Take Heart - Hillsong United
Slight case of rambling and
"I've-been-too-busy-to-blog,-but-I-so-need-to-right-now".
Sorry in advance.
So I just got back from BCM. At BCM, which stands for Baptist Collegiate Ministry, we have these groups that meet after BCM that are called Community Groups. And my Community Group has been great and all, but if I can be human and real for a moment (not that my being human is any kind of excuse), I admit that I wasn't as excited about BCM as I usually am.
It's been a stressful week and I know that I shouldn't let that win over the power of Christ, but if we're still being honest, it's so hard sometimes.
So I laugh at all of this when I say that we just happen to be starting our new series on the book of James tonight. And we just happen to be reading James 1. And we just happen to focus a lot on James 1:2-4.
It just happened, of course.
James 1:2-4- "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Now, I can highlight and love these verses and quote these verses to no end, but it gets really hard to adore my trials when they are bombarding me, begging me to stumble and fall into them.
You can't achieve spiritual maturity without developing steadfast perseverance. And you can't achieve perseverance without rejoicing in your trials.
We have to take heart in the fact that all our troubles, all our fears, He has overcome. The grave is empty. Jesus has risen, death has been beaten. And we are victorious in the Lord, Jesus Christ.
What we see as the end of the world has already been overtaken. It's done. It is finished.
This speaks volumes to me. I always need to hear this and remind myself of this and come back to this.
We also focused on the idea of community tonight. God blew my mind on this one. Friends, roommates, leaving my friends and family, meeting people- all of these things terrified me whenever I thought about moving to Anderson.
But I can't do it alone. I never could. Now, I don't just mean God and I, but people. I need friends to hold me accountable, to keep me on track, to encourage me, to comfort me, to build me up.
In every way and in every light, the Lord is showing me that Anderson was absolutely the right decision, as if I needed anymore proof. We are the body of Christ and we all bring different things to the table, but we are one and we are a community united for His glory.
How awesome is that?
We are all so different, but as Christians, we are all so the same.
The Lord is good, I'll say it until He calls me Home. He is good, He is faithful, He is sovereign, and He has overcome.
Exodus 14:14-"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."
Romans 8:31-37-"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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