Church

Sundays are my favorite day. Before I was a Christian, they were my least favorite; they felt lonely, rainy, and just sad sometimes. I think now that I have a strong relationship with the Lord, I just look forward to slowing down. I think in the past I was scared of slowing down, scared of reflecting, scared of looking at my sin because I didn't know what to do with it other than feel guilt. I think of the verse that says, "in Christ, we are perfectly righteous" and peace just overrides my heart at times. I think it is tempting to focus on all your flaws and all the times you fail, but when you focus on this truth, the mistakes just fall away.

My new prayer for my children is that they will know that God's mercy flows over their lives like a flood and that will know His unending love and amazing grace. Imagine if your children grew up every day being reminded of how wide God's mercy is for their lives; it is still good news when I hear it. Another thought in church was our pastor was talking about when we go through hard things and what to do. His suggestion is to "talk" to your heart, "tell" it the truth. Don't listen to your emotions and feelings, but tell your emotions and feelings the truth in God's word. He gave incredible examples this week of telling yourself what you know. We know that Christ died and we know we are united with him in his death. He then says to present the members of your body to God, your eyes, your touch, your brain, your mouth, and more. I love that illustration of just giving over each thing as you are tempted in your days or when you have already opened your mouth way too wide with terrible things.

It is with this belief plus God's power that changes it all. Isn't it amazing that in everything, you have to get to the point of saying, "I can't do it" when you see God do it. The other example he used was a man who works for our church rides his bike to church each week. He asked the man, "How do you do that each week?" He said, see this little box, it is a motor; I peddle all the places I can and when I am on a touch hill when I can't do it any longer, I turn this on. How similar that is to our lives with God.... we just turn on the motor and He will do it for us.