Okay, so last night I was lying in bed and really just couldn't sleep. It was like midnight, and I suddenly had all of these thoughts that I wanted to write about. I grabbed my laptop but then it died and my dad was using the charger. Hm, so I grabbed my notebook and started writing away. Just to let you know, it filled up about twelve pages in my notebook. Yeah, I know. I write alot okay. Don't judge me.haha.
This is somewhat how the midnight rambling went...
There are many other things I could be doing right now, like sleeping? (haha, yeah it's like midnight). So anyway, this may become just another pointless rant about nothing but here I go. Why is it that whenever I want to write on my Blogger, I can't think of any relevant or cool things to say that might interest my readers, but when I'm lying in bed, all tucked up and warm, I suddenly want to blog. What a shame my laptop isn't free. Oh well to the notebook it is. Wow, okay this is already accumulating to nothing and I've only just begun. Okay now I've forgotten what was on my mind... Yeah okay well here goes...
Here's a few notes on my 'Life after Fasting', just one of the things I wanted to write about. Recently I've been doing my Level Two NCEA exams (and at the moment I should be studying) but yeah to be honest they've actually been quite good exams. Like not too stressful or anything like that. Hm, is that a bad thing? Great, now I have a sore hand from writing instead of typing. *flips onto next page of notebook* Ew, there is a bug on this page. Okay well now it's gone. Back to the important stuff I was talking about. Anyway, over the period of the 21 Day Fast I decided to fast from TV and Facebook. I pretty much added in Blogger as well given that it was becoming another distraction for me, but yeah here's just a few things I learnt and a few things God showed and is still showing me...
1) When I put my 'pleasures' aside, it gives God room to work and actually just be King in my life.
- I realised (and actually it wasn't until the fast was over) that the time I had wasted watching rubbish TV and spending countless hours on Facebook was just stopping me from spending time with God and just being in His presence.
2) God wants a closer relationship with me.
- He created me for a plan and a purpose, so if he did that then I think I should love on Him. He made me unique, beautiful, talented and so blessed so why shouldn't I praise Him!? So yeah, in youth recently, we've had people sharing their testimonies or their Life with Jesus and that's just it. LIFE WITH JESUS. So anyway, yeah it's been really cool hearing people's testimonies and actually realising that God has changed these people for the better. It's funny how you can look at someone and think you know their whole life until they tell you and you're like 'woah, I so didn't think they were like that!' Hm, guess that just shows God's glory, yeah? He's pretty awesome. So forgiving and loving. Remember the whole 'forgive and forget' line. Well, I realised over this time, that God is the only one who can ever truly live by this line. It's so easy as humans to believe that our sins can never be truly forgiven but God just forgives and forgets them as soon as we ask. I love that about Him. He loves.cares.and ADORES you and me!
3) Book of JOY!
- If I'm being completely honest, I'll let you know that I'm not the greatest at keeping up with my daily Bible reading but over the fasting period, I found a lot more time to read my Bible and an interesting book which showed up was Philippians. I did one of those 'God, give me a page number and I flick to it' kind of things and it was a page number like page 1346 or something. The page which I turned to just happened to be the first page of Philippians, so I started reading it. Yeah so Philippians was a book written by Paul in the Bible and he wrote it from a jail cell. Now, you're probably like how is this a Book of Joy? Well, despite his circumstances, Paul still rejoiced and praised God.
Why? Well, it's because he knew Jesus and he belonged to him. To Christ. Well yeah, I think it's easy to kind of just feel like a loner or a loser in tough circumstances but hey! REMEMBER you are a child of God who has great plans laid ahead for your life.
Phillipians 3.13-14 says...
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. This verse talks about forgetting the past and pressing on toward the GOAL! That means the greater purpose and plan He has for your life! And I won't post it but Philippians 4 is also an amazing chapter to read. It's just amazing! This chapter begins with Paul telling us to just rejoice in our circumstances, cos He (God) is Lord!, then it carries on to give great insight into how we can be joyful or happy or whatever you wanna call it. I think for me Philippians 4.6 sums it all up for me.. it says 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. An example of this is how I've prayed for all of my exams and so far they've been great and that's given me even more reason to praise and thank God for everything. The last thing is at the end of this chapter cos in Philippians 4.13 it says 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. What a powerful statement. That means despite my past failures and all of my current circumstances, I can still do ALL things through Christ who takes me from strength to strength. Isn't that just amazing? Well that's God for ya! :)
So yeah, to conclude this random yet hopefully enjoyable look into my crazy head, I would just like to leave you with one thought. Just one. Yeah okay, here it goes...
Do not look upon your circumstances to define who you are or what you should or will become. God created YOU! for a purpose. Put your trust in Him and He will show you the way :) Yep so that's me.. oh and here's a verse which I found to fit what I wrote about...
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Habakkuk 3:17-18
