imperfect

The Lord has been teaching me the last couple of days. James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." So that's what I've been doing. Let's start with Monday night. Alpha Gam is doing a freshman bible study, and I've been so blessed by it. We are going through the book of Romans, and this past Monday we talked about Romans 2. I was immediately convicted as we read the first verse: "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things." How many times do I catch myself judging others for things I do too. I'm a sinner too so who am I to judge others? The Lord is showing me the root of this is my own self-centeredness. My prayer the last few days is that He would humble me.

Last night at Crusades, He revealed my selfishness again. The sole purpose of my faith should be my relationship with Christ. I shouldn't want what He can give me and I shouldn't be trying to do "good Christian things". I should solely want HIM. As a selfish human, I must die daily to my flesh and this world in order to live a humble life for the Lord. I'm so thankful that He daily reveals Himself to me and reveals these truths that will deepen my faith and journey with Him.

I haven't been able to update this because I've been studying for Geography. And at first I was like "ugh geography who do I even have to know this." But last night as I was cramming, the Lord softened my heart and showed me how amazing He was. As I studied, I realized how intricately our world was made. I was amazed as I thought, 'He did this for us.' It reminds me of JH when our accountability group talked about seeing eternity in everything. The Lord revealed to me his goodness through a Geography book; He's everywhere. 

I'm so imperfect and in need of His love and grace each day. I depend on myself when I should be fully dependent on Him in every area of my life. But He is good and His plans are perfect. He's an excerpt from the book I'm reading by Joshua Harris:

C.S. Lewis once wrote a friend: "I don't doubt that the Holy Spirit guides your decisions from within when you make them with the intention of pleasing God. The error would be to think that He speaks only within, whereas in reality He speaks also through Scripture, the Church, Christian friends, books, etc." Though God speaks to Christians primarily through His Word, He confirms and leads us in many different ways. But we should resist over-spiritualizing the steps He expects us to take to more choices.

God knows all things. He knows whom we'll marry before we meet him or her. But that doesn't mean our task is to discover what He already knows or to worry that we might miss His perfect plan. Our responsibility is to love Him, study his Word, deepen our relationship with Him, and learn to evaluate our choices in light of biblical wisdom. If we're doing these things, we can make our decisions in the confidence that we aren't somehow missing God's will.