Singleness. Dependence. Humility. Desire for God. Trust. The Will of God.

Singleness. Dependence. Humility. Desire for God. Trust. The Will of God. These are all things I am experiencing and God is teaching me about them. It is so amazing how although these things are different, they also tie together.

Singleness. I am single right now for a reason. I believe singleness is a gift from God. Right now I need to be taking advantage of every moment I have. God has placed this time in my life where I can experience undistracted devotion to God. Right now my focus should be on the things I know that God has for me. Right now it is serving Him, learning from Him, pouring into others, and seeking Him with all that I have. Singleness is not a restraint. 1 Corinthians 7:34-35 says, “...This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.” This time of singleness should be spent seeking God, serving Him, and preparing ourselves for our future spouse. As for dating... I don't think it's all bad, but I do think it should be extremely thought through. I know that until I am completely satisfied in Christ and I stop focusing on “where that boy is...” God is not going to bring him into my life.

Proverbs 31:10-12 “An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.” This admirable woman does her husband good every day of her life! Not just after marriage, but while she is single! Even before I meet my husband, I am to honor him. This means that when I view any guy I should be mindful of my future husband, whoever he may be. I should view other guys as someone’s potential husband and conduct myself in an honorable manner. Not that I don’t already strive to do this, but it gives me a huge reason and motivation for doing so.

Dependence. This is where I am able to give praise to God! Yes, I am very tired right now and at sometimes just a little stressed. But guess what? God knows! And he is so faithful to be my strength, support, and help! Several times this week, He has surprised me by helping me out with things when I thought I would have to do it all. He reminds me that I need Him. I can’t breathe without Him. God is so amazing… One thing I struggle with is self-sufficiency, thinking that I can do things all on my own, that I don’t need anyone. Sometimes it’s hard to rely on people or ask for help. I feel bad if I ask because I think I should do it all on my own. I don’t know why I find myself thinking like this. It is so untrue. God is teaching me about dependency on Him and Him alone.

Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” The treasure spoken of in this verse is God within us…. The NIV translation calls us “jars of clay.” God wants us and the world to know that the treasure, the power and everything good that flows out of our lives come from Him, not from us. The jar of clay cannot produce water in and of itself; it can only be used to pour out what it has been filled with. God’s treasures flow out of us as we depend upon Him, the source of all good things. (Dependence upon the Lord by K.P. Yohannan)

As a Christ-follower, God is the one pouring into me. I have to go to Him to be filled. So when I am weary, He is the one to fill me up. Total dependence. This thought flows right into humility.

Humility. Before recently, I thought that humility is me saying, “Oh, how lowly am I! I am no better than the scum on the pond!” Okay, that was an exaggeration… But still, humility has been thought of as just thinking of yourself without worth.

We sometimes fool ourselves by thinking we are being humble when we see ourselves in all our failure and repugnancy…. But that inaccurate self-depreciation proves just the opposite. Indeed, in God’s eyes this behavior exhibits not humility, but pride. Why? Because we are trusting our own assessment of ourselves and taking credit for our relative goodness. We are denying God’s longing to be our goodness, our power, our ability, our strength, our healing, and our truth. (TrueFaced by Thrall, McNicol, & Lynch)

The focus is should not be on you. Instead, humility is realizing who you are in Christ and responding humbly. Humility is realizing that we can do nothing of our own, that we are fully dependent on God, realizing that only by God’s amazing grace are we saved, that God has saved the wretch that I am, sanctified me, and declared me as righteous, without condemnation. Humility is living in the reality of what I am, who Christ says I am, and being fully dependent on Him. Christ was a perfect example of humbleness.

John 13:3-5 "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded."

He was King of All, but yet chose to be the least among men. We have nothing except that which is given to us. Our Heavenly Father has given us much and we are to respond with humility, realizing from whom it has been given. This is something we have to repeatedly learn.

Desire for God. We should desire God more than anything else in all creation. After all, He created creation. We should want God and nothing else. When you know God, everything pales in comparison. He should be our ultimate source of satisfaction. We should be so completely consumed and satisfied in Him alone. With God, we have everything. Nothing else will ever compare. I know this. I have seen this displayed time and time again in my life. Yet, there are sometimes when simply do not desire God. But I have learned that in those times, I shouldn’t try to cover up how I feel. I must be honest with myself and God. I have thought that if I don’t “feel” like I desire God then it is my job to muster it all up and grow my passion for God on my own. This is not true. I can’t say to God, “God, I desire you more than anything else! Please take me deeper!” if that is not true! You can’t lie to God! He sees right through it! He knows exactly how you feel so there is no use to hide it. Instead, you must say, “God, I don’t really desire you right now. In fact, there are other things that I want more than you right now. But I know that you are the only one that will ever satisfy me and bring me true joy. Please bring me to that place. Give me a great desire for you! Light the fire within me and help me to seek you with all that I am! I admit that I am weak! Be my strength.” I believe that God is okay with us telling Him that. Besides, He already knows what we are feeling. And I believe God will also answer our prayer. You see, when we admit that we cannot desire God on our own or muster it all up ourselves; it proves our dependence on God and our need for Him! It takes the focus off of us and places it on Him! It is so hard to wrap my mind around this concept. (Intimacy with God by Francis Chan)

Trust. This is something my mind has just begun to scratch the surface of and understand. I've always… well maybe not always… but I've known the importance of how everything is always about God's glory and honor. It's all about His fame and renown. So… in turn, I've thought the most important thing is for my life to honor and please God. That everything I do honor God. I've worried about making the right choices and doing the right things so that I will please God. My main focus should not be pleasing God; instead, it should be trusting God. Pleasing God is all about what we can do for God. The focus then is on us. Trusting God is about relying on God's strength, knowing that we are too weak to do anything on our own. Then, the focus is all on God. When we trust God, we honor Him. It is not about what I can do. It is about what Christ has done and who he has made me; then living out of that reality. Christ has already made the payment for my sin. I have already been redeemed and declared as righteous! I have to trust God with who I am. I must trust Him with my life, my future, everything. I can not be living out of who others say I am or have declared me to be in times past. I have to trust God when He says that I am truly without condemnation! When He says that I am free from all judgment and that I am accepted completely! And no matter what I do will change that. I have to live out of who God, the Giver of Life and Creator of all, has declared me to be! Then I am free to live for Him. No longer striving to please God on my own or make Him happy with me. He is already pleased and delighted with me! It is the most freeing thought! If only I could really grasp this!!! Trust. It is a learning process…

The Will of God. I have thought before that God's will is very specific and if I blink then I might just miss it. But our God is a HUGE God! Why would His will be so small? What if there is a fork in the road and both ways could actually take you where God wants you? What if there were actually options and you get to choose without fear of missing the big picture? What if God was that big? My God is big. There are three aspects of God's will. His providential will: What God is going to do regardless of my choices or involvement. His moral will: Things that God has already made clear that are right and wrong. And… His personal will: personal decisions and plans for my life. Andy Stanley says, "The more familiar you are with the providential will of God, and the more surrendered you are to the moral will of God, the easier it will be to discover the personal will of God for your life." This makes more and more sense the more you soak it all in. Something else… We will not be able to hear God's "yes" until we are willing to hear God's "no."