone else. Especially in a relationship.

Last but most definitely not least, love is work. If we want it to work  we have to work for it. Jacob worked seven years for the love of His life, and it flew by. We have to be willing to work for love. It won’t always be peaches and romance, sometimes it will be hard.  It’s those moments we have to work through. Now some relationships are only meant for a season, but when God sends the one trust me you will know it. When God sends the person you are meant to spend the rest of your life with, even then, especially then, we have to work for it. We choose to love that person every day. We continue to fall in love.

However, just because we’re falling in love with someone doesn’t mean we stop falling in love with God. God must always come first, always. Nothing and no one should ever come before Him. We must fall in love with Him more and more everyday. It is the only way we will be able to survive and live.

Reflection

1. Are you in love?
2. Are you in love with God?
3. Do you love yourself?

Prayer Time

Allow your overall response to today's discussion and the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about love, being loved, and falling in love.

I know you’ve read this word a million times, but I love  and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 214!

Day 100: Recap

Day 93: Let's Talk About It - "Forbidden Subjects"

We started the week by kicking off the "Let's Talk About It" Series. This series was dedicated to the things you told me you wanted to talk about. This series is meant to start a conversation and talk about the things that are usually pushed to the side in church. I call these forbidden subjects, because they are often pushed off as sin and when they are talked about it is very cautious, we don't want to get too deep. Well we rebutted that ting week and talked about it.  We focused on Mark 7:8 today.

Day 94: Let's Talk About It -"Broken People"

Today we focused on Psalms 34:28, and 147:3. We talked about how we have so many people including ourselves walking around broken and how sometimes people tend to overlook it.
"We live in an era where everything must be okay, and when it’s not we put up a facade. This generation has the best poker faces I have ever seen. Because we don’t have time to deal with people who are really suffering, even if that means we ignore our own pain. We don’t have time to dig deep down to the root of our issues and be healed by God. We cover it up with a band-aid until the infection spreads and we can no longer hide it. "

Day 95: Let's Talk About It - "Single and Waiting on God"

Today's devo was dedicated to my single people. Being single is a great reward as we use the time to really find ourselves in Christ and be defined by who He is. However there is a flip side to being in your twenties and single, it gets lonely. We focused on a few scriptures today, 1 Corinthians 7:32-34, Matthew 5: 27-28, and Ecclesiastes 3:1.
"I am well aware of how hard it is to be single sometimes. Most of the time it’s good, we are enjoying life without the worries of being attached to anyone. We are enjoying building friendships and platonic relationships. We’re enjoying finding ourselves and learning more about ourselves everyday,  but some days it’s just hard not to be lonely. A lot of times this loneliness is brought on by sexual urges, and let me tell you, they will blindside you. We have to make sure that we are covered with the full armor of God, because these ditches of temptation are the hardest to jump over."

Day 96: Let's Talk About - "Relationships and Sex"

Today was dedicated to our people in relationships and we talked about sex. We focused on Song of Solomon 8:7, Matthew6:33, 2 Corinthians 6:14, 18-19.

"Romance and love is a big part of many of our lives at the moment, rather we are dating, in a committed relationship, engaged to be married, or married already. I think the biggest questions we have when it comes to question is, what is a Godly relationship, and how do we have one. The first step to having a relationship with anyone else is having a relationship with God, and finding our worth and identity within Him. Same as yesterday, there are a few topics of discussion. "

Day 97: Let's Talk About It - "Why We Serve God"

Today we lightened the subjects up a little bit, stepped into the semi shallow ends of the pool. We talked about why we serve God. We focused on Genesis 2:7, 1 John 4:19, and John 3:16.

"I have learned that I am nothing without God. I don’t exist without Him and I cannot live apart from Him. I have seen God’s faithfulness first hand, and I have learned to trust him more and more with my life. God is the only person who has never let me down. God is the only person who is constantly there for me even when I didn’t acknowledge His presence in my life. I need God every second of everyday."

Day 98: God Brought Me This Far...

Today we talked about being grateful for where God has us, because we often focus on where we are going but we must learn to dwell in the moment, as it was one where we're going. We focused on Philippians 1:6 and 1 Timothy 6:6.

"I think our generation believes that we can't be happy until we are where we want to be. We base our happiness on our “success” We aren’t content with the present, we are constantly moving and rushing towards the future because that’s where we want to be, and we miss the adventures and the beauty of where we are. If we are constantly running for the future and what is ahead of us, we will never have time to stop and enjoy the present because we are constantly moving. It won’t allow us to stop, because at one point the past and the present were the future, and if we keep rushing through them because we want something more, we will miss what God is doing right in front of our eyes."

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Make sure you share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 101! HappySunday everyone!

Day 97: Let's Talk About It- "Sex and Relationships"

Romance and love is a big part of many of our lives at the moment, rather we are dating, in a committed relationship, engaged to be married, or married already. I think the biggest questions we have when it comes to question is, what is a Godly relationship, and how do we have one. The first step to having a relationship with anyone else is having a relationship with God, and finding our worth and identity within Him. Same as yesterday, there are a few topics of discussion.

It’s about love

Song of Solomon 8:7

Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Love is known to be complicated, it’s one of the choices on facebook relationship status, but it does not have to be. When you love someone and are in love with someone and you know for sure it takes away all the complications. Complications arise when we are in a relationship trying to figure out if we really love the person we’re with. Often times we move too quick because we are lonely and just want someone to have when we want to feel less alone. That is not love, it’s selfish. Love is selfless, We see a true example of love in Genesis 29, when Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, verse twenty states, So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.

He loved this woman so much that he was willing to give seven years of his life in order to be with her. His love was so great that seven years felt like a few days. That’s love.

Many of us have stories or testimonies where we find ourselves saying we were looking for love in all the wrong places. I know I do. If love is what we’re looking for the best place to search is in Christ, God has all the love we need.

A lot of times we get into relationships with people for what we can get out of it, and what we can benefit. I think the best lesson we can learn for having a relationship with God is that it’s a two way street, and we have to give to get sometimes. It’s not all about receiving, sometimes we have to be willing to put ourselves on the line for someone else, especially a potential spouse.

Seek Christ first.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these thing will be added to you.

One thing to remember is that no matter where we are in life, or who is in our life, God should always be number one. Before we fall in love with anyone, we fell in love with God. Christ is our first love, and that should never change, He should be the one we love above any and everyone else. We find our worth in Christ, not in man or a relationship.

We won’t always get it right the first time.

I think many of us in our twenties have been in love before, I have and it ended terribly. We are wrapped up in love, and sometimes that person was only meant to be in our lives for a season, and that is probably the hardest thing to accept. We have to realize that not everyone will find their one true love in their first relationship, and it does happen for many people. But sometimes we have to go through some cycles of lessons before we reach the real thing. All that to say is that sometimes we won’t get it right and that is okay. The hard part is learning when to walk away and accept that, the person we were with is not the person we will spend our lives with.

Sometimes we hold on to relationships that are toxic for us because we want them to work so bad, and that could mean we are trying to hold together the very thing God Himself is trying to separate, and let me tell you it will lead to a world of misery and heartache.

At one point in my life I was engaged, too young, but I was engaged. I was in this relationship and I was eighteen and I was okay with just dating, and taking things slow. I loved this person very much and this stopped me from walking away when I needed to. I held on to it for as long as I could even though I knew that one this relationship was unhealthy for me, spiritually and mentally. I held on because I loved this person very much and did not want to hurt him. By doing so not only did I hurt myself but I hurt him, and we both came out of it bitter and angry. I regretted being in the relationship for a long time, but I realized that God had me in that position for a reason, and I learned and grew in so many ways. I just had to learn to walk away when it was time.

-Dyamond

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

• With that being said, there is also the other side, when we see red flags from the very beginning and choose to ignore them. Sometimes we have to put our hearts and feelings aside and listen to God and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. We must be obedient or that will also lead to a world of trouble and heartache.

• We must not compromise or drop our morals for anyone. No relationship is that important. When we are planted in Christ it defeats the purpose to be in a relationship with someone who isn’t. If we cannot go to our significant other for prayer, or to have a bible study with them, or if they refuse to go to church with us, then they’re probably not the one. We have to be on the same page, lifting one another up and
• growing together in Christ. We should love God more than we love our significant other and they should love God more than they love us. That is the only way a relationship and marriage will last, is if Christ comes first in both of our lives.

It’s not about sex. (expanded passage 1 Corinthians 7:1-40)

Relationships are not about sex. I repeat, RELATIONSHIPS ARE NOT ABOUT SEX. Sex is for marriage, and marriages are not built on sex.

Sex is a pure gift from God, a gift between husband and wife as a means to bring life to this earth, to reproduce and populate the earth, As we see in Genesis 1:28, And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Sex is beautiful thing, and it has been corrupted because it has lost meaning and is now looked at as mostly a sin. But sex between a husband and wife is not,

1 Corinthians 6: 18-19

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

Prayer Time

We talked about a lot today, take this time to talk to God about whatever is on your heart. Pray about your relationship or marriage. Whatever it is talk to God, have a conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening, Make sure you share this with someone and open up a discussion. Have an amazing day, and be sure to come back tomorrow for day 98!

Day 96: Let's Talk About It- "Single and Waiting on God"

Today’s devo is dedicated to all the single people out there in their twenties, and waiting on God,

At this age we are going through changes, many changes, and some of those changes means trying a hand at being single or making the choice to wait on God. We are entering the age where family starts to ask us about marriage, and we start seeing our friends married and in happy relationships, and sometimes you wonder when it’s your turn. As someone who is single and has been for a while, I’m enjoying life as a single woman, and choosing to wait on God but if I’m being honest, there are times when I’m just like, God can I have someone? Can I just go on a date or something?

There is beauty in being single and waiting on God, but I also want you to know that it will not last forever. There are a few topics of discussion today.

Being Single is a time to devote ourselves more to God.

While we are waiting on God to send us whoever it is that HE has for us, it is a time to not only find ourselves but find ourselves in Christ.

Paul talks about the advantages of being single in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34,

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.  But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,  and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.

We are almost always in this state of preparing for marriage. This isn’t the time to do that, we can do that when we’re engaged and going through premarital counseling. Now is the time to get lost in God. Now is the time to enjoy being by ourselves and learning how to be alone without being lonely.

This is the time where we can dedicate our entire beings to the Lord, where we do not have to worry about someone else but we can just worry about our relationship with God. When we are single the best relationship is the one we have with God. I remember someone saying, “I want to be so lost in God, that my husband has to find God to find me.” We all want that happy ending, most of us want to be married one day and have a family, and we will get there. But use the time before it comes to build a solid foundation within the Lord. We have to focus on building a relationship with God before we can build it with anyone else.  We cannot really build a healthy relationship with anyone else until we find ourselves planted in Christ.

Being single is sometimes hard

I am well aware of how hard it is to be single sometimes. Most of the time it’s good, we are enjoying life without the worries of being attached to anyone. We are enjoying building friendships and platonic relationships. We’re enjoying finding ourselves and learning more about ourselves everyday,  but some days it’s just hard not to be lonely. A lot of times this loneliness is brought on by sexual urges, and let me tell you, they will blindside you. We have to make sure that we are covered with the full armor of GOd, because these ditches of temptation are the hardest to jump over.

Matthew 5:27-28

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart”

While we may not be married or in a relationship with anyone we are in a committed and devoted relationship with God. Therefore our eyes must stay on Him, They have to because if they don’t they will start to wonder and who knows where our minds will end up. I know from experience.

Sometimes we think that our eyes are excluded from being sinful, it’s what we see that gets us all hot and bothered. Our eyes will get us into a lot of trouble.  

Now, I’m not telling you to close your eyes whenever you see someone attractive from the opposite sex. There is nothing wrong with being attracted to someone. We have eyes, and we can appreciate the beauty upon this earth, and sometimes that beauty is another person. What I’m saying is stay away from lust. We can acknowledge someone’s beauty and keep it pushing, when we start to look at them sexually that’s when it becomes a problem. It’s so easy to fall into, but we cannot allow these sexual desires and lustful eyes take root within us or we will end up doing things we'll regret.

Please note that Jesus was single, and if He did it so can we.

It will come, don’t worry about it.

My family asks me all the time if I think I’m going to get into a relationship soon, and my answer is always, “I don’t know, right now I’m enjoying being single.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens

God’s timing is perfect, perfect. You will meet the right person at the right time. I think we get caught up sometimes in the plans we have for our own lives, and comparing our lives to the people around us that we forget what God is doing within us. We see our friends in relationships and even getting married. Family is starting to put pressure on us, and we want to try to rush God. If we just wait it out we will see God’s plan unfold right before our eyes. We are not single for no reason, Go wanted us to be alone at this point in time, and the reason might be different for all of us. But one thing is for sure is that when the time is right God will send that perfect person our way. God knows exactly who we will spend our life with, He knows the person, the moment we will meet, all the details. The best part about waiting on God is that, He is the best match maker ever. Every pairing he makes will be perfect. We just have to trust His timing and in the meantime enjoy our time with Him alone.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

Talk to God about whatever stood out to you today. If you are single and waiting on God, talk to God about diving deeper into a relationship with Him. Whatever is on your heart today, lay it your to Him and be honest.

I love you! I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make sure you share this with someone and talk about it. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Day 97!

Day 40: I Messed Up

Proverbs 24:16 (MSG)

No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long; Soon they’re up on their feet,  while the wicked end up flat on their faces.

Romans 3:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

One thing about God’s people is that we don’t stay down long, God is always reaching down to pick us up when we fall. He dusts us off like the caring father He is and sets us right back on track. We will always get up from a fall, if we choose to do so. The best part about falling is getting back up again. Sometimes we fall so hard that getting up seems close to impossible but anything is possible with God.

How many times have we sinned after committing our lives to Christ? Don’t answer that, it was a rhetorical question, but the answer is, probably more than we’d like to admit. We are sinners saved by grace, and we are not perfect which why we are in constant need of grace. As Christians many of us have gone through a time where we’ve fallen away from our faith, we put our relationship with God on hold. If you’re like me and grew up in church, and was very involved in ministry at a young age, this ‘fall’ happened around the time you reached adulthood, when you tasted a glimpse of freedom.

I remember going through a time in my life, after my dad died, when I turned my back on God, while lying to myself and others because I had an image to uphold. I messed up, I went back to my old ways, I stopped going to church, I just no longer cared about having a relationship with God, until one morning conviction hit me like a hangover.

-Dyamond

Ephesians 1:7

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

The thing about God is that His love, and grace is greater than our sin. There is no sin that His love does not overrule. He sent His Son, His only son, to die on a cross and save us from our sin; Jesus made a way for us to be redeemed. Through Him we are able to repent and receive forgiveness, even when we do mess up, and fall short, God is always waiting with open arms to receive us again. He gives us so many chances, far more than we deserve but He does it because He loves us, and He wants a relationship with us, even when we don’t want one with Him. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; (Daniel 9:9)

Psalms 103:12

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us

Micah 7:19

He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

WHen God forgives, He forgives. He throws our sins into the sea of forgetfulness, He remembers them no more. His compassion and love is greater than His anger. God does not dwell on the moments we fall short, and  He does not hold us down when we fall. In fact He does the opposite, He chooses to forget about our shortcomings, our wrongdoing, our sin. He picks us up and washes us clean and keeps us moving forward. I think sometimes as Christians we want God to punish us because we feel so bad about our sin and we want to get rid of the guilt. We feel so terrible when we turn away from God that we start to condemn ourselves in the name of Jesus. We must learn to let go of our sins the moment we lay them down at the feet of Jesus, let them go so that we don’t turn back to them and let the guilt go that came with them. John 3:17 states, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus did not come down to earth to condemn the people for their sin and leave, He came to forgive them to save them from their sin and He did the same for us. Jesus is the one person in the world who could condemn us if He wanted to, but He doesn’t, He forgives us. He chooses to love us and take our sin upon Himself. If Jesus isn’t condemning us for our sin what gives us the right to do it to ourselves?

Jeremiah 24:7

'I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

We all have a heart for God, and when it’s in other places it just doesn’t sit right. I’ve said this before, but we all have a God shaped hole in our hearts and until we allow God into it, we will always be missing something. Our hearts will always find what it’s looking for, it won’t stop until it does. God is always holding a piece of our heart waiting for the rest to return to be made whole again. Our hearts are constantly searching for what’s missing. That hunger to be fulfilled, and complete, will always lead us back to God because He holds the missing piece, He is the missing piece.

Honestly, we’re going to mess up sometimes, we’re human, it’s in our nature. But we must always remember that no matter how far off we get, there is always room at the cross. No matter how deep we’ve fallen God is reaching to us, we just have to take His hand. We might fall but we don’t stay there, keep getting back up.

-Dyamond

Reflection

1. Do you tend to condemn or punish yourself when you fall?
2. If so, why?

Prayer Time

Go over the scriptures discussed today, and respond to God. Maybe you have fallen short or given up, we today is the opportunity to return to Him. It doesn’t matter how far off you think you are there is alway room at the cross. Maybe you’ve been here and know someone who's fallen short recently, lift them up in prayer. Take this time to confess and repent, whatever it may be that’s between you and God. Just respond to Him.

Take some time and sit in silence, if you feel the holy spirit tugging on your heart, respond to Him today.

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

And repeat these few words,

Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sin and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Congratulations! The angels in heaven are rejoicing right now.

Have an amazing day, or night, I love you! Share this with someone, and Make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 41!

Day 32: Going Through the Motions

Ask yourself, Why am I a Christian? Why do I serve God? Why did I give my life to Christ?

How many times have we gone to church just because we did not want to feel bad for not going? Or because, that’s how we were raised? How many times have we prayed because we’re christian and that’s what we’re supposed to do. Or read our bibles just to get our time with God “out of the way.” How often to we get set in the routine of being a Christian? Go to church every sunday, bible study once a week, read the bible for at least an hour everyday, pray before we go to sleep to secure that our conscious is clear. Then repeat. I know that I am very guilty of these things. Sometimes we get to a point where we start to serve God out of obligation and nothing else. We feel like doing things for God takes the place of doing things with God or spending time with Him. We go through the motions because we feel like we have no other choice, we feel forced to serve God, so we stick to a routine that we think will please Him. Serving god is so much more than a routine.

Psalms 51:16-17 (MSG)

Going through the motions doesn’t please you,

   a flawless performance is nothing to you.

I learned God-worship

   when my pride was shattered.

Heart-shattered lives ready for love

   don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.

How we look as a Christian means nothing when it’s just a facade, and that’s what going through the motions is. We put on the mask of a Christian, instead of the lifestyle. To cover up what’s really going on inside of us, we do what we think will please God, and what will make us look like a Christian. We go out of our way to prove our commitment to our faith. But are we really committed if it’s just a mask, something we can take on and off as we please? The problem with going through the motions is there is no growth, only stagnation. We stay in one place but we look like we’re moving. We’re doing a lot of 360 turns and ending up right back in the same place, and that’s “good enough” for us, because we’ve learned to imitate growth.   

What’s the use of going to church if we leave the same? Why read a bible if it doesn’t change our hearts, or influence our lifestyle? Why pray if it’s only to show how good of a Christian we are? Why not have a real relationship with God? Why not pour ourselves into Him and give Him all that we are? We are His children, there’s so much more to gain for serving Christ. There’s so much to learn, so much He wants to give us. But we stay at the surface level by just going through the motions. That doesn’t please God, perfection (as if we can attain it) doesn’t please God. What God wants is our hearts, He’s wants our honest selves, a heart that even when it’s broken is willing to worship. It’s in those moments when we choose to go a little deeper than just going to church, or skimming through the passages of the bibles in our laps, that we learn that worship isn’t something we do it’s who we are. When we choose to serve God because we love Him and want to know Him and want to have an intimate relationship with Him, that’s when we stop going through the motions. That’s when surface-level worship halts. When it’s not about an image or looking good, but it’s about being in need of a Savior and wanting one. We all know we need God but when we want Him, that’s when that thirst in us is quenched. We have to want God more than we want air.  

Reflection

1. Take a look at your life, how it is right now. Are you going through the motions?
2. What do you think keeps us at this ‘surface-level’ worship?
3. How can that be changed?
   
   

Prayer Time

Depending on your answers to the previous questions, how might God be speaking to you right now? Talk to him, and listen to what He might be saying to you. Talk to God about whatever resonated with you today. Be honest with Him, and remember that prayer is just a conversation with Him, make sure you listen as well.