Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. -Romans 12:9

Such a simple truth. This is something I pray for ALL the time, that I would completely hate my sin. I think that so often, we get complacent with our sin, and we tell our friends to pray for us because we are “struggling” with something. NO! My sin nailed Jesus to the cross! How in the world could I ever become complacent about it, and call it a “struggle”?! I pray that God would constantly reveal to me my sin. Sometimes he does it in nice ways through the loving rebuke of a friend, and other times, I get caught in my sin, and it hurts! But God does that to sanctify me! And if I truly am living for him, I should be BEGGING him to reveal to me my sin daily. And when he does, I need to take that sin, be completely and utterly DISGUSTED by it, and kill it and make sure it never creeps up again. THAT is true repentance, and true sanctification! If we don’t feel that way about our sin, where we HATE it so much, then we don’t understand God, and we don’t understand the gospel.

God, give me a HATRED of my sin! Help me to not allow anything to enter my mind that is not of you. Reveal to me CONSTANTLY my sin, and help me to hate it and fight it every day of my life, so that I can present myself to you HOLY and BLAMELESS on the day that you return!

The Only One That Satisfies

Sometimes I feel a lot like the Woman at the Well. She came to the well probably daily to get water for her and her husband. But on one ordinary day, she met Jesus. In John 4, Jesus asked this special woman for a drink. She responded surprised that Jesus would ask her of such a thing because she was a Samaritan woman. He then explained to her something so profound...

John 4:13-15~

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” This woman came to the well everyday to feel hydrated everyday. Water will only hydrate you for so long. She realized this when Jesus gave her the option of looking to HIM rather than the earthly things to satisfy her. They will only satisfy temporarily... but He satisfies for eternity.

I used to have a lot of issues with finding satisfaction in the wrong things. Before I was a Christian I searched and searched for places and people that I could get happiness and joy and satisfaction from, but, (no surprise), none of those things seemed to ever fully fill me up. Then I met Jesus. Then I met the one who is always there, never changes or turns, the one who SAVES, the one who has become God in the flesh and experienced temptation, the one who has all the power in the world, and the one who answers prayer. And I realized…how could I ever look anywhere else? How could some earthly being or some popularity or lots of money ever complete me the way Jesus did? There is no joy apart from him. There are no actual pleasures that he did not create. There is nothing on this earth compared to what he gives me!

After I was saved, the devil totally used my past against me. He knew that I had a past of searching for my joy in other people and in popularity, so he took that old habit and used it as temptation. And he still continues to do that!

'But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."' 2

Corinthians 12:7-9. But it is verses like these that remind me that God used those things I have looked for in the past to find satisfaction for his glory. They humble me and remind me to fall on my knees at the feet of Jesus and say that I cannot find satisfaction in anything else but him! His grace covers the times where i DID NOT look for satisfaction in him, and he is glorified in that!

But finding satisfaction in Christ alone is easier said than done. It comes with a High View of God--knowing that he is the only one that will be faithful always, powerful always, and always there. It comes with falling down on my knees daily and realizing that there is None but Jesus and that there is nothing I can do and nothing I can find in this earth that will give me the ultimate satisfaction that Jesus alone gives. All the trials and troubles and hardships we all have to come in contact with in this world are NOTHING compared to what Jesus gives us! In HIM I am satisfied.

John 16:33~

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Psalm 4:7~You have put more joy in my heart

than they have when their grain and wine abound.

The Proverbs 31 Woman...NOW!

Proverbs 31....

10 An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

AHHHHH MY FAVORITE CHAPTER OF ALL TIME! I’m pretty sure I could write a blog on every single verse in this chapter that describes a woman after God’s own heart. But the one I know that has stuck out to me in the past sermons that Bobby has done in God Calls it Love and in Christa’s series on Super woman is verse 11.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.

There are so many applications to this verse! There is the fact of AFTER we are married, that are husband needs to be able to come home from work each day and trust that the normal household duties will be done. Like verse 12 says, "She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life." He needs to trust that she did not sit around all day with a bag of chips in idleness, but rather valued her duty as a helper to him and made sure that dinner was on the table when he gets home. That is just one of the applications we can get from this verse as a homemaker. And many other verses not listed above (but in Proverbs 31) talk about the wife's job as a homemaker-to take care of her husband and children. Another blog on that coming later (:

The other application, and my favorite (because we can be working on it daily right NOW) goes with the amount of energy that we as teenage girls put towards the acceptance of other guys around us. Our culture today pushes girls to want to be fully accepted by guys. Girls today all want to be called beautiful by as many guys as possible and have that satisfaction that they think they can get out of leading as many guys on as possible. I know that I have definitely fallen into that trap before of wanting acceptance from guys. But God TOTALLY thinks the opposite! God wants a young woman walking around radiating CHRIST! And fearing him with every decision she makes and every thing she does and says. He could care less how many guys think she’s gorgeous. In fact I’m sure he frowns upon that because it causes vain motives in girls! He would so much rather see a woman fearing him in her everyday life-and we know that he calls THOSE kinds of girls beautiful! I want to make sure that I am not running after that kind of approval from guys. And I can totally be preparing myself NOW for that! I can’t expect myself to change and stop flirting with guys and wanting their approval the day I say “I do.” That is definitely something I can’t procrastinate on. I need to be praying daily that God would satisfy that desire in me for approval from guys and fill it with himself! That I would only desire HIM!

I need to make sure that my husband has no doubt or worry in his mind that the days he doesn’t make it to church, I’m not twirling my hair flirting with 5 guys and having vain thoughts in my head about how many of them I can get to flirt back with me. That is so wrong for so many reasons! A) According to this verse, it shows a sinful woman! B) For my boyfriend at the time (hopefully my husband later), I need to have him in mind! And C) Because that is such a horrible thing to want to be attractive for. I want guys to see me in True North RADIATING the fear of the Lord and THEN find me attractive. I want them to be attracted to that and NOT the way I look. What an amazing chapter and such a great reminder of how I need to be living as a godly woman! Definitely something I need to be working on NOW!

My Reason to be Joyful

Psalm 28:7- The Lord makes me strong.  He
is my shield.  My heart trusts in him and he
gives me help. Now my heart JUMPS FOR JOY
and I will thank him with my songs. 

I'm a happy person.  I don't get depressed too often.  But there are certain things that make me joyful.  Certain things that make me smile.  I love my friends.  Weekends are the best parts of my weeks (obviously...) because I get to have fellowship with them.   I love listening to other people talk.  I love to talk too, but I would rather hear someone else talk about what God has done in their life. Being around people makes me happy. But there is one thing that makes me more ecstatic than ever.  One thought that pops into my mind that overcomes all thoughts-- one of the precious blood of Jesus and how, with that, I can overcome.  

On SOTD today, there was one specific Proverb that God revealed to me.  

Proverbs 29:6 An evil man is ensnared in his transgression,

but a righteous man sings and rejoices.

Our price is paid. Jesus has paid the debt we owed IN FULL!  There is nothing that makes me more happy to think that I can stand before the Judgement seat of God someday and be able to point to Jesus standing somewhere near and say, "HE PAID FOR ME."  That I can know that God won't even look at my life and what I've done.  And how much I've screwed up.  The ONLY thing he will see is the perfect blood of Christ covering my horrific sin.  THAT is something to be joyful about.  That so many before me will walk up before the throne of the Living God and beg and plead and hope that the life they lived was good enough.  But I will stand before him KNOWING that my life doesn't measure up.  But that the precious blood of the lamb that was slain covers my sin.  

As a wise man once said, "Grace isn't an excuse to sin, but it is the POWER not to sin!"  So many people these days believe that Jesus' blood covers their sin, but that means they can do it as much as they please.  This is a sad lie that many people are being fed.  1 Corinthians 5:17-- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  We have no excuse to live as we once lived!  As a great song once said, “Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me!” I have that hope as a Christian.  A hope that states that I have someone, but not just someone, but the ALMIGHTY GOD, in fact, that has my back when temptation is shooting at me in every direction. When I want to gossip.  When I want the approval of others.  I have the hope that he will protect us from the devil and his scheming ways.  I have someone fighting with me against the power of sin! We have a reason to be joyful! 

There is nothing that compares to knowing that I have been bought at a price with the precious blood of Jesus!