John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him, will not perish but will have everlasting life.

It was 58 years ago this month that I asked God to forgive me of my sin and I accepted Jesus as my Savior.  WOW!  I remember it like it was yesterday!  It has certainly been a journey.  I wish I could say that I served God every day since, but unfortunately my life has been full of ups and downs.  There were years spent serving Him with my whole heart and there were times when out of my hurts I rebelled and chose to try my own path.  (Don’t do that by the way, it’s always much more disastrous than you could have planned)

No matter where I was or what season of life it was, He was always there.  Even during those times when I felt as though I was all alone, I can see that He was there.  There were a couple of times when I got angry with God because I thought He should have “fixed” something or someone and He didn’t and I didn’t understand.  God gives us all a free will to choose who we will walk with, Him or satan each and every day.  He doesn’t make us choose His best and when we don’t, it doesn’t just affect us, it affects all of the people around us.  Yes, God can handle our anger and frustrations, but do you have any idea of how much it breaks His heart when we falsely accuse Him of not caring?  He still loves you deeply and His desire is still to walk with you through every season of life, but He wants you to get to know Him well enough that when life runs you over, you cling to Him instead of getting angry and pushing Him away. When the temptation comes to lash out at God and get angry with Him, stop for a moment and remind yourself of who He is ~ He is a Holy God, He loves you, and think for a moment as well about all He has done for you. It never turned out well for the Israelites when they grumbled against God, just sayin’. It serves no purpose and it certainly doesn’t help your situation to push God away when you are hurting.  If you are hurting, ask Him to help you to draw close to Him and for Him to remove any anger that is building up because of the hurt.  Ask Him to heal your broken heart! Remind yourself that He loves you enough that He was willing to die in order to have a relationship with you!

I am constantly amazed at how much God cares about the details of each of our lives.  There isn’t a moment that He doesn’t see and care, whether it’s a mountain top or a valley.  He wants you to know each and every moment of every day that He loves you and He wants to walk through every moment of your life with you.  You matter!

If you have a loved one who has never accepted Jesus as their Savior I would encourage you to pray for them every day and live a life that will reflect God so they can see the difference.  I have experienced a lot of heartaches and pain and happiness and victories in life and I really don’t know how people who don’t believe in God make it.  What do you do if you can’t pray?  Have you ever been watching a show and when someone was in danger your first thought was to pray for them?  There are people out there who don’t know the Lord, so what do they do when they are sick or in danger or have some fear or heartache?  How sad.  It’s even more sad if we don’t share that we have the answer or if we don’t live a life that reveals that there is something different in us.  

We need to be the light.  What a great time of year to be the light to a hurting and dying world!  Let’s take the time, no matter where we are to be like Him so others will know there is Hope and that He loves them.  Share the love of our Savior who was born and died and rose again to save us from our sin so we can spend eternity with Him.  Be the light He created you to be.  Rely on His strength to carry you through whatever you are facing today as well, knowing that truly His best is yet to come!

Quote:  “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson