Finding God

I am deciding to write this collection of thoughts about finding God in a society that is lost. My inspiration for writing this came first from a Breakaway session at Texas A&M. I was sitting there listening to Ben Stuart talk about the movie The Lion King. He described the movie in a brief synopsis and than took a simple kids movie and brought out God. It made me think that finding God in The Lion King was simple, but I wasn’t sure if people really thought about it. That is why I wanted to write this; I want to bring to light simple things in society: movies, TV shows, music, books, and even everyday things that not only show God, but show how many Godly principles are in these places that most people won’t even notice at first glance. I want to go past the first glance and not only find God, but also show how we should live our real lives in a Godly way.

Disclaimer:

            I have written everything in this and it is my personal opinion. I have shared other people’s opinions that I agree with as well. I admit that my opinion can be wrong, but that doesn’t really matter does it? All that matters is that we believe in a loving, saving, caring, all-powerful God. He is the reason we all exist and that is all that matters.

Finding God in Love

            1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.” (NASB)

This verse is one of my favorites because of how much truth it has to it. It is one of the greatest gifts God gives us. I am not talking about the every day use of the word love like “Oh I love that dress!” or “I love my new car!” I am talking about the true love that God shows us every day. Everyone knows John 3:16; God loved the world that He gave His Son to die for us. Everyone knows this verse because it is the best example of God’s love. God loved His creation so much that He did the unthinkable and sent His son to die. Do you think you could do that? Imagine having a child, your only child, and offering his or her life to a complete stranger. I can’t even imagine how hard that had to be for God. Knowing His Son would have to suffer the worst death imaginable for His creation, but still letting Him die. That is true love; the way Christ loves the church, His bride.

            My first real relationship with a girl gave me the best example of true love. I believe that what I went through is what a lot of people go through who feel they are “in love”. I loved my girlfriend, but even though I said I was in love with her I later realized that I was not in love because I did not know what that meant. Now I understand that to be in love with someone you must love like Christ loves the church. One hundred percent sacrificial love is true love. Think back to a past girlfriend or boyfriend, or even a current one. Did you say that you love each other? When you were in love do you think that you would give anything for them? Christ gave His life for His love, could you do the same? I thought that my love for my girlfriend meant that I could marry her and my love was enough. I was wrong because I did not love her the way a married couple should love each other. I want to love my bride like Christ loves His bride. A lot of marriages don’t have that mentality when they start and that is why they fail. People are getting married young and although they are saying they love each other I am not sure they love their spouse like Christ does, but for their sakes I hope they do. Take time and ask yourself the big question if you are married or thinking about marriage. “Am I in love in such a strong way that I would die for my partner?”

            Coming back to this I have realized more about love. I said: “I thought I loved my girlfriend, but I was wrong.” I think I was wrong entirely of everything about love. Love is the most precious gift on earth. It is a gift because we all are able to grasp it, but can we fully comprehend it? Perfect love is God’s love for us, His love for His creation. We can’t grasp perfect love because ultimately we are not perfect. I loved my girlfriend or at least I felt I did. I was not wrong I was just misinformed. I believe love is what you make it to be. What I mean is, love is whatever you feel it is and how it impacts you. We cannot have perfect love, but we can have love that we feel is perfect. I loved my girlfriend and it was not perfect, in fact it was far from it, but I did love her because of how strong my feelings were for her. The love was not fully developed, and I did not get the chance to develop it to what I wanted it to be, but it was love. Love is what God gives to us and love is what we try to give to others. That is why we get so hurt by other people because getting hurt by the ones we love hurts the most. God doesn’t hurt us because He truly loves us the most and it is perfect. You may love someone or you may think you do, but the truth is you love someone if you know you do. What I mean is: if you say you love someone than who is to decide if that is true or not? Obviously if you just say it but never act on it than it isn’t true, but if you are willing to show self-sacrifice to that person at all than no one can tell you that your love is fake. I want to love someone with full sacrificial love, like Christ loves me, but the thing is that is impossible because of sin. Sin inhibits us to fully love someone. We can’t get over selfishness, pride, lust, greed, or other sins. This does not mean that we should not try to have sacrificial love because that is still important.

            This is something you have to remember in relationships. Guys: a girl cannot fulfill every single need you have no matter how much they love you. Girls: a guy cannot fulfill every need you have and give you all the attention you think you deserve no matter what you think. It is a hard fact to learn but the faster you learn it the better because everyone thinks that your spouse or other half should cater to your every need or desire and that is not going to happen. In fact it shouldn’t happen! This is where you define the line between love and idolatry. Idolatry destroys your relationship with God and other people. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” Colossians 3:5. Idolatry occurs in a relationship when you honor your partner more than God. I don’t think it is a bad thing to think about your partner often throughout the day. In fact I think it is a good way to show your affection, but if your day is ruined because they aren’t texting you back or they cancelled plans with you than you need to pause and think about the relationship. Something like this should not have that affect on you! You are idolizing your partner if you think about them every waking moment and have to see them everyday. It may look like love in your eyes and love is good, but Lauren Chandler put it like this, “I got this bracelet from Matt (her husband) I thought to myself what if I loved and cherished this bracelet more than the person who gave it to me.” God gave you this relationship and you need to honor that more than what was given. You are idolizing your partner when you have to spend every day and every moment talking or being with him or her. I struggled with this in my first relationship. I wanted to talk to her every day and we saw each other every day. This got to a point where if we didn’t see each other I felt like the day was wasted. Looking back on that relationship I now see that it was idolatry. I didn’t have a good walk with the Lord and He gave me the relationship! Think about your present relationship now and see if it is idolatry. You can still see your partner and love on them all the time you just need to realize that they should not be the source of your happiness or the source of your life for that matter. If you are only happy when you see him or her or only when you talk to him or her than you have a problem. You can still love someone without spending every waking moment being or talking to him or her. God gave you this relationship! Find your happiness in Him and love Him above all! This does not mean you shouldn’t try and be as sacrificial as you can towards your partner. Both parties just need to realize that if yall love each other than work at being sacrificial towards each other. Most importantly don’t be quick to anger when your partner does not fulfill every need you have because it won’t be and shouldn’t be that way. If you are idolizing your partner yall need to sit down and talk about how you need to stop. Maybe spend less time together or spend more time with God instead. Don’t love each other less, but idolizing a relationship will end badly when the person you idol doesn’t fulfill your every desire. God will never fail you while man will. Don’t forget that we must have sacrificial love in our lives because that is still the best way to show your love to someone else. You must self-sacrifice daily in order to prove your love and show that you truly love him or her.

            Unfortunately for mankind, we are stuck trying to love that special someone. If you say you love them, but doubt it like I did I encourage you to rethink it. God gives us the ability to love one another and we should do that to the best of our abilities. Sin may inhibit us in that, but with God we can get one step closer. The phrase: Live, Laugh, Love comes to mind. We truly need to love and not just for that special someone, but for everyone. Pray for your loved ones and pray for yourself. Pray to God that you will love better, love stronger, love deeper, and love like Christ loves you. Pray that your friends and family grow in their love as well. Most importantly remember that God loves you and this is all you ever will need. Try and resemble that love into your relationships and you will get as close as you can to that sacrificial love you seek. Never forget that trying to have perfect love with someone is impossible and the best you can do is love him or her the best you can. Smile and remember God loves you. Seek Him first.

           

Finding God in Suffering

            Psalm 13:1-6 “Lord, how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You     hide Your face from me? How long will I store up anxious concerns within me,    agony in my mind ever day? How long will my enemy dominate me? Consider       me and answer, Lord my God. Restore brightness to my eyes; otherwise, I will sleep in death. My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,” and my foes will            rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in Your faithful love; my heart   will rejoice in Your deliverance. I will sing to the Lord because He has treated me   generously.” (HCSB)

God never promised us a life without pain or anguish. This is something that is beyond clear in the Bible and makes me frustrated when people say, “How is your God so powerful and yet He lets all these terrible things happen to His people.” This world is full of suffering, but it is nothing compared for what is to come; yet it is a big deal? God never said we would have an amazing, perfect, and pain-free life. No, that was gone when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. If anything He promised the opposite. The best part about it is that even though we feel alone or confused when we suffer God is there.

            This Psalm is about David. He cried out to God in pain looking for answers, but was not getting them. The best part about the Psalm is his response: “But I have trusted in Your faithful love; my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance. I will sing to the Lord because He traded me generously.” David was going through a terrible situation and He cried out to God for answers, but when he did not get the answers he wanted he did the complete opposite of what we do. He praised God and knew everything was going to be fine one day and that God was in control. We are not like David. Think about the last time you were in pain and called out to God; did you get mad or upset with Him because your prayers weren’t answered fast enough? We pray to God when we are in pain and when we don’t get what we want we blame God and yell at Him for not making our lives better. Can you believe that? Think about how naive that is, that we are that selfish to believe that God is not doing what we want.

            We have to understand and believe that He never leaves our side during times of tribulation. He is the Lord of lords, the King of Kings! Remember that He is in control and also remember this: God will turn everything for good. That does not mean there isn’t pain and terrible things in life. It just means that no matter how terrible, no matter how heart broken you are, God has a plan and it will be turned for good that is His promise. La Rochefoucauld said, “A great storm puts out a little fire, but it feeds a strong one.” God is putting you suffering so you will rely on Him and not yourself. He is making you grow closer to Him than you ever thought possible. You just have to be the one to do it. You can’t sit back and mope every day feeling like your life is over. I understand that suffering is a terrible thing and people have been through awful things in their life. You can grieve, but you must rely on God and not yourself to get you through it. Remember that your reward is not in this life; it is waiting for you in Heaven.

           

Finding God in Friendship

            1 Corinthians 12:12-14 “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is           Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or       Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For         the body is not one member, but many.” (NASB)

I believe that one of the most important things in life is friendship. You need to have a community of believers in your life. People to support you, people to be there for you in the good and bad times. Together, as a group of believers, you and your friends are one body. You need your friends and your friends need you. When one part of the body struggles the whole body will struggle. When a fellow believer suffers we should suffer with them; when they rejoice we should rejoice with them; when they grieve we should grieve with them; and when they praise God for something praise God with them! We are all one body and we need to act like it.

            I was texting my friend the other night and she said something that really stuck out to me. “Examine things from a different perspective: is this person in my life going to benefit my walk with Christ or hurt it, or am I going to benefit their walk with Christ or hurt it. If there is even a slight possibility of them hurting your walk or you hurting theirs, you just need to get out of the situation. God will always give a way out of the situation you just have to find it.” You see, when we need answers we don’t usually go to God first. Who do we go to? Those closest to us: our friends and family. Obviously we need to always look to God for an answer, but God can give us answers in many ways. I believe that the reason those people are in our lives is because God is giving us answers through them. God is everywhere, He sees everything, and He knows everything. When we wait on Him an answer will come to us. But if we are impatient He will find other ways to give you an answer. Having a close relationship with a friend is one of the most important things you can have in your life. Someone you can rely on and someone who will be there for you.

Finding God in Change

            John 13:7 “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do you do not realize now,     but you will understand hereafter.’” (NASB)

Sometimes God says no and we think it means rejection. What we do not think is that it just might be redirection. Change happens to everyone and some people deal with it easily and some people have hard time dealing. I have a hard time dealing with change. That is just who I am, that is how God made me and I get upset with change. A TV show ending, an famous person dying, a fictional character dying in a story, friends leaving, relationships ending, or even growing up leaves me sad inside sometimes. Everyone feels sad with change I guess, but for me, it is a lingering affect. Change is something that happens all the time! So why is it that hard? For me I think it is a selfish reason. I don’t want things to change because if it is a good thing in my life than it changing will make me less happy. Everyone has their own coping methods with change, but the one method that works the best for me is relying on scripture. The Old Testament is full of change and shows how much God changes people’s lives out of nowhere for the good. When I am selfish about change I don’t think about how it is for the best. The phrase is “God turns everything for good.” This phrase is huge for me because it is so true! It does not mean there won’t be bad things or evil in this world, but it does mean that in the end it will be for the good. That is such a great promise to remember when dealing with change. God is working in your life and even though you may dislike all the change it will be for the better in just a little while, you just have to be patient through this time. It deals with being less selfish and it makes you self-sacrifice. When confronted with change remember that change happens all the time and God promises that it will end up good; be less selfish and be more optimistic by looking at the best possible outcomes in this change in your life! God is in control and everything is going to be for God’s glory, rest on that fact!

Finding God in Sex

            1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Run from sexual immorality! ‘Every sin a person can         commit is outside the body.’ On the contrary, the person who is sexually immoral         sins against his own body. Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the   Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for        you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” (HCSB)

Yes I am going to talk about the subject that no one likes to talk about: sex. I am also going to address the other thing no one likes to even think about: porn. These two things are two of the most destructive things in a man’s life. Sex is something that is given by God, even though I have not yet experienced this gift so I can’t say that it is first hand, but I do have faith that it truly is a gift from God. Sex is suppose to be gentle, caring, genuine, loving, emotional, impactful, passionate, romantic; I could describe how it is suppose to be with millions of adjectives, but ultimately what I choose to go into detail about is how it is suppose to be all these things. First of all sex, like all gifts, is only great when it is used in the right way: in marriage. Sex is not, and will never be right when used in a premarital way and there is no way around this fact whether you like it or not. God clearly states this in His Word: Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers.” (HCSB)

            Now that the obvious fact that everyone knows is out of the way we can move on to the next part. I am not going to go into how sex should work in a marriage because obviously I don’t have the experience or the knowledge of this wonderful thing. What I am going to talk about is how sex (in the premarital state) and lust and porn destroy your life and future love. Lust is a powerful tool of the devil and for men I think it is his strongest tool. Lust is in movies, TV shows, music, tabloids, on the Internet, you name it! It is heart-wrenching if you think about how much our society revolves around lust. Everyone is affected by it too it is not just men. Women are raised believing that their bodies are what people will judge them for and they have to impress people in any way they can. Men are raised thinking a women’s body is just an object that can be played with and viewed at any time. It is disgusting and horrible how bad how much our society needs Jesus. Sexual immorality will destroy you if you do not get away from it. It will be something that you will have to fight forever I think because of how temptation works, but it is beatable with God. Porn is a something that men and women (yes, women) find exciting, enticing, fun, and pleasure filled. Porn is the biggest lie. It is destructive, abusive, dirty, sad, and will leave you empty. I have experienced both these sides to porn. First off I am unbelievably grateful and words can’t describe how thankful I am that I have a God that forgives me for all my sins daily. That being said I have had struggles with porn in my past. It is just easy to do, easy to look at and easy to hide. Technology is a big factor in this, but that is just a good excuse as well. When I look back over my years when I viewed porn and highlight what my life was like at that time I see one very common theme missing. My quiet time repetitiveness was not something I could brag about. Meaning it was basically non-existent. That pretty much describes the why. I had a relationship with God and I knew He was my Lord and Savior, but my personal relationship with God struggled deeply and the result was sin. I know that sin will always be in your life and it is something we can’t escape but a personal relationship with God strengthens your life to where you will defeat temptation more and more. I would look at porn and then feel terrible afterwards while I prayed for forgiveness and promised I wouldn’t do it again. The next time I would do the same and repeat. At a point I learned to pray for strength and that God would help me get over the temptation because if one thing is for sure it is that you will not defeat any temptation without God. That is step one! Realizing you can’t do this alone! Step two is God’s wisdom through His Word; read and spend time with Him daily! Step three is pray daily and ask God for strength and wisdom to help you defeat temptation. Step four is eliminating temptations by drastic measures if necessary. Yes, this means blocking your internet, deleting the bad movies from your computer (even ones that just show a non-nude sex scene because it can give you bad thoughts), or even getting rid of your smart phone (this sounds crazy, I know, but I have a friend who did this and got a flip phone and he avoids temptation because he simply can’t look it up on his phone!). Now the thing you have to know is and I also think is really important is the fact that with the way our society is and the way TV and social media is it is impossible to eliminate all temptation of lust. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and avoid it as much as possible. It will destroy you and your future relationships. Porn plagues your thoughts and your dreams. It makes you lust after things that are completely faked on screen and leaves you dissatisfied when you don’t experience them in real life. I can’t stress this enough of how much it hurts relationships. Maybe not at first or maybe it doesn’t hurt the relationship as a whole and it just hurts you but that is enough to make it ruin things. I am trying to explain this in a way that I have felt through it. It clouded my mind, it made me feel perverted, and it made me feel empty. In a relationship it made me feel selfish and horrible! I did not engage in sex in the relationship, but because of porn and lust I was tempted many times and I thank God that He is stronger than my temptation and kept my purity. Going back to the relationship I will not go in much detail, but when we would sometimes hang out that lust and selfishness that you have probably felt before came out and would try and take over. It would make me ignore my feelings of love and kindness towards this person and make me act only towards myself. It is hard to describe in words how much it hurts a relationship. All of this was because I did not have a good personal relationship with God. Watching porn often even when I tried so hard not to, thinking about lust, lusting after women, lusting after my girlfriend, lusting after sex, and even crossing the line sometimes were all consequences of a non-personal relationship with my Lord and Savior. Now that I have a personal relationship with Him He helps me and fights off temptation for me. I sometimes fall into temptation but I am only human and will never be perfect. I have a great Savior who forgives me daily because He loves me.

            Porn is a billion dollar a year industry; can you believe that? That is how much our society loves sex and worships sex. It is disgusting and it ruins relationships every day. Ask yourself, if you struggle with lust (you may struggle with lust or temptation without porn too), do you really want to try and fix it? If you do then you must take action. Look at your walk with Christ and see if it is a daily relationship because if it isn’t that is the first thing you need to fix. When you fix that God will give you the strength if you just ask and pray for it. Some people will need to take more drastic steps and eliminate temptation by getting rid of their phones or their Internet. People may judge you or you may feel bored because you don’t have social media anymore, but think about this: would you rather have social media and games with porn corrupting your life daily or would you rather have future, healthy relationships with God as the center point without your angry birds game? Besides, a little less technology never hurt anyone. This is a hard subject to cover sometimes because people don’t like thinking about it when an extraordinary amount of people struggle with it. Lust is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason! Now stop looking at those things on the computer or your phone and open your Bible. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;” (ESV) 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.

           

           

Finding God in Jealousy

            Now it is time to decipher God’s holy and just jealousy with sinful jealousy. I will never forget a story an intern at the time preached about in my youth group. The topic was jealousy and he told a story about his older brother. His older brother and wife were sleeping in their apartment when they heard a noise coming from the living room. Someone was breaking in and the brother jumped out of bed in rage and ran for the living room. He scared the burglar off with his yelling and rage. When he asked his brother what made him run into the living room with such rage he responded that he was not going to let anything happen to his wife. He loves his wife so much that he was not going to let anyone hurt her or try and get near her. This is jealousy. He was jealous for his wife and was not going to let his wife be harmed. This is an example of a good jealousy.