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People nowadays have the common notion about prayer.They always think that God is a your-wish-is-my-command-instantly God.They think that if they prayed about something,God would immediately answer it.That is not always the case.Being impatient for a patient God is wrong.Sometimes when I pray,God would give me a yes.I would be glad because He immediately answered my prayer.But what if He says to you,"Wait."What would you think? Will you think that God is making you wait because He is busy, or will you think that God is making you wait because He'll give you more than what you expect to have? Waiting is not bad,most of the time,He usually surprises those who wait on Him with what they don't expect.Take Hezekiah for example,when he was faced with the threat of Sennacherib,he could have rushed in without God and surrendered to the king of Assyria.But what did he do?He prayed to God and talked to Him his problems.Guess what God did? He defeated the Assyrians!What happened to Sennacherib,you ask.He scampered back to Nineveh and prayed to his gods.What happened next?He was killed by his very sons! What surprise God did for Hezekiah! So when God says "Wait.",don't be impatient.God has a surprise for you.

Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe – some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them – then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong.

~ Romans 14:22-23, The Message

This passage hit me more strongly when I initially read it in context of what I was thinking about at the time. But the post hinges on this.

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As the title suggests, this is a response to my most recent blog post. Having had some time to myself after posting it, I finally realized what it was about the post that never sat right with me.

I cited 1 Cor 7:7 and 7:38 in my last post, that God gives the gifts of singlehood and marriage to different people, and that neither is inferior or superior to the other, as a sort of disclaimer. And indeed I said it was my opinion.

The problem, I realized, was that my belief – the Word – did not line up with my opinion – singlehood is inherently better than marriage.

Keyword: Inherently.

–

You might have gathered from my last post that I have a lot of trouble seeing romantic relationships in a positive light at this time. There are reasons for that. I started to really think about it after one of the last times I was at youth group. It was a Q&A night, and one of the topics that kept coming up was romantic relationships – specifically, how do you know when you're going too far, and if you don't want to go that far again, what can you do to keep it from happening?

I thought about contributing to the discussion, but I didn't realize an "audience" member could do that. And by the time I learned that, we were wrapping up.

I only realized a couple of weeks ago that I went further with my ex-boyfriend than I wanted to go. Didn't go too far – thank God – but still further than I was actually willing to go. I didn't realize my discomfort meant exactly that at the time, because I thought I was just breaking out of my shell – stepping out of your comfort zone is supposed to be a good thing, right? Well, not so much for intimacy, it turns out. It's about all I can remember when I think about the relationship, and it colors any outlook I have on future relationships.

Takeaway: Going further than you want to go, at all, does your mental/emotional health bad.

He manipulated me. I don't know if he realized that's what he was doing, but he guilt-tripped me into pushing further and further out; I did it because I didn't want him to get bored, and I wasn't about to lose the experience so quickly when I had waited all of high school for a boyfriend. I told him once that I didn't like the "ickier" stuff as much as the innocent stuff we did in public; I don't remember his response word for word, but it came down to him not seeing it as such a big deal, and me then feeling like I was too chaste for anyone's good.

If there is a next time, I know that I'm going to have to outline my boundaries right up front – if he still wants to cross them, or agrees with me but still hopes to cross them via wearing me down, then he's going to have to move on to someone else. I'm sorry, but that's a whole mess of conflicting emotions that I really do not have the time, energy, or mental stability to deal with.

So I realized all of this a couple days after that Q&A night, because I was thinking about it; thought about posting the same thoughts on the Facebook page for the youth group, or one of the devotional Groups I'm in, but for whatever reason I never did.

I realized that even though I said I believed what God said – that singlehood and relationships are on the same level – I did not conduct myself that way. I conducted myself with the opinion that relationships cannot hold a candle to staying single, and I imposed that on others in my previous post. Given a chance, I might have done the same in real life.

I don't know how well this is coming through. What I am trying to say is that there was a disconnect between what I said I believed online, and what I actually believed according to how I conducted myself.

The real problem: it was affecting other relationships in my life, particularly concerning trust. I had difficulty trusting friends, parents, even God – BIG no bueno.

The syllogism is supposed to run like this:

God wants a relationship with you.

All things that come from God are good.

Therefore, relationships are good.

Well, okay; my Philosophy professor would have a thing or two to say about how that is false, therefore unsound, but you get the idea (I don't feel like fixing it). If all kinds of relationships come from God, then all kinds of relationships are inherently good – it's human error that makes any of them abusive.

If I insist on viewing romantic relationships negatively, unwilling and unable to trust him, then how can I expect to have positive, trusting relationships anywhere else in my life?

It sounds a bit weird to me, to say that looking down on – even hating – the idea of romantic relationships would consequently poison friendly relationships and father/mother-daughter relationships, but it turns out that can happen. It makes sense given my personal relationship with God – I said in my post about Song of Songs that it's a deepest devotion, and to me that means romantic. I am the bride of Christ, after all.

So that's my self-improvement project for the time being: Learn to view romantic relationships in a positive light again.

This won't happen overnight. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about this, because I'm still not in any mood to get into another relationship. I suppose more time is the answer.

We'll see what happens.

--

Here is the blog post that this is talking about -- Posted on my independent blog because, as I said, this never quite sat right with me:

A Treatise on Why Singlehood Will Trump Being in a Relationship FOREVER

Disclaimer: I am aware that 1 Corinthians 7 states neither singlehood nor marriage is superior/inferior to the other. This is opinion. (Note that all further cited verses are from 1 Corinthians 7 in The Message.)

And away we go!

1 – When you're unmarried, you're free to concentrate on simply pleasing the Master.

No hesitation in asserting that Jesus is the #1 priority. Which, there shouldn't be any hesitation anyway, regardless of your situation. But I put my ex-boyfriend first far too much (um, all the time), which is why he was my boyfriend for so long in the first place. I should have turned and run the instant he said he would have preferred that we had sex even though he said he could deal with being celibate.

Girls: If a guy says he can be celibate for you – he's lying. Boys, I can't tell you if it's similar for girls in the inverse situation because that's not an issue I've ever had to deal with personally. Sorry. Find a girl with looser morals than me and ask her instead.

2 – You take #2 priority. Well, let me clarify that, because serving God does mean serving others, but I need to serve myself, too! I can't serve others if I don't stop to make sure I'm okay! What I mean by this is, you dress for yourself; your makeup is for yourself. You're not fretting in front of mirrors for an extra however long before you leave wondering if this skirt is too revealing or if that eyeshadow is too bright.

3 – Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me – a simpler life in many ways!

Relationships are complicated and messy and horrible, and you're only going to end up with your feelings hurt. So really, you're better off keeping single.

4 – Marriage involves you in all the nuts and bolts of domestic life and in wanting to please your spouse, leading to so many more demands on your attention. The time and energy that married people spend in caring for and nurturing each other, the unmarried can spend in becoming whole and holy instruments of God.

Even if it does appear to be "working out," you kind of have to dedicate time to someone else who's fickle and fallible that you really should be devoting to Someone who is constant.

5 – You can't fantasize about clandestine encounters with Benedict Cumberbatch, Matt Smith, or Sean Maher (or any combination of the three, or someone else of your fancy) when you're in a relationship with someone. Well, you can, but if they find out about it, it threatens their self-esteem. Because if it comes down to run-of-the-mill local boys versus Benedict Cumberbatch, there's no question at all which one you would choose.

6 – No pressure to stay as thin as you were when you two first met. This isn't permission to let yourself go; just sayin', it's nice to be able to randomly swing up a couple pounds on week X of your cycle and know you don't have a ball-and-chain to nitpick at you for it.

7 – That said, you have more time and energy to spend on keeping yourself in shape, if you are so inclined. Instead of helping yourself look and feel better for someone else, you're helping yourself look and feel better for yourself. It's called self-improvement for a reason, right? It's not gonna stick if you're only doing it to make others like you more and not because you really want it. Like with plastic surgery.

I want you to live as free of complications as possible.

8 – No hours-long conversations with your girlfriends asking what he meant when he said "Hello" instead of "Hi."

9 – No lying awake agonizing over how he interpreted your goodnight text.

10 – No worries about Christmas/Valentines/birthday/anniversary candy he'll buy you that you know will go straight to your thighs even if he did mean well.

11 – No worries about buying Christmas/Valentines/birthday/anniversary gifts for him. This means you can put that money toward more important things. Like nail polish.

12 – You don't have to choose between a ball-and-chain and your friends (or staying in to work on a crochet project or curling up with your Bible) when deciding what to do with your Friday night.

13 – There's a certain satisfaction in knowing you have your pick of guys, and they're sitting there hoping you'll choose them, but you never will, and then you get to watch them squirm. Or you can just imagine all that if it makes you feel better about being single when all of your friends are asking why you don't have a boyfriend like something's wrong with you. I don't have many opportunities for power trips...

14 – No pressure to plan a date on a regular basis. If you decide you don't want to go out somewhere after all, you don't have to disappoint someone else. Also, no one to flake out on you.

15 – You don't have to wonder if your ball-and-chain is lying about actually having something else to do that can't be skipped just so he can get out of going to such-and-such a thing (in other words, you don't have to worry that you're the ball-and-chain).

16 – All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.

Relationships are a big, fat, waste of your vital life time. Period.

–

No, I'm not a feminist. Well, equal pay, please; but I don't think men should be shipped off to an island somewhere and only used for organ harvest.

It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband.

…

[And] celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.

Seriously, though, I can't see why a boyfriend would be of any use to me. I suppose a boyfriend can eventually evolve into a husband if it receives enough training and a lot of experience points, but I can adopt if I want kids that badly. Though I would still want for them to have an earthly father in addition to the Father, so there's just no way to remove that monkey wrench, is there...

Oh, duh; I'm already married to Jesus! And if it's God's will for me to have children, then I'll spontaneously conceive – it happened to Mary!

That said...

Fellas; keep trying. Just because I'm totally in love with singlehood doesn't mean I'm Ice Queen.

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Thank you for reading this incredibly long thing. Until next time.

~Sarah

As you may have gleaned from my previous posts on here, I am on my honours year of a theology degree just now. And if I handed in this little reflection on Luke 15 as a piece of exegetical work, they'd probably shout at me since I'm going to be focusing mainly on just the opening and closing verses of the chapter without delving too deeply into the sizeable middle section. But I just want to share a couple of things I was thinking when I read the chapter just now myself.

I find myself often being tested and challenged these days. The more I learn and grow in my relationship with the Lord the more I feel that I am put in the position to see if I have actually learned and taken away from what was being taught to me. At the beginning of my semester at Ozark Christian College, many of my professors made it a point to teach that God will always be with with us and that no matter what, we need to make it a point to lean on Him. I heard this so many times in my life that I think it's safe to say that these lectures went in one ear and out the other. But lately I'm really seeing the importance of these lessons. Not to say now is any different then before, nothing catstrophic has happened in my life, no great loss, but I can feel God nudging me gently through little hints that things would have gone about ten times better if I had only choosen to lean on Him instead of depend on myself. Like the outcome of a conversation, or how I chose to confront an issue I may have been experiencing.

Fortunetly for all of us, God knows that sometimes we all can step off the path and follow our own. And when we do, for we all surly will at some point in our life, He is still with us. When we pick the wrong path, the outcome is not what we wanted and can sometimes leave us devstated and broken. But God is there to mend that and put back those pieces with his love for all His children. I am so blessed that He will always be there to walk me back to the right path He originally laid out. And I am even more blessed that He is there to restore my spirit which has been crushed many times.

January 8, 2012The Life of Jesus; read today: "Forgive them…"; Luke 23:34
Common: Luke 23:34. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they divided his garments and cast lots.
The first of Jesus sentences as He was on the cross.  The sins that I have done are what is holding Him there, though logic would tell you it was the nails, it way my sin.  
So He spoke to the Father about what was happeing.  Forgive them, they do not know what they are doing here.  They did not.  Though they knew the scritpures, they did not realize what they meant.  So Jesus spoke to that, forgive them.  
Or was He talking about them?  Was He looking down through the centuries to where I live today. When I want what I want and do what I need to make myself happy, and I pound that nail in a little harder, was Jesus looking at me and saying, 'Forgive him, he does not know what he is doing."
Read for next time: Soldiers divide the garments of Jesus; Matthew 27:35-36; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:23-24

These verses are a continuation of Paul's prayer the Ephesian church.  Paul prayed that they might receive revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit. Paul wanted Christians to know about the awesome the power of God is that is at work in our hearts.  Paul calls it the exceeding greatness of His power.  We are told that this incredible power is "toward those who believe."  Another way to say it is this, "Faith attracts the awesome, unlimited power of God!"  Whenever we feel weak, discouraged or defeated it's time to tap into God's supernatural power, that is, God's own unlimited ability.  We can attract and tap into this power source by faith.  Jesus said, "All things are possible to him who believes."  It was absolutely vital for the Ephesian believers Paul was writing to. It is equally vital for believers today to know about the power that is available through faith in God, in His Word, and His promises.
Paul compares it to the power that God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead.  The language of this verse is very similar to Romans 8:11. "The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you."  WOW!  There can be no greater example of spiritual power than the resurrection of Jesus and His exaltation at the Father's right hand.  Paul uses no less than this ultimate expression of divine power to describe the power that is on the inside of you and me. Take a moment and praise God for the resurrection power that is at work in you.
Jesus has been exalted high above every other power.  Above earthly powers and above demonic powers.  Paul told the Philippians believers that Jesus has been given the "Name that is above every other name!"  Jesus is the Supreme Lord of the whole universe.  He has set up His authority to work here on earth through His church.  The church, the Body of Christ is the complete expression of Christ's kingdom and dominion on earth.  That why no christian is every really walking in his full spiritual destiny apart from involvement and commitment to the church.

January 7, 2012The Life of Jesus; read today: 2 robbers are crucified with Jesus; Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27-28; Luke 23:33; John 19:18
ESV: John 19:18. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.

What significance would it be that Jesus was hung in the middle between two thiefs?  I know enough about the Bible that nothing is put there that is not significant.  Sometimes you have to dig a little to see it though.  
In our lives today we often put significance to a central position.  The man or woman of honor at a banquet is often seated at the center of the table.  When a Formula One driver wins a race, they put up a podium with the top three drivers, the winner at the center.  Same with the Olympics. 
But with the cross, the Romans saved the center cross for the worst of the criminals that were being murdered.  It is hard to believe that Jesus would have had the center cross for just claiming to be King of the Jewish people.  As I think about it, it was appropriate, He was taking on Himself the sins of all the people who ever were and would be.  All that sin is a lot, more than any criminal would ever do.  By placing Jesus where they did, they made a statement without even knowing it.


Read for next time: Inscription written by Pilate; Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19-22

I go too long between posts. But I always find that I'm pulled back to writing another post because I have something on my mind, specifically for A Lofty Spot blog, that I cannot get off of my mind. God is relentlessly impressing it on my heart to get it out there to be read.
So this is what's on my heart today.
I am an artist. (You can see my work here.) And so I create things. Almost every day.
Well, I have been thinking about how God creates things too. Lots of things. A whole enormous lot of things.
And I've been thinking about how God loves us and takes us personally. What touches us (hurts us), touches the apple of His eye, the Bible says (Zech 2:8). Amazing.
Being loved and taken personally by God is directly linked to Him being Creator.
Hear me as an artist. This may may seem like a "duh" type of statement. And it is. Until you spend a bit more time considering your, my, our role as "mini me" creators. (I seriously had no better word to use there! Sorry!)

We are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27). And so, the way we act and feel is often a reflection of the way God acts and feels. This is true in the seemingly less sense (though not less at all) in the fact that we love and need to be loved (and so many other uncountable "normal" instances as well). But what I've been pondering on, and I believe Scripture backs this up, is that we respond to and about the things we MAKE (artist or not) in ways that reflect the way God responds to the things and beings HE creates!!

So check it out. Have you ever taken an art class? Even just showed up for one one time? Even if it was in jr. high or at summer camp? Have you ever had something you created critiqued? It may have been in a formal critique setting (where a whole class of students and/or teachers or colleagues or clients size up your work in front of you), or it may have been an informal setting. I'm sure we've all experienced an informal critique if it was just to show your mom the picture you colored in a coloring book. Or had your husband or wife taste the food you made for dinner. Or if you just told someone about a great (at least to you) idea you had.
How did you feel when you put your "work" out there? For a split second I bet you held your breath. Why did you do that? Because at the end of the day—or really just the end of the critique—you wanted the other person to like whatever it is you came up with, tangible or intangible, on the wall, in the kitchen, with the sewing machine, or with your drill and a few pieces of wood.

Simply put, what you make is an extension of you. It's one of the first concepts they teach you in art school. If an artist has a formal art show at a museum of their entire body of work (or really, even just a portion of it), it is without exception that you will get a glimpse of (if not a great big gawking look at) the artist's soul.

You are what you eat? Well, there is some truth in that, definitely. But to say you are what you make... well, I might rephrase it to say what you make is who you are. Both are true. You are what you make and what you make is who you are.

It is almost impossible to create something without forming some sort (even if small) of attachment to the created thing. You will root for it. Take up for it. Defend it. Take it back. And cry over it if you received a poor critique.
I have heard COUNTLESS stories by would-be artists who received a negative critique (sometimes by someone very wise and even gentle, but sometimes by someone harsh and bloated in heart) and it ruined them for ever creating anything ever again! And I know about this one personally. I've BEEN there! I remember my FIRST critique in my first photography class in college. My photograph received the worst critique of anyone's in the class, and immediately following it, I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could and balled my eyes out. For many, this is where it ends and they never take another art class again. Believe you  me, I had a mind to do that VERY thing in that moment! I was humiliated and horrified.
What is up with that!? Honestly, I remember the photograph well. It WAS bad!! Seriously! I don't think it was even in focus! I can laugh about it now, and honestly, I know that I even knew it then. But it was something I created. And so, I had formed an attachment to it, however unmerited it was.

In my field of work, we are taught—and rightly so—that it is important to disconnect from your work. At least to the degree where you can take criticism and grow from it, or even be willing to throw out an idea all together to give the client something else they think they want more. If you DON'T force yourself to disconnect, it will be the end of you. Its interesting how a client may LOVE the work and ask you to change one small thing (though a good designer knows when to fight for their design or to agree with the client), but even the small thing can feel entirely offensive to you. More so than the great joy that the client loved the over all project.
You see, the way we respond to the things we create and how others respond or handle them, is, I believe, a direct reflection to how God responds to us—His PRIZED creation!!