“get serious with God and he will get serious with you.”

 
I attend a mega church in West Palm Beach, Florida. Thousands of people attend every weekend, and there are five different campuses. I had been attending Christ Fellowship for just about a year before I ever made it to our main campus. My mom was visiting from the other coast of Florida and I decided to take her to the main campus, keep in mind that I have never been there before.
 
Throughout the church service this middle-aged woman was just staring at me. I caught her a couple of times, and we kept locking eyes too. The service proceeds to end and I'm walking out with my buddies, and my mom makes a restroom stop. The lady who was staring at me walks by and says nothing. She about makes it to her car and she turns around and walks back to approach me. She says "God has a word for you. Get serious with him and he’ll get serious with you.” End of story, she walks away nothing else is said.
 
Fast-forward a month and a half to training camp for the World Race in White, Georgia. It was the second night of worship, and the coach of my squad, Bruce, kept walking by and staring. He finally came up to me and said, "I don't get this word, but God keeps telling me it's time for you to get serious with Him.” I just started laughing. God literally was following me from Florida to Georgia to speak that over me. "I get it God, it's time to get serious. But what does that mean?" For awhile I had been praying for him to tell me or show me what that means.
 
I have been on the race now for 3 months. I have begun to understand what it means to get serious with him. For me it means standing and living in His truth and His promises, not just hearing and talking about them. It means total surrender and dying to self. It has meant putting myself in very uncomfortable situations and doing things my flesh did not want to do. Yes, I do fall short, but all my days I do my best.
 
Through these things, he has gotten serious with His blessings over my life. Earlier in this blog, I talked about taking my mom to church. Well I'm 23 years old (about to be 24 on Oct 7th!) and have never really heard my mom talk about God or church. However, right before I went to training camp she was diagnosed with breast cancer and asked me for prayer. But that was the extent of it. She was definitely covered in prayer. But God was not really brought up between the two of us again. Well she was cured of cancer. Awesome! As far as I knew, nothing much more was happening with her and God. Little did I know what was about to take place, 4 months later.
 
Well, a few days ago I had an opportunity to Skype with her back in states. She asked me what I thought of her ending the relationship she is in. It is a same sex relationship she has been in for about 10 years. She told me she doesn't feel right reading the Bible or going to church. What?! Come again? You have been reading the Bible and going to church?! Jesus you are good.
 
While I'm over here trying to "get serious" with God, God is getting serious with my mom. He has gotten serious with me. He delights in answering my prayers, and I do believe it is because I started to get serious and pursue my relationship with Him.  Since I have been learning about Him, he has also showed me healings on the street. So here I sit, trying to be as serious as I can with my Father, and He is wrecking me and showing up in big ways every day!  Praise Him!