Apr. 2, 2008 - What is God doing in your life discussion
Okay for our first discussion and to get things started and get everyone used to commenting and discussing things, let's talk about what God is doing in our lives. Here are some questions to get us started.
- What is God doing in your life right now?
- What do you want God to do in your life?
- What are some ways you can see God working?
- Sometimes we can't see how what we're going through could be right or be God's will until we're past it and we can look back on it, then we see how everything worked out just right, even if it wasn't the way we wanted it to work out. Have you been through one of those times? Or maybe you're going through that right now? Hold to His promise, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)
Comments
Apr. 2, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Reba H.
Boy, it is hard to be vulnerable. Most of the time we are learning something it is that God is conforming us into the image of His son by cleansing us of all our unrighteous habits.
Right now I am learning to stand. In our increasingly wicked world there are more and more things that we must stand against. If we don't then we are declaring that we are for them. Evil has even entered the church and that is the hardest place to speak against it. If you speak against the church then you are considered a blasphemer. If the church brought it in how could it be wrong? The lie is blanketed by a thin layer of truth. That gauze shades the mass fooling men into believing the lie b/c they don't take the time to look into the new thing. But we must, especially when evil pervades the church, stand for truth.
This means that I, we, must know God's word and what it says so that we may be able to see when it is twisted &/or taken out of context.
One of the biggest lies in the church is the emergent church. There is a bit of truth and the outside looks good but its heart is vile and wretched.
Apr. 2, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Meggy T
I recently met a girl a year or so older than me. She was visiting my church and we said a few words. I really wanted her to come back, and I gave her my phone number. She's not the particularly talkative type, and I didn't think anything would come of it, but a couple days later, SHE CALLED! I was like, wow, how unexpected is this? She wanted to come over and hang out. She's been over to my house several times since then, and I don't know if she's really a Christian. She says she goes to church, but she has a sad family life and I'm not really sure what she's thinking about God. I felt like God wanted me to be a light to her, then I stumbled across this verse: "1 Corinthians 4:2 ~ Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." GULP. MUST. I don't even want to know what will happen if I blow this trust! Since then, I've been very careful of what I say and how I act when she is around. If I could get some Jesus Freak Teens to pray for her and for me in regards to her, that would be awesome!!!!
His Kingdom Come! Join the Blog Revival!
Apr. 2, 2008 - discussion
Posted by Sarah435
What is God doing in your life right now?
Lots of things! :) First, I'm learning about how hard surrendering things you truly care about can be. It's really difficult to give to God what you value most...and let Him keep it. I've learned that you can't just surrender something and be done...you gotta keep surrendering it, over and over....and it's hard, all the time. Second, I'm learning to be real with God. I'm slowly getting where I realize that I don't have to have my guard up with God. I can show Him how I'm not perfect-He knows anyway! I can mess up over and over, and still come back to Him. And He still loves me. He still thinks I'm worthy of His Son's death. Wow... Third, I'm learning about studying the Bible...God's really been working on me about and through my quiet times. It's been really good lately.
What do you want God to do in your life?
I want to get back to my "first love" (Revelation 2:4) that I had for Him when I was first saved. I want to be truly on fire for God...I want to be so on fire that people can't talk to me without knowing I'm on fire for God.
What are some ways you can see God working?
God is really working in our church. We're experiencing revival all over the place..it's incredible! Worship has been awesome in youth group lately. I can see Him working in my personal life with some changes I've been seeing in myself, I can see Him working in my friend's lives...it's awesome!
We serve such an awesome God. Wow.
Apr. 3, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Sir Tony
Man, is it even possible to see all of the ways God is working in our lives? I know that God has been molding me, and it's hard to even guess what his plans are sometimes.
I guess right now, God is teaching me patience(and the lessons ain't always fun).
What do I want God to do in my life? That seems to be a kinda self-centered question(maybe not the question, but the answer). Does it really matter what *we* want? We shouldn't be asking what we want God to do, we should be asking what we can do for God(I guess that's another thing I'm learning now). I think the best that we can do is pray and see where God is working and join him in that work.
1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
Apr. 3, 2008 - wow!
Posted by Emma92
Thanks everyone for the discussion response we've had so far. I think this could be really cool.
Reba (Lady), I see what you mean. Sometimes it is the church or the Christians that you have to stand up against, and I think that's harder than standing up to the world. But we have to do what is right and what God tells us to do, no matter what.
Meggy, I know I have been and will keep praying for your friend. Maybe I should make a "special requests" section on the prayer section of the sidebar, to make it easier for everyone to remember. Be strong, and trust God to give you the words to say. He has brought her into your life for a reason, and He won't make you do it alone or leave you unsupplied. I think both you and your friend will benefit from your friendship.
Sarah, you touched on some good things. Surrendering is hard. It's easy to say we surrender something, and it's easy to want God to have His will in your life, but it's hard to truly surrender to the point that you don't care what happens, as long as it's God's will. It's hard to completely let go. And something else God has been working with me on, is not taking for granted what He has done for me. It's so easy, because it's so natural to me.. I've heard it all my life. Like a lot of us, I've grown up in church and heard The Story (that is sticking, Warrior) since I was born from church and from my parents. It's so easy to focus on what I'm going through right now and not think about what He has done for me. He gave His very life for me! I have to be brought back to the basics and realize the extreme sacrifice.
Tony, you are right. Sometimes we can't even see all the ways God is working in our lives. Isn't that exciting? To know that He has a divine plan and knows every detail before it happens?! EVERY detail. That means every conversation you have, everything you do, everything!
My turn. God has really been working in my life, in a lot of ways. I could go on and on, but I won't. But lately (as in, the past year or so) He has brought me so much closer to Him. He has worked through me and in me, and it is so amazing. I get so excited every time He answers my prayers and every time I see a way that He has worked in my life.
I want God to use me. I want Him to show me His will for me. To use my life to glorify Him. To draw me closer to Him. I want to learn to be patient, and for Him to teach me not to try to handle things myself. There are so many areas I am lacking in that I am excited about seeing God work in. But it's not all pleasant, yet He promises that He is sufficient for us, for His "strength is made perfect in weakness".
Feel free to comment back on here and get more conversation going. Thanks guys...
~Emy
Apr. 3, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by SimplePlanSarah
Right now i think God is helping thru many issuses that I have. Im a hot head and i will fully admit it. God is helping to learn self-control and keep my head cool. He helps me thru Bible studies on many ppl who have delt with worse situations and did not grow angry with the ppl who were persucuating them. If I feel myself growing angry I send up a quick prayer to God, so that I wont say the wrong thing to somebody I really care about.
I pray that God will open many doors for me to fulfill my dream of being a nurse at St.Judes. My mom was a nurse for 20 years, she work in nursing homes, and passed the love of taking care of other ppl onto me.
I feel God is working in my life by giving me a mother who has had the exprience to help me and guide me in life. She helps me to understand the right things to do if a bad situation were to come up. God also graced me with a mother who has had the exprience of being a nurse, so that she can help me and train me in the right path to fulfill my dream. I thank God everyday for her!
God Bless You All!
Apr. 3, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Lana, Luke's Lady
Hey, neat discussion going on here. How I love to hear what God is doing! Because He's always doing things, and we can understand so little of it.
Tony, you posed the question, isn it selfish to say what we want God to do in our lives. I don't think that it is exactly selfish. It could be, easily, but it isn't necessarily.
I know that God does say "ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find". We are supposed to ask God for things.
If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then He *will* do amazing things in your life.
Basically, I guess I'm trying to say to seek Him in what you want. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, in fact I think I'm agreeing with you perfectly, little Bro.
Here's the big deal: The Lord wants to bless His people, but He doesn't want to give them second best, He wants to give them the very best - Himself, fellowship with Him.
How Lovely is your dwelling place, Oh Lord Almighty!
What do I want God to do in my life? I want Him to teach me to love Him more and to seek His will. I want Him to shape me and mold me, to refine me like silver.
What is He doing? oh, that very thing, in many different ways. This week, He's teaching me to listen to Him to learn how to help my Luke (my fiance, for those of you who don't know me), and He's also teaching me the meaning of desire. I want to be with Luke, to have complete union with him, and God wants all His people to hunger for Him like that.
Apr. 5, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Of I'll leave a comment.... here is one lol I like this blog. I hope I'll be able to visit it often.
Apr. 5, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by ariannajoy
Of I'll leave a comment.... here is one lol I like this blog. I hope I'll be able to visit it often.
Apr. 5, 2008 - Cha cha cha cha joinin in...
Posted by Luke, Lana's Man
Dude, I likes the discussing, this is flippin sweet...
I think too often we do get caught up in what we want God to do. We begin to treat God like some kind of genie, and we focus on our desires rather than His.
The key, as mentioned by, oh, someone nice, is to truly seek His kingdom first. That means to seek His will first, for His kingdom only advances through His will.
It's not wrong to pray for what we want, but we have to submit our will to God's and recognize that He may not grant our request. Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering would pass from Him, if possible. He knew, though, that it wasn't possible, and so He prayed, "Not My will, but Thine be done."
Apr. 5, 2008 - This might be slightly off-topic...
Posted by Sarah435
"ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall receive."
Lana quoted that verse, and it made me think about wanting God to do things in our lives.
I agree with Lana--I'm not trying to take away anything she said-I totally agree with her!
It brought to mind what Chris said once about asking God for things, (he was using a hunger for God's word in his example) "You can ask God over and over. But you have to work at it too. You have to actually start reading your Bible-God'll give you that hunger if you truly desire it!" Or something to that affect. I think many times we say, "God, I want this." or "God, I want that." And then we go off and forget we even prayed it. We didn't *really* want it. We just asked for it. If we had truly desired it, we would have asked God, and then truly started to work on it, knowing God would come through. Ask a basketball player. :) They have to *really* want the ball-otherwise, it's just running up and down the court, right? If you don't really want the ball, you aren't going to try to get it. I think that applies to our spiritual lives as well. "Ask.....seek..." We have to ask God to work, and then seek.
:) Sorry, that was rather off-topic.
~Sarah
Apr. 6, 2008 - Hey
Posted by RAudrey4595
This is a really cool discussion.
ok, what God's doing in my life: I'm getting back the strength of the fire i had when i first became a christian. he's also shown me that i need to read my bible consistantly (i have, shamefully, neglected that recently.),and that i need to seek his will in all things. i had made all kinds of plans for my life, like "i'm going to be a neurosurgeon when i grow up" which i, actually, decided after playing the new version of LIFE becuase they made the most money in the medical occupation card(or whatever that thing's called). who knows, the desire to be a neuro-surgeon could be from him, and his plan for my life, but for now, i think i'll change the name of my blog. he's showing me other things, too. i'm still trying to analize some of them (in other words, i know he's saying something, but it's not quite getting through my thick skull yet.). basically, i'm trying to do what Grace4God says and let everything be for his glory.
ok, now what i want him to do: i want him to show me his plan for my life. i want to be a missionary or something like that (and go to europe with Sarah435, lol!) but i'm not quite sure how that's going to work out. i read a biography of Amy Carmichael a LONGGGGGGGGGG time ago and i was just SURE that i was called to be a missionary (preferably to india... maybe africa and europe, too......), but i'm not sure about that anymore. maybe i should read the book again. or maybe i should be patient. or maybe i'll do both.
some of the ways i can see God working: oops. i sort of answered that in the first question. oh well.
and for the discussion going on in the comments: i think that God puts the desires of our hearts there for a reason. i think that some things are not what God wants for us, some things aren't from him (like "i want God to make so-and-so break their wrist so I'll make the basket-ball team and they won't."), but most of those things can be identified as wrong by the bible, and if what you want isn't bad or wrong, and you *really* want it, then it's probably from God. Say you've wanted to be a vet your whole life, and you go to college and start to take the classes, but it's not fitted to your personality and interests at all, so you take classes and become the best teacher there ever was. Maybe if you'd done the teaching classes first and never tried the vet classes you wouldn't have reached your full potential as a teacher and always wanted to be a vet, deep down. you wouldn't know that it wasn't for you, and you'd never be totally happy.
that went kind of off subject.... lol!
i'm not sure if that was quite what we were supposed to be discussing, but i made my point. your desires aren't necessarily selfish, they could actually be the farthest thing from selfish.
ok, this was a really long comment. i hope this wasn't all stupid stuff (i bet at least SOME of it was.).
everyone have an awesome day! =D
RAudrey4595
Apr. 6, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Sarah435
Yup, another comment.
Anyways, I was thinking today about what we want God to do in our lives. Yeah, I think we all have goals for our lives, and we can't do it without God! But, think about this for a second...shouldn't we be asking God what HE wants to do in OUR lives? I don't think we should be focused only on what *we* want. I think we should really seek God, and see what He wants to do in our lives. How He wants to change us, shape us, mold us into an image of Himself.
Also (this is off-topic, but I gotta say it!), I was thinking last night about God's love. We can't fathom all of it. It's higher, wider, deeper, stronger (does this sound like a song yet, Emma?) and better than anything we can imagine. And it's for YOU. Wow....
We serve an awesome God!
~Sarah
Apr. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by ChickenGirl
Could I be a part of the group? I'm a teenage Christian girl.
Apr. 10, 2008 - magnificent obsession
Posted by Lana, Luke's Lady
Welcome, chicken girl!
Sarah435 - great thoughts, sis! Esp about desire. Sometimes, people say that they want things, but then do nothing to get it. Or, they do a little, but they obviously aren't working whole heartedly.
and when I see that, I gotta ask: how bad do you want it? what will you do to get it?
How much do you want to be closer to God? what will you do to get closer? what stands in your way? Will you knock that thing out of the way in reckless abandon to get to The Goal?
Will you obsess? Will you hunt desperately?
Will you seek passionately?
Will you sell all your posessions so you can buy the pearl of great price?
Do you just want it, or are you OBSESSED with it?
Apr. 12, 2008 - God
Posted by jenmarie
Welcome ChickenGirl! to the J.F.T.!
What is this world missing? The world is missing God! People don't realize this but that is what they need....
My dad was in Iraq 3 times! I thank God that he is with us now!
# What is God doing in your life right now?
healing my body....get rid of my scoliosis
# What do you want God to do in your life?
to let me see all of the people i miss.....
# What are some ways you can see God working?
he is protecting our troops over seas....protected my father for 3 tours in Iraq.
I don't know about anything much about the Army.....but i do know this God is there for you!
exactly what Lana, Luke's Lady said...people ask the Lord for things but yet they never received it. People don't realize that God doesn't give you something you absolutely want! Like me...i want a horse but i never ask him for it....
God is here for a reason. Someone will have to agree...this world does not see why God came to us and what he wants us to do....Call more to him!
God is very important to us all.....
I can not stay long. I have to go. Welcome again to ChickenGirl!
~Jenmarie
Edited by jenmarie on Apr. 19, 2008 at 9:55 AM
