i cannot believe that exactly one week from today i will be driving away from san diego---my master's year behind me and a wide open (and very flexible and uncertain) future ahead of me! :) i know that time flies by, but it has never gone by faster than in these last couple of weeks...we've been so busy with women's retreat, going to ridgecrest, a fun little girls only trip to idaho, and now we are in the last week. last night we had coram deo, and all of us went to jess and jay's house for dinner, we watched sahara, and then we all just talked about memories from the year. i can be completely honest and say i have never laughed as hard in my life as during this year. today we are doing interviews for our graduation video and having worship team practice...tomorrow we have college group and me and two of the guys are the speakers!!! we are going to be talking about God's call on people's lives, and my specific part is on stepping out in faith...here are my notes! :)
~satan's greatest tactic: fear--if he can keep us from living in Christ's freedom, he can keep us ineffective
~knowing God's call on our lives isn't what makes the difference--it's acting out that call by pushing past our comfort zones and trusting in God's faithfulness that will create change
~how much do we really believe in God? because when the time comes to either step out in faith or fearfully walk away from God's call, we will see where our priorities are...
~it's easy to read promises in the Bible and say we believe them, but what would it take to actually live them out?
~"But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. the person who risks nothing, who does nothing...is nothing. he may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. chained by his attitudes he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. only a person who risks is free."
~God is the ultimate Dreamgiver--he is
magnificent and beyond our comprehension. "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (isaiah 55:9)
~a lot of trust is required in obeying God..he usually won't tell us his whole plan, but that's for our good: "look at the nations and watch--and be utterly amazed. for i am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." (habakkuk 1:5)
~it's not so much about having a step-by-step plan for your life...it's really about including God in everything--revolving your life around him--so that in the small things he can show you his will for your life.
"trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (proverbs 3:5-6)
so that's basically what i will be speaking about...mostly i just want people to know God intimately, and that's a hard concept to get across to someone. i think that most people, myself included, aren't nearly as close to God as he wants us to be. most of my life was lived mainly by blind faith. trusting that big God in the sky that i didn't know how to get close to, but i believed he could and would help me with my problems. but just recently God has been showing me just how REAL he is...how possible it is to actually have a conversation with him. he's not just some outer being that put the world together and then left us. he's here. he wants to be so near to us that his thoughts are our thoughts, that our hearts beat together. you will never find any human on earth that can love you as unconditionally as God does. that's the dream that God has been putting on my heart--to reach those people who really want more of God but just don't know how to go for it. i want everyone to be fulfilled--to live as dearly loved children of God. to be set free from any and all things that hold you captive. nothing is too big for God. nothing is impossible for him.
i only have 7 days left until i graduate...but i am expecting God to change me more in the next 7 days than he did in the last month. i want to fall so desperately in love with who God is that i am unrecognizable. i want to be wholly His. :)
