BAM! BAM! BAM!

Stacy and I were sitting in my brother's room the other night talking. I saw The Purpose Driven Life, Selected Thoughts and Scriptures for the GRADUATE (Rick Warren), sitting on his bookshelf. We each got a copy of this little devotional type book when we were seniors at Church, moving on to the next step in our lives. As a church body, a couple years back, we were encouraged to buy the Purpose Driven Life book... we would read it during the week, speak on it during Sunday school and then our Pastor would bring a sermon on Sunday morning. The book was created to last for 40 days, so we started this little journey. I believe i was a Junior or Senior in high school whenever our church was studying this book. I remember liking it and even lending it to 2 friends to read, but it wasn't a book i would go through again. Atleast right now the desire isn't there! Honestly whenever i got this little devotional book written by Warren, i never even opened the cover. It looked exactly the same as the book, only smaller, and my heart i guess wasn't in the right place.... All of THAT to say, this particular night i got up and flipped open the book to read the first page. I guess i was just curious... Despite my old attidue and feelings toward this book, I haven't forgotten what i read that night - it's stuck in my brain... and not only that but so much has related to those few little sentences on that one page. I know everyone has heard it, but it's again just one of those times where it hit Home and the meaning took ahold of my heart in a different way than it ever has before. Here is what the page said (and i quote):



Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won't discover your life's meaning by looking within yourself. (here is my favorite part... you ready?) You didn't create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for! You must begin with God, your Creator. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny.



It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone's life is in his power. Job 12:10



I like, no not like, LOVE the way that it says ' you can't look within yourself ' I have lived too long trying to go through my day and do things on my own... i will have a bad attitude or doubt or whatever... and be like, no megan be nice, you can do this, you can believe this. You can talk to yourself over and over and hope that one day something inside of you will change, but it'll never work... 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, 'And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.' It is ONLY by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can be changed... I love hearing Him called, Creator. and i can't state it any better than Warren did, when he said 'we can't tell ourselves what we were created for.'

A few weeks ago i found this in Acts - The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.... he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. (17:24-28)

That one got me the night i read it - i was like seriously? MAN! Our God is Soveriegn, and He is SO in control!!!

I started reading John Piper's, Don't Waste Your Life, yesterday afternoon. In the opening section of the book, this is what he said -

"You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Piper states that he wrote this book to help us taste these words as sweet, instead of bitter or boring. He also says that it was not always plain to him that pursuing God's glory would be virtually the same as pursuing his joy. He believes that millions of people waste their lives because they think these paths are two and not one. I agree with him, i've even been guilty of thinking that.... i mean i guess i knew that there was joy in the Lord (especially serving Him and being apart of furthering His kingdom), but i don't know... I just felt like i wasn't good enough, or no matter how hard i tried i could never reach what these other people were experiencing. i just never let go enough and trusted him to have control of my life.

I sat down and went over one of Beth Moore's, Stepping Up, devotionals for today.... the theme for today was Vain Labor. The main passage we were studying was Psalm 127. This is the passage that says 'unless the Lord build's a house, the builders labor over it in vain...' She took us to many other verses in the bible that confirmed that unless we are working and living for the Lord, EVERYTHING we do is in vain... meaningless... as Ecclesiastes 3:11 says it.

i really find this all exciting because i keep running into all of these passages and they are all linking together. I have to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and nothing else inside of me....The Lord is my Creator, and only He can tell me what He has created me to do.... if i seek Him, He will reveal His plans for my life to me... then I will live out my purpose, glorify Him, and experience His joy! ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!! Talk about killing tons of birds with one stone! anything else that i 'try' to do with my life will be in vain, it won't amount to anything. He is the only person who knows the future - He has set it in place (He knows who we'll marry, what job we'll have, where we'll live).... I'm thinking I should call on Him more often for directions!

Once again, i feel super excited about something.... i want to share it, in a way that you will feel the joy and excitement that is inside of me.... but i don't feel like i've done that. I know this is so simple and we've heard it all of our lives, but i love it when you feel like the Lord is speaking something specific to you.... you know the feeling, every book you open reiterates the same thing over and over, or you see the SAME EXACT verse everywhere you look... I love it that we can't run from God. He just hits us from all directions! I'm just excited that i'm seeking the Lord, and i'm seeing Him speak back... i have longed for that for SO long that tears still fill my eyes as i type this.... I want that Voice of Truth so bad! I want to recognize it over anything else in my life... i want to die to myself, and live for Him... i want to find the simple things beautiful... i want less to be more... i want HIM! O i can't express it!!! Life is turning for me, and frankly even though i'm very scared and having a hard time, i am learning what it is to be strengthened in the Lord. I don't believe i have ever been this strong before, but it's not me, it's the Lord... i want more of that! I will make it through this - Malachi 3:10 "Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if i will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

I love you Lord! You amaze me when you speak... i long for more! Continue to flood my heart with Your desires and Your Truth. Amaze me with who You are, and how you can change even me... I am SO thankful for You and Your goodness! I am learning Father, thanks for not giving up on me! - me. Open my eyes that i may see wonderful things in your law. Psalm 119:18