As I prepare for my mission trip, the Lord has truly been working at my heart to prepare me spiritually for the journey ahead. I feel like I have been learning so much more about who He is and who He has called me to be. I took the time to write some of the lessons I have learned, quotes the stuck with me, and areas I know I need to work on. Of course, this list will never truly be complete so this is one I will continuously keep adding to.
•Know that you are a child of God. Know that you are loved and that you will be loved through all things. You are how God sees you. He loved you so much that he sent his only begotten son to die for you. God made you and he knows even the number of hairs on your head so he knows all the. Mistakes you have made and every single one of your sins. But he still loves you and is waiting for you to come to him give your all to him. And I know what you are thinking “my sin is too much, I’ve made to many mistakes, you do not know what I have done” and this may be true but God does know! And let me tell you something, you can never go so far you cannot come back home for my God is a God for all those who feel they are not good enough. My God is a God for everybody that feels like they are too messed up. He is for everybody who feels they said “I’m sorry” too many times. God sees you as his prized possession and you are truly loved and desired by God.
•God is kinda like the sun, He provides warmth, comfort, and light. Sometimes the sun can become covered up by clouds. When this happens, we tend to focus on the shadows and the darkness. Though there may be darkness it does not prove the sun does not exist. Darkness and shadows may follow us for a time, but we fail to forget a shadow in and of itself is proof of the existence of the sun. When we are so focused on the darkness of a shadow, we fail to realize the surrounding light.
•Are you worshiping the true Jesus Christ, or are you worshiping an idea of God that you labeled Jesus Christ?
•You say you do not have enough time for God? If that were to be true, God would have made the days 25 hours long and the weeks 8 days long.
•Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper and denied Christ, David had an affair and tried to cover it up with murder, Noah got drunk, Elisha was suicidal, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murder, Miriam was a gossiper, Thomas was a doubter, Sarah was impatient, and Rehab was a prostitute yet God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
•It may look like I’m surrounded but I’m surrounded by you.
•When you realize God’s purpose for life isn’t just for you, He will use you in a mighty way.
•Don’t shine so others can see you, shine so that through you, others can see Him.
•Is what you’re living for worth Christ dying for?
•Do you read your Bible for God to love you or do you read your Bible because you love God?
•Rock bottom became my firm foundation.
•Look for Christ and you will find Him and with Him everything else.
•Those who leave everything in God’s hands will eventually see God’s hands in everything.
•It’s easy to follow a God you were taught to believe in but it’s easier to love a God you found yourself.
•Peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of Christ.
•God owes us nothing yet continues to give us everything.
•Have you made prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?
•Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to an all-knowing God.
•God has not called me to be successful, He called me to be faithful.
•When I’m worried, it’s usually because I’m trying to do everything myself. When I’m at peace, it’s because I remember that God is in control.
•I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun. Not because I can see it, but by it, I can see everything.
•None of us are deserving of anything God gives us, we cannot look at our lives through our own eyes. Because that is through the eyes of the world. We have to try as hard as we can to look at our lives through Heaven’s eyes, and that is what gives us hope that is where we find our love and our peace and our strength. You may convince yourself you are worthless to God, but that is just the perspective from your eyes. We convince ourselves we will never be enough for God’s plan or His love but to God, we are worth more than we could possibly imagine. We are so ridiculously and unconditionally loved.
•Don’t mistake God’s patience for His absence. His timing is perfect, and His presence is constant.
•Even if we suffer for our entire lives, it will be a moment in comparison to eternity.
•Jesus sees our sins more clearly than anyone, yet He loves us more than anyone.
•God’s love cannot be explained but only experienced.
•Why wish upon a star when you can pray to the one who created it?
•What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?
•Sometimes God does not change your situation because He is trying to change your heart.
•At some point, it has to go from being highlighted in our Bibles to being written in our hearts.
•We can never pray enough, read our bibles enough, attend church enough or trust God enough to be deserving, yet God still loves us regardless.
•Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words.
•Do you ever realize that the God of the universe; who changes the sky day after day; who decides that the ocean could only come so far up the shore: calls you beloved? He looks at you and sees your brokenness and longs to heal it. He looks at your sins and failures yet continuously forgive you. He has the power to speak and the earth will come to pass, and He still desires an intimate relationship with you.
•The maker of the stars would rather die for you than live without you.
•Turn your worries into worship and watch God turn your battles into blessings.
•Always address non-Christians with love, even if they are tearing you down. When sharing the gospel if grace is not our goal, then you are just fighting. True soldiers fight not because they hate what is in front of them, but rather because they love what is being them.
•Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.
•Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
•If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
•When we pray to God don’t expect anything extraordinary for when you are searching for something extraordinary to happen, you often times miss the ordinary things that make our answered prayers extraordinary.
•Our actions speak louder than our words. We can say we love God but living and surrendering our lives over to Him are tow totally different things.
•We cannot categorize God for is we do we set limits on someone who is limitless. God’s abilities are not limited by man’s resources.
•It is okay to feel broken, that just means God is still shaping you.
•If the Bible was destroyed would the world be able to understand Jesus through you?
•Love demands freedom. It always has, and it always will. We are free to resist, reject and rebel against God’s ways for us. We can have all the hell we want.
•If being a Christian was against the law, would the jury have enough to convict you?
•We cannot see God unless we look for Him.
•Think of trying to have a friendship without talking. You cannot maintain a relationship without communication. The same goes for maintaining your relationship with God, which is why prayer is so crucial.
•We are the only ones standing in our way of accepting God’s unconditional love.
•Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him the opportunity to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer do you think God zaps them with warm and fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
•Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he does not want them turning towards God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it’s all nice and comfy and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to leave. The door is wide open, till one day time runs out, and the cell door slams and suddenly it’s too late.
•When you are doubting God you continue to ask questions because a small voice inside of your head isn’t happy. Everyone tries to tell you want to believe or think yet God is giving you answers, all you have to do is decide whether or not you are willing to listen. It is not easy but it is simple.
•If you are not dead, God is not done using you.
•I would rather stand with God and be judged by the world than to stand with the world and be judged by God.
•Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.
•I am not a Christian today because I was raised that way or because it satisfies some need or accomplished a goal, I am simply a Christian because it is evidentially true and I have seen what God has done in my life.
•My life and whole eternity belong to God. All this stuff is temporary. Money, fame, success. . . temporary. Even life is temporary. Jesus. . . that’s eternal.
•I don’t know how I’m going to live with myself if I don’t stay true to what I believe.
•Sometimes people may not believe the same things you do but they can believe in how much believe depending on how you choose to live out your faith.
•Faith is trusting God even when you do not understand His plan.
•He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.
•God gave you this life because he knows you are strong enough to live it out.
•I would rather spend my entire life believing there is a God and be wrong than spend eternity wishing I had.
•God does not call us to be comfortable, He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are no longer afraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He does not come through.
•Life with God is not immunity form difficulties, but peace within difficulties.
•Every day, you have a choice. You can believe that God is in control or you can stay worried and expect the worst.
•God chooses people based on their willingness to serve obediently, not based on their ability to perform perfectly,
•It is not about being more it is about knowing you are already enough and being who He was called you to be.
•Jesus, you suffered the pain of the cross and died for me, I can suffer through this for you.
•God is not looking for extraordinary exceptionally gifted people, just lovers of Christ who will carry out his Glory with transparency and not take it for themselves.
•the experience of loss does not have to be the defining moment in our lives. Instead, the defining moment can be our response to loss. It is not what happens to us that matters so much as what happens within us. It is therefore not true that we become less through loss unless we allow the loss to make us less. Grinding our soul down until there is nothing left but an external self entirely under the control of circumstance. Loss can also make us more. In the darkness, we can still find the light. In death, we can also find life. It all depends on the choices we make.
•But in coming to the end of ourselves, we can also come to the beginning of a vital relationship with Christ our failures can lead us to grace and to make a profound spiritual awakening.
•We must dare to pray even as we doubt. True faith is like a light that begins to flicker, however faintly, in the darkness that beckons us to pray even when we can hardly find the faith to pray.
•You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything else but Christ.
•There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.
•Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.
•He died for you, will you live for Him?
•God did not call you to just memorize scripture, He called you to become it.
•The world asks, “what does a man own?” Christ asks, “How does he use it?”
•Act in such a manner that you are living proof of a living God.
•We can study and know every verse and go to a bible study and say amen to every point made in the church but if we do not apply it to our lives, we will not be changed. Inspiration and information without a personal application will never amount to transformation.
•Until you become strong being alone with just God, you will never know if you are choosing someone out of love or loneliness.
•With our mouths we pray, “Thy will be done” but with our hearts, we hope “Thy will match mine.” Why would we limit a sovereign and holy God to our human conditions? We must learn to hope for immeasurably more.
•Let the one who created you be the one who defines you.
•Life can be like a garden. To have a beautiful life/ a life devoted to God you need to take time to nourish your garden. From time to time weeds may grow, if you let them overtake your garden then nothing beautiful can grow. At times your garden may become dormant and other times it will flourish. Some plants may pass away but it is important to remember through God there is resurrection power. Nothing has passed that cannot become new through Christ and no weed can be so strong it cannot be uprooted. With weeds you have to take time to get rid of them by learning where their source/roots are, you cannot just get rid of what is on the surface for they might come back. Some weeds have different ways of being destroyed so it is important to remember to ask for help from others who may have had the same weed in their life.
•If it is meant to be, God will provide.
•The fact that our hearts yearn for something earth cannot supply is proof that heaven must be our home.
•Some ask why do bad things happen to good people? Well, that only happened once and volunteered.
•Sometimes God has to take it all from you to show you who you really are without it.
•Nothing of great impact in the kingdom of God is done alone.
•Remember what you are going through if God woke you up this morning He is not finished with you there is a purpose to your pain.
•The phrase “do not be afraid” is written in the Bible 365 times, that is a daily reminder from God to live everyday fearlessly.
•We are all a bunch of different looking sinners in need of the same looking cross.
•A Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us.
•God does not favor anyone over you because their prayers were answered before yours. God works in us individually and always in His perfect timing.
•Decisions become easier when your will to please God outweighs your will to please the world.
•The only one who can truly satisfy the human heart is the one that created it.
•if you are not anchored in the goodness of God you will lower your theology to match your pain.
•Everyday do something that will lead you closer to God.
•You cannot pray for an A on a test and study for a B. You cannot pray for a faithful relationship and still live an unfaithful life. Moral of the story is you cannot pray for something and act less. Don’t question my God and His ability when your actions do not match your prayers.
•The Bible says “love never fails” so if it fails, it was not love.
•God may isolate you so you can get yourself together. It may seem like you lost friendships and relationships but a better you is worth far more.
•There will always be doubters, haters, and non-believers, but will there always be you to prove them wrong?
•If we sit by and do nothing the pressure that we are feeling today will mean persecution tomorrow.
•The Church has become known more for what it is against than what it is for.
•Well, people are not going to accept us for our faith. But that is okay. We have to love and serve them anyway. And I am talking compassion, forgiveness, I mean if we don’t, what is going to attract them to God?
•If we truly believe in the gospel why wouldn’t you want to share it?
•How much do you have to hate someone to not want to share with them eternal life?
•We often worry we can mess up God’s purpose for our lives. But we fail to realize God does not have a set path per se He has a set destination. We may stray away, but He will always lead us back. For nothing we can do is strong enough to derail God’s purpose for us.
•The doubts I was facing were not of God, but God is what would bring me out of these doubts. He will meet you in your struggles, brokenness or despair, He does not meet you where you pretend to be but rather helps you where you truly are. I can tell you Christ is meeting me where I am, He has opened my eyes and allowed me to see areas of growth I can work on. Those feelings of unworthiness I talked about, they are not who I am, for I am who God says I am and that is a daughter of the Lord most high. I am a child of God, a God who calls me redeemed, righteous, chosen and most importantly beloved. It is important to remember, we are not called to have blind faith but a true relationship with God, meaning you are going to have doubts but what you do with those doubts is up to you. Will you let your uncertainties grow and hurt your relationship with God or are you willing to bring them out into the light and flourish? In today’s society, we make negative presumptions of doubt, but doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubting is NOT the opposite of faith, true faith in God is shown when you are doubting yet choosing to keep moving forward and pursuing a relationship with God.
•God has an endless amount of grace and unconditional love for everyone. If that were true do you really think anything any person could ever say would be enough to every truly captivate His glory? No! that’s what I thought, but according to you, God uses the most unlikely people in the most miraculous ways. You might feel undeserving, but if you believe this is where your God is calling you than according to you, He will use you in miraculous ways.
•It is often said “God would not give you anything you cannot handle” though God does not expect you to handle things on your own but rather wants you to lean on him.
•when you feel as if no one understands, turn to the one with scars on His hands.
•God wrecks your plans when he sees your plans are about to wreck you.
•Life is not about who you once were, and all of the sins you have committed. It is about who you are now, and who you have the potential of being.
•Even as a Christian you will have bad days and you will have good days, but you will never have a day without God.
•We can’t live our lives simply “avoiding sin.” What we need to do is to intentionally build our walks with God. The more time you spend seeking Jesus is the less time you have for sin. And the more disgusted you become with the habits you have that displease God. We grow by spending time in God’s presence, not because we did not sin.
•What consumes your mind, controls your life.
•Nothing will ever touch me that has not already passed through the hands of God.
•If God is preparing you to make an impact on this world for his kingdom, chances are He will take you through a season of solitude. This is a season when you learn that you can’t lean upon anyone but Him for your confidence and when you gain the strength to stand alone even when no one stands with you.
•For when you are thirsty, you know the existence of water is to quench your thirst. For when you are hungry, you know the existence of food to fulfill your hunger. So when you are unsatisfied surely you must know the existence of something greater has to be true to satisfy your soul.
•Always pray to have eyes that see the best in people, a heart that forgives the worst, a mind that forgets the bad, and a soul that never loses faith in God.
•It’s really cool you want to be passionately in love with Jesus as much as you can, but please don’t beat yourself up about this. Be prepared for the seasons when you’ll barely hang on to God with an intellectual thread, and other seasons where you’ll be so head-over-heels for Jesus that you’re getting tattoos of him on your ribcages. Be ready, to be honest in your dry valleys and be ready to rejoice on the mountain tops. Enjoy both seasons, because both help you grow and both have significance in our lives. The winder and fall teach you to grow deep root into God even when you don’t feel him, and the summer and spring are those powerful weeks of blooming fruit and plenitful havest that will have you laughing and weeping at the same time. Soon you’ll also see: loving Jesus is not even really up to you because he’s the one who woos, who draws, who beckons, who calls. Loving Him is the easy part; God loving you cost His Son. the more you know that it’s less about you, the more free you will be to love God all the more.
•If God is preparing you to make an impact on this world for His kingdom, chances are He will take you through a season when you learn that you can’t lean upon anyone but Him for your confidence and when you gain the strength to stand alone even when no one stands with you
