Anything but God

Today I just want to share a piece of my heart with you. I’ll try to make it short, but stick with me. In the past few days I’ve been talking with a couple friends about music. I’ve talked to many and I had the idea when I was in middle and high school that what I listened to didn’t really affect me. And I wasn’t talking about the difference between secular and Christian music, but I was talking about the difference between a song that leaves you feeling depressed and a song that makes you excited about life and following after God. I used to listen to music when I was angry that allowed me to stay angry instead of dealing with my problems. But I’ve realized that putting on some worship music or turning to the Lord helps things so much more than ignoring them.

I realized something in talking with one of my friends though. While I don’t want to listen to music that’s going to leave me feeling down, it’s far more than that. Everyone has their thing. There is almost the idea of, “I’ll run to anything and anyone but God first, and then I’ll go to Him if nothing else works.” When we get stressed out or upset, we all have our thing that we want to turn to. For some it’s food, for some it’s music, for some it’s a smoke here and there, for some it’s drinking, for some it’s coffee. Some people run to a friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, pastor, or parent (which aren’t necessarily bad). But when these things become our release of pain and stress before God, it’s not a good place to be. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for having good relationships withe friends and family. But people can fail you in one way or another. The only thing that remains constant is the Lord. So my challenge is that we take a look at our lives and ask what we’re putting before the Lord and what we’re using to release our stress instead of running to Him. Be open to anything He might be showing you and see what happens when you put Him first.

Hebrews 12:1-2a

Hebrews 12:1-2a (NLT) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

I was reading this a couple weeks ago and was wondering what was in my life that was holding me back or slowing me down. I think my many times we just fall in to the day to day activities of life and don’t realize we are unconsciously falling in to a way of life that pulls us back from the Lord. Maybe we are making poor decisions in our lives. Or maybe it is not having a dedicated time with the Lord each day, in which we hear from Him and let Him speak direction in to our lives. But many times, we start falling in to activities or friendships that are pulling us down.

The thing that sticks out about this verse is that it’s not a thing where suddenly we do better. We can’t force ourselves in to changing our lifestyle. The point of this section of scripture shows that the sin does trip us up easily, but to get away from it and to run after what God has called us to, we have to keep our eyes on Him.
I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord today. Don’t put it off. Even if it’s five minutes to connect...start making steps toward keeping your focus on the Lord. I once heard a guy by the name of Bob Mumford say that the more time you spend getting to know the Lord and be with Him, the less desire there is to sin. Keep pressing in to Him with everything inside of you. Stay in constant relationship and get to know Him better. And surround yourself with those who are also pressing in to the Lord with everything in them.

This is Me

So, a lot of people around me have got into blogging. I'm not sure I'll update it that often. I love to write, but not always to share with everyone. But if nothing else, maybe I'll share some songs I write and stuff.
~Lisa