Sunday, May 26, 2013

Do you want More?

This past weekend I had the wonderful privileged of attending the MORE conference at my church here in Nashville called Grace Center. I must say I have never left a session there and not been blown away, rocked by God, or brought to tears. So Saturday morning I go in and meet up with the amazing college group from Memphis that drove in for the conference and we sit down ready for God to work. The speaker, who is a modern day prophet, begins by comically drawing the audience in with funny stories of the Lord working in mysterious ways through people's lives, but then he transitions. He begins talking about this church he visited that had lost it's fire and passion. The pastor there told him that if he didn't stir up revival then the pastor planned on quitting. Blown away by this remark he began to witness, he told the church to break free from this bondage of everyday life and freely live in God's grace. After he preached on this subject a while longer he looked out in the crowd. He invited all to come forward who felt they needed a new flame, to take God out of the box, and wanted to break free. I felt myself jump up and run forward. He then began to speak over us, "You are designed to be known and to know, you are called to write history and be significant and to be world changers of the Lord." You all have a purpose and Satan is trying to shatter that by making you believe your plans are too big and not possible. But God is a God of the impossible and of the more! The first thing Satan attacks is your joy because the joy of the Lord is our strength and without it we can't fight. He began to pray over our passions as performers and told us to start striving for them again today. Praying over our flames to be rekindled and our hope to be restored. As this happened tears streamed from my eyes, because I realized how scared and lost I have been feeling. Graduating with no set future is a fightful place to be and I had begun to think that God's plan for me wasn't as big or important as I'd hoped. This was a lie from the pit of hell. God has plans for me to prosper with hope and a future! Jeremiah 29:11. So today I just want to encourage you. Whatever stage of life your in and how lost you feel, God has a purpose for you. Acts 3:19-21 tells us that all we have to b=do is repent and He will refresh us and we will receive. He wants us saved, yes, but He also wants us converted into a likeness of Him! So ask and receive more, because our God is a god of the more!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mountains and Valleys

Hello beautiful people!

Sorry I missed my weekly blog last week! It has been a bit of a whirl wind. To make up for it I will make this blog twice as long ;)

From graduating college after four grueling years to going to the ER with my boyfriend, Nathan, it's been a crazy ride. First off let's start at the beginning of the chaos with graduating. The week before was filled with stressful finals and deadlines. I actually failed an exam after studying for over 8 hours for it. I have this ability to know exactly how an interview, test, exam, or meeting has gone as soon as I leave it and I knew when I was taking this exam that I had failed it. I came out devastated and frantic that I wouldn't graduate. I called my mom, who acted as a God sent that day and told me to go back in and confront the teacher. I was so nervous to speak to him because it had been a difficult situation all semester. I walked in palms sweaty and about to cry. I told him I needed to know my grade and asked if he would please grade it for me so I'd know if I was going to pass and graduated. He began marking red all over the exam, along with making remarks to why each question was obviously wrong. Water filled me eyes as I choked the tears back. He finished writing a big 52 over the test and looked up with an unhelpful glare. I asked him if this grade along with my other tests was failing and he said yes. There was only one extra credit that would give 10 pts and if that didn't help then he couldn't help me. We calculated it and it came out to a 70, which is the lowest point of a C, and meant passing! I wouldn't believe God's grace with this circumstance. I spend four hours to write the most elaborate extra credit paper of my life and passed!

So from there I had only to sail through the wonderful time of my sweet family traveling from Memphis to my graduation and my 7 amazing roommates throwing me a graduation party. We made these awesome chocolate dessert in the shape of graduation caps out of Hersey bars, Reeses as the hat and mini m&m's, and sour straws as the tassels. After that memorable party we woke up to head to Destin, FL for a spectacular graduation trip with the family and Nathan. We got there and spent hours on the beach, tanning, making sand castles (that were imploded by Nathan digging to deep of a moat), snorkeling, seadooing and seeing 1 dolphins and two baby dolphins, and more! My extended family even threw me and Nathan a party while we were there, with more food than we could look at and sweet cards filled with love.

The graduation and trip were certainly a mountain high, but there was another valley to pass through. The night before we were to fly back at 7am Nathan got really sick. So much so that we had to go to the ER. The doctor was of no help and treated us with no respect. We had waited four hours to come and it was midnight. I knew Nathan wasn't faking this pain and yet this doctor thought he was. We left with some prescribed Advil, but after it was four in the morning and nothing had changed we went back. The doctor was so rude with his comments of unbelief. I felt my heart race and my blood curdle. I wanted to scream at him that as a doctor this was his responsibility to care and help the sick. He didn't look at Nathan or my mom, but at me. Asking me all these questions and saying if he gave anymore medicine then it would be my job to help Nathan the airport and my responsibility if anything happened. I agreed. The shot was given and Nathan finally seemed more at peace, but still in pain. Finally we left, and after many more hours, made it through the airports and planes to home.

All of this seems awful I know, but the part that stands out to me is that when Nathan was in pain and hurting he prayed. As I sat next to him I could hear him say that He knew God could heal him and if He could at least take the heat away he would be grateful. Then Nathan asked me to check if the fever was gone and it was! God is good. Even in the valleys He hears our prayers. We might not understand it, but He always answers. It might be a yes or a no or a wait, but he always answers. This world is fallen and things happen that God does not will, but He is always there with us and above all He loves us.