Where God's Word Meets Our Mess
We expect our issues and struggles to disappear for exciting events and occasions. We think that we can whisk the pain out of our minds to focus on these special occurrences. Or perhaps we have come to realize that our expectations will usually fail us.
Yet again, I had to rush through my quiet time to get ready for class this morning. Yet again, I felt a twinge of guilt for cutting this time short. But yet again, I did nothing about it. In fact, I did it the next day and the day after that and the day after that. I couldn't understand why making my quiet time a priority was so difficult.
With only a few weeks left until the end of the semester, I’m unable to contain my excitement. I’ve been awaiting the end for so long! I can’t stop thinking about summer plans and a homework-free life. (What even is that?) But first, I have to survive the rest of the semester—and thrive, if possible—because there are several papers, projects, presentations, and exams in my near future.
I hope you're having an amazing week, friends! Today, fellow blogger Anna Peters is guest posting for me. She writes about her struggles with giving into her sin nature and provides some tips for winning this struggle by trusting the Lord. I know you'll be uplifted by her guest post.
I drove away from our church pondering the reality that I may never see him or his family again. I can’t remember specific events that impacted me so much. I just know that he and his family have impacted my church and desired to help us grow closer to God. He wasn’t supposed to leave so soon. He was supposed to stay at my church forever…right?
Have you ever prayed and felt like God didn’t listen to your whole prayer? I have. I have received totally different answers than the ones I prayed for and I have wondered if God didn’t listen to my whole prayer. But you know what? I think we feel this way sometimes because we have some misconceptions about prayer. Sometimes we can get so focused on how we think answers to our prayer should be, that we forget who God is.
Last month, I served for the first time ever at a food pantry. I’d helped with the behind-the-scenes work at a food pantry once, but I’d never been there while people actually got their food. In short, my experience was different than I’d expected.
What if something awful had happened to her? What if someone in her family had died? What if she been in a car accident or gotten sick? What if she had moved away? Where was she, and why didn’t she tell me where she was?
That's why we need to be careful about what we choose to look at and listen to. Maybe we’re not affected by every word we hear and every image we see. But when we continually fill our minds with immoral things, they begin to corrupt the way we live. Through the renewal of our minds, however, God can transform us and help us live like Jesus.
Tizzie's Tidbits of Truth 