The Snake's Resoning

I finally figured out how to import this blog into my notes, so if this is the first one you see... go back to the 1st of these and read, it'll make more sense. :)

Elizabeth Elliot talks about a girl she knew who told her once that she was eager to marry a rich man she knew, even though she had been dating another guy. The other guy was handsome, christian, and very interesting to her but because he wasn't weathy she wouldn't even think to marry him. When EE asked the girl why, she replied, "I've been praying for God will for marriage and to give me a rich husband. He'll give it to me because He love me and wants me to be happy." After questioning her some on this subject, the girl got very defensive, saying that it would make her unhappy to marry someone who was poor and that if it was God's will, then He didn't really care about her happiness. It seems silly, huh? She had happiness confused with holiness. Sure, God wants us to be happy, but shouldn't we as christians find the greatest delight of all in following His will for us? So, if the girl in the story was praying for God's will in her life, she would be happy with who ever God chose for her. I think we all forget that too often. We start following ourselves and start allowing ourselves to dictate what we do and do not deserve. We put conditions on our love for Christ, we say, "I'll quit this if you give me that." or "I want this God. Give it to me if you really love me." God is not the blue fairy in Pinocchio. He doesn't give us what we want. We don't know what we want. Today, I want not have to work. If He were to give me that, I'd just be complaining about a lack of salary in about a week. We're greedy little children who, if we got whatever we wanted, would only hoard everything for ourselves and not care about anyone else. Especially in relationships! We start to allow ourselves to think that relationships and marriage are what we need in order to grow. We want that fellowship and closeness with another person, we want to have something that is true and will last forever. We focus, focus, focus on developing a relationship with another person that we begin to igore the real relationship that we need to have. Our love for others only comes from an overflow of our love for Christ. God is love. It's the ultimate chick-flick love story of sacrificing ones self for someone else. How much more do you want than that? Forget what the world says about needing someone to be happy, they just lie. Even in a good relationship, getting that close to someone can hurt. I've never felt worse than watching Josh leave for 3 months. Talk about rip my heart out and smash it. He does stupid things and I do stupid things were we're just angry with eachother and I've never met anyone who can make me cry like he does. In the end, he's still amazing and he's more than I could have ever asked for. There isn't a cm of doubt in my mind that God didn't put us together, we sure wouldn't have ever dated if it was left to us. Anyway, all my rambling leads to this: it was only after I sought after God's will for my love life that I got the person who is everything I could want. Even better, our relationship makes me want to focus more on Christ, because that's the only way it's going to get better. The longer you make yourself follow God, the more you'll find yourself wanting to. It becomes habit, it becomes a desire and not something you have to do.

Does God Want Everything?

First off, I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to sit down and read.

Secondly, I've been sitting at my computer writing a million drafts of this post, and I just don't know what to say. I've got writers block, bad. So, I'm just going to leave quotes that I liked and maybe I'll finish this tomorrow or so.

"the fair new petals must fall, and for no visible reason. no one seems enriched by the stripping. and the first step into the realm of giving is like a surrender- not the manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. so long as our surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for "no polluted thing" can be offered. the life lost on the cross was not a sinful one- the treasure poured forth there was God-given, God-blessed treasure, lawful and right to be kept: on that there was the life of the world at stake." -Lilias Trotter, Parables of the Cross

"He gives all. He asks all." -p&p

"but the question to precede all others, which finally determines the course of our lives, is What do i really want? [Is] is to love what God commands, in the words of the collect, and to desire what He promises? Did i want what i wanted, or did i want what He wanted, no matter what it might cost? until the will and the affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone accept, His Lordship." -p&p

"if my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad." -Ruth Stull, chapel speaker