Never Give Up

So...wow...it's almost been a month since I've written a post.  I could give you a long list of excuses as to why, but I'm committed to being honest on here so the bottom line is...I messed up. Not sure who reads this, but for those of you who do, I'm sorry. Something I have realized in the last month is that you can get to a very bad place in a hurry. One minute you can be right where you know God wants you to be, and the next...BAM...you are right back where you started. Why is that? Well it happens when you take your eyes off of the Lord. You focus on the problems instead of God. Let's take Peter for example in Matthew 14:28-31.

"28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' "

Peter was walking on the water! But notice in verse 30 where it says, but when he saw the wind he was afraid. He took his eyes off of Jesus. He saw the wind and waves and focused on that instead of Jesus. That's what I did. I took my eyes off of God. I started looking at my circumstances. Just the stress of the day to day. My kids. My marriage. My lack of self control. The overwhelming task of losing weight. Why do we focus on all of the craziness of life? I have a God that is SO powerful! We need to lift up our eyes and focus on God because the moment we take our eyes off of Him, chaos and despair will soon follow. For me I need to focus on the bigger picture. Being a Christian should mean that we have something that non-Christians don't. When people look at me, they should see a difference...if they don't then I'm doing something wrong. There are SO many people that say that they are Christians, but they don't have any joy and they are filled with so much hate. They are acting the same way that everyone else does. There is no difference and that's a big reason why people say that they want nothing to do with God. It's the hypocrisy of it all. People now associate Christians with bigotry, hatred, and judgement. This is not how it should be! We should be treating others(especially non-Christians) with love. We claim to love God, but what do our actions say? We need to live our lives in a salty way. Here's what I mean by that. Matthew 5:13 says

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."

Salt makes people thirsty. So we need to salt our speech and our actions...make people thirsty for God. Otherwise everything we do is in vain. If the salt loses it's taste, it isn't good for anything. If we are going to claim to be a Christian then we need to be authentic. It's hard, but being authentic is the only way to live your life in a way that draws people TO God, not away from Him. So I'll leave you with the mission statement I learned on my first mission trip and may we strive to adhere to it.

"Today I will live honorably through my thoughts, actions, and speech. I choose to be full of faith; I will not only be a hearer, but a doer of the word of God. I will serve before I demand, I will love and not hate, I will give before I take. Today, I choose to make a difference in this world & be a part of something bigger than myself. I choose to dedicate my life to prayer and ask God for His miraculous power and the courage to do the impossible. I will make Godly relationships a priority in my life as I esteem others higher than myself. Today I will live my life in such a way that I WILL CHANGE THE WORLD!"

In Christ,

Summer