~Jeremiah 29:11-14
Today is my 27th birthday! It's hard to believe the reality of how old I am already! I guess I just never imagined myself at this age, let alone being married and living in Texas! I could never have planned how my life would look at 27. God's plans for me are so much MORE and so much BIGGER than anything I could've dreamed up myself. I praise the Lord that He has loved me so much to never let me settle for anything less than His BEST. I have learned that walking with the Lord on the narrow path is not always the easiest and smoothest ride. The adventure of growing up into Him is definitely not the path of least resistance, but it is the road that has changed my life because it is the one that has healed me and set me free. God has shown me this year that the Fruits of the Spirit are only born out of the trials and adversities in my life. Afterall, how can you really experience the fullness of JOY without every holding the sting of despair?
There is a deep, deep treasure hidden inside our difficulties and pain. If you choose to face them, to never give up, to reach out for Jesus and surrender it all to Him, He will show you the light amidst the darkness, the hope in the hopelessness, and the true gold in your heart. It is the very real LOVE that has been enveloping you every second of your life.
My 27 years has and continues to be one huge, daily, giant DISCOVERY. I used to think that I had to go out and find my future. It was the great search for who I was suppose to be and what I was suppose to do with my life. It took me overseas and across the U.S. and back quite a few times, trying to figure out God's will for my life, my grand purpose and destiny. While I met some amazing people and gained some tremendously priceless experiences, those ventures failed to truly fulfill the deepest desire of my heart. I came home, I sat down, and at the end of all my efforts and attempts to figure out my life, I cried out to God. I said, "I will stay here. I will stay put. I will commit this next year of my life to You, Lord. I need You to show me what you want me do to, what you created me for. I have nowhere else to go."
There are no words to fully describe what God did with the commitment I made to Him that day. He took my life, my whole heart and turned everything inside-out. He brought a great healing and a deep freedom that I never even knew I needed. He loved me through people and circumstances in very real, powerful ways. He filled me with a faith, a knowledge, and a love experience of Him that has set the course of my life on fire. Because once you have tasted the very real love of Christ, and have seen the incredibleness of such a gift for you everyday, there is NOTHING you could ever want more on this earth (Psalm 73:25,26).
I gave God a year to show me His will for my life, and in that journey I found HIM. I discovered that my true life is hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3,4). There is no where else I need to go. The answer is JESUS. It's not about me. It's about letting go of me. It's about exchanging all of myself for all of Him, one choice at a time. God says, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" (Luke 9:24,25)... "But seek FIRST his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). God taught me what no one else ever did and what the world never could: GO AFTER JESUS. That's it. God WILL do the rest. Better yet, He will do it all ten million times greater that I ever could (Ephesians 3:20).
I can tell you from my very real and undeniable experience that all God says and promises in His Word IS TRUE. It's the only thing that's true. If you truly seek Him FIRST, He will give your life to you as a prize. It will require ALL of you. It will demand extreme faith and risk. It will cost you everything, but you will fall UP into Heavenly places, full of matchless rewards and blessings that you cannot inherit any other way.
Today marks another year of life for me, but what I am really celebrating today is the life I get to live in Christ. He has saved me from myself, from all I could've settled for. He is solidly planting my feet right in the middle of His BIGGER and more GLORIOUS story, and I don't want to live any other way. The fact that Jesus came to die for me and save me changes everything, but the fact that He also came "that (I) may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10), propels me forward on a daily, profound adventure of that very real pursuit of Christ and the FULLNESS of life He promises. It's mine for the taking, and yours too. DON'T MISS IT. DON'T MISS HIM, and I promise... you will not miss a thing.
~Jeremiah 45:5 (NKJV)
