Resting in Jesus ..... aaaaaamazing.

Two weeks ago was a crazy week for me. Life was crazy. I was in more courses than I was expecting to be, working a new job all the while getting my brain rolling and planning with all that might go on at camp this summer! It was my reading week and so I was hoping to do bit of catch up. I was feeling super overwhelmed and stressed (though obviously i didn’t need to be, what do I have to fear if I have Jesus!) by what I all had on my plate and I hated it! I just want it to end, I needed some relief! At the same time there was a part of me that wanted to keep going anyway because in my mind quit is a 4 letter word. I hate quitting, my head relates quitting with irresponsibility. I really want to be someone who finishes what they started and doesn’t quit when the going gets tough.

So I talked to God about it. I felt Him saying to keep plugging away, so keep on going I did, figuring that if this was what he wanted, he would give me what I needed to finish.

I continued for a while like this and things only got more overwhelming, my mind was who know’s where, I felt like I could barely think at all anymore, my mind was always in 6 different places at once, I was running around and never letting myself break. I felt like there was just so much I had to do. I guess I thought I was superman and could just power through it all. But eventually I came to God again, “this is a gongshow, I feel I can’t keep doing this!” Then he revealed to me a new thing. He said Seth, all I want is to love you, let me Love you! If that’s in finishing all you started do that, if that’s in dropping a course or two do that. Don’t fear about choosing what to do because I don’t care as much whether you do or don’t do all the things you want to get done but how you received my love and gave it back to me.” It was so relieving. I felt like I had been given permission to, like a famous person once said, “Love God and do what you please.” If I love God what pleases me is exactly what he is desiring! I could love God no matter what I did and at that moment I felt like I WASN’T superman and needed to be with God some more and I felt that dropping 2 courses would me to do that. After that I felt like I was living again! It was so relieving!

At the end of it all what I hope you can take away from this is that, having less on my plate DIDN’T remove stress, what did was letting myself rest at the thought of Jesus. - literally thinking about who He is, dwelling on who He is, resting in how He sees me, what He is like, what it will be like to be in the fullness of His presence, what he looks like, spending time soaking up truth in the word, worshiping.  Being super busy in my case distracted me from what really mattered and what TRULY satisfies me. Even after my burden was lighter I still stress/ed in the times that I look at myself wondering how well I will make out of situations, but when I look at Jesus I realize that …. His love is all that matters! Lightening my lode in my circumstance simply helped me to letting myself rest at the thought of Jesus. 

Seek him with all of your heart, all of your soul, with all your strength and will all of your mind so that you can love him that way! Letting Yourself rest at the thought of Jesus.

“Hey Hebrews 12:2, How do we run the race?”

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

“Unreal!”

(It’s funny how it came to me the other day how many of the things he’s revealing to me are some of the same things I got to talk about in sessions in LDP. Always giving more… that guy!!!)    -   Also see 2 Cor 4:16-18, Col 3:1-4

He love's your heart for Him even if you don't always live it out the way you wanted to.

His Glory, Our Good

We serve an awesome God.

      These last few days I've noticed God working in my life and the lives of others in ways that reveal how incredibly powerful, and passionately loving He is.

I've been seeing glimpses of the fruit that He brings from bold prayers that He challenges us to pray.

I've been pushed into challenging situations where fear, frustration, hurt and anger threaten to take over... but instead they ended in a changed heart in reverent awe of a God who cares so deeply and tenderly about each of us.

“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. 

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, 

how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” James 5:11

      I know I'm being vague, but God has been so gracious lately to allow my eyes to be open to the ways He is working in my life, that I could fill page after page with words trying to describe it all and still come up short. It is impossible to fully comprehend an infinite God, let alone describe Him!

But in all of the happenings lately, one saying has never been so true...

In everything, God works for His glory, and our good. 

 

     When we surrender our plans to God's will and get on board with what He's doing, we start to see that He works everything for His glory and our good. God takes situations and circumstances that seem hard (even unfair) at the time and makes something beautiful out of them. 

He uses them to change our hearts, strengthen us, grow us, reveal more of Himself to us, and ultimately glorify His wonderful name!

     So I want to encourage you... if you find yourself in a challenging situation, don't lose heart. God is working. And the end result will be for His glory, and your good (even if it doesn't feel like it at the time). In the midst of life's trials, don't hide or run away from God. 

Run towards Him! Because He's the only One who can truly save you. He's the One in control. And, He's the One who LOVES you.

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance." 

2 Thessalonians 3:5

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Hebrews 12:1-3

Check out this gem!

"Come to Me"

If we are totally honest with ourselves we would probably all admit that we don't pray as much as we'd like to. Why is that? All of our lives we've been told that we should, we know we should and yet we don't. We have been given direct access to the Creator of the universe...why don't we dial Him up more?

I'm going to suggest that one of the big reasons we don't is because we don't really believe that God likes us. We've been told all our church-lives that "God loves you" so much that we seem to have diluted it. It's become just another cliche. That, combined with the fact that we are all massive screw-ups, has made us come to the conclusion that God doesn't like us. How could God possibly like us? Everyday we mess up. We gossip, lie, cheat, steal, lust, etc... clearly God couldn't like us. News flash: You are not your actions. If we are in Christ we are a "new creation"  (2 Corinthians 5v17) - aka: we are no longer defined by our sin. This idea that God doesn't like us is the idea of religion: you must do a,b, and c, THEN God will like you. The Gospel says, "God loves you." John 3v16 says, "For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son..." God proved once and for all that He loves you. Romans (5v8) says that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". God didn't wait til we had it all together to die for us. In our imperfection Christ came and died for us.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest..."- Matthew 11v28  

We think that God doesn't like us, but what does His word say? "Come to me..." Christ is inviting us to come. He's saying, "Get over here!" He's extending the invitation to you. We do not bother Christ. We don't waste His time. We aren't burdensome to Him. CHRIST DELIGHTS IN YOU!

As you approach God, come as you are. Don't lay your burdens down before you come to Him. Bring them with you. Too often we hear, "You may be struggling with something, put that aside and worship God." That's religion sneaking in - clean your life up and approach God. The Gospel, however, says "bring your issues to God and let Him clean them up for you." 

I'm not sure where all of you have gone in your journey with God since your time at camp, but I do know that God wants you to go to Him. God loves you and He wants to do amazing things in and through you. Approach God as you are with whatever you have, knowing that He delights in you. Spend some time with Him and see what He's up to. 

-CW

PS- April 4-6 is coming up! Details on the reunion will be coming out soon! Keep checking your emails! 

Valentine's Day

As we all know, Valentines Day is this Friday! For some of you, it may be “woohoo!” and others may not really care at all! Either way, it is something that is so popular in our culture. Valentine day cards come out, chocolate is given, and flowers are everywhere. Yes, valentine's is considered a "love" day with your significant other, but is that all it has to be?? 

I have read many blogs on how we all have a Valentine, God, which is so cool, so remember that. We need to focus on our relationship with God and his love for us. This love makes us capable of loving others. But I want to look at valentines in a different way for this post. I want to challenge you, on this Friday, to be intentional with what you are doing. I am proposing that instead of just focusing on a girlfriend/boyfriend/crush/single awareness days, I want to challenge you to make Friday a day of loving the people around you. God calls us to love one another and care for one another, and I know on days like valentines day, people often get very self-centred. "I hope my boyfriend gets me this,and does this and that and that other nice thing" or "once again no boyfriend for me, I guess I will just sit at home and watch a movie by myself". How ridiculous are those two statements!? And yet we get trapped into believing that we deserve something amazing from someone else on this day!

Change that mindset! On Friday, I want you to think of how you can show God's love through your words and actions to the people around you. Yes, this should be our goal everyday...so I do encourage you to have this mindset daily. But especially on Friday, serve someone you don't know. Give them a flower, bake cookies for your class, write a letter of encouragement to someone, pay for someone's meal. Remember the time we went to Winkler and served the people of Winkler? Put that into action again.

Some people find valentines day very hard and discouraging; so be there for those people and show them that you love them and care for them!

John 13:34-35: 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Here is a song that I have really enjoyed recently.