The Challenge

Wow, where do I begin?

I haven't posted in a while because God has been teaching me so, so many things, and I have had too many thoughts to put into words.

First of all, I have been reading a book called The Challenge. It is so overwhelmingly wonderful! It is about a man named David, as he serves the Lord. Near the beginning, he meets a young woman named Hope and her family. I have learned SO much from reading about the gentle and quiet spirit Hope and her mother have, and I've been in awe of how David and all of Hope's family serves, worships, delights in, and communes with the Lord. The book is a novel, so it's not "real," but the challenges and lessons in it are very real. Christ CAN make me that much like Him!

Jesus has been drawing me closer through so many different things, each and every day. Through reading this book, especially, He has revealed so many new and wonderful things to me! It seems discouraging when, although I know the truth of how to live as Christ would desire me to, I still act so foolishly and fail Him so much. But change is a process, not an event. The purpose of me becoming like Him is not so that I can be proud of myself, or delight in my "goodness," but so that He will be glorified, and that I may know Him more.

So as I continue to fall on my face before the Lord, and He continues to forgive me and pick me up again, I want to day by day be more like Him. I want to be a woman of prayer, communing with Him every moment, and becoming more like Him every day.

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen."
Jude 24-25

(photo credit to Cody for these pictures)