Remember when I asked you for these things?

 

One year ago, I turned 21 and made a pledge to abstain from alcohol on my twenty-first birthday. I wrote a blog post “Giving Twenty-One its Dignity Back” sharing the reasons for my actions: (http://emmylou002.blogspot.com/2014/01/giving-twenty-one-its-dignity-back.html).

Most of my blog posts receive anywhere from 80-130 views. This blog post received 483 views.

Now, you must understand, as a writer knowing that people are interested in your writing is like THE GOLD of it all. It’s a really good feeling – like when your kindergarten teacher holds up your work and says “Great work Sally-Jo! Class, look here, this is a great example of coloring inside the lines”. And there is Sally-Jo, pigtails and all, sitting at her wooden desk grinning from ear to ear – can’t wait to tell her Mom about this.

FAR beyond the magnetism I have to writing, it excites me to know that people are hungry. Not in the sense that yogurt with bananas sounds pretty yummy right now but a spiritual hunger.

People are drawn to light, where there is no darkness.

The word of God sheds light on this earth: “The light shines in the darkness and darkness has not overcome it” John 1:5.

 In “Giving Twenty-One its Dignity Back” I said:

“I pray twenty-one greets me with a new fire in seeking Him, in stepping out and speaking up. I pray 1 Timothy 4:12 over twenty-one, which states, ‘Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity’.”

How many know that when we ask our Father in Heaven for things, he gives them to us?

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; 
knock and the door will be opened to you” Matthew 7:7.

HOW BLESSED ARE WE?

My Father in Heaven hears me when I pray (1 John 5:14), he answers my call (Matthew 21:22) and gives me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). 

Over the past year, God has definitely ignited me with a new passion in seeking Him. It is embarrassing as Christians to confess that we don’t enjoy reading the Word (or that we rarely/never do). If we pray, we feel nothing and the circumstances we pray for seem to remain unchanged. 

Let me encourage you, these battles are real and we all will face them. I did and still do.

Ask God for a fresh revelation of who He is.

 Once God reveals, even just a small glimmer of his majesty, we can’t help but worship Him and seek Him more and more. There are still “dull times” in prayer, and sometimes I get distracted by my own thoughts about food, piles of dirty laundry, stacks of untouched homework, or the fact that I haven’t worked out in like… a day. I know these are reeeeeeeally pressing things for a young and reckless individual such as myself. 

            God has revealed to me in the past year that everything is His, including “my own” reputation. Proudness and popular-people-pleasing-ness were poisonous to my relationship with God. Giving up our reputations is a choice that must be made daily.   God has purified me, he sees me white as snow (not just because my skin is that color…on the outside ;) but because he views me with the lenses of Jesus – in pure love and perfection.   

            In the unsophistication of twenty-two, I am asking God to reveal what it means for His name to be kept holy in my life. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, the first line stated is “Father, hallowed be your name… “Luke 11:2. First and foremost, Jesus sees the urgency for God’s name to be holy in our lives. I pray that God reveals what this means in every area of life, including my thoughts and emotions. What does it mean for Gods holiness to wash over every area of our lives, revealing all hidden agendas and impure motives?

            As graduation from college is about a block away from knocking on my front door, I’m amped (and terrified) to allow God to lead me in peace and purpose for His namesake. I pray that my future is not motivated by worldly plans but motivated by the faith that comes with the riskiness of walking on water- to set myself up for the glory of God to be revealed.

I trust that every person reading this will be encouraged.

 Believer or non-believer.

You are so precious. Your life is a gift.

Lastly, I want to thank the brothers and sisters out there that run with me in this race of life and faith.

 Your friendship is worth far more than rubies.