Something I have learned recently is that as believers, we often go through so-called "seasons" in our relationship with God. There will be seasons where we feel very clear about where the Lord is calling us and we are passionate about submitting ourselves to His plan. There will be seasons where we experience immense heartache or suffering and God is the only thing that we have to cling to. There will be seasons where God is just rocking our world with one blessing after another and everything seems to fall into place. Unfortunately, there will also be seasons where we try to do life on our own or cannot seem to turn away from a certain repetitive sin. There will be seasons where we have grown to be content in our relationship and can't seem to find the passion to reach for more. Sometimes these seasons will only last a few days or weeks and sometimes for a year or longer.
The point is that we, as humans whose attitudes and moods are constantly affected by the craziness of this world, waver in our relationships with Christ. But He never ever ever changes. From the time our God created the universe and breathed life into man, to when He sent His only Son to carry the burden of our sin, to this very second, He has remained the same. His power has not strengthened nor weakened over time, His love for us has not increased nor decreased, His creativity and His beauty has not faded. He is the God who was and is and is to come. He knew the plan for this world and for every single person in it before it all came to be. And this is why He is the strongest foundation to build our lives on.
Reading stories like Jonah and the whale, or Noah's Ark, or the parting of the Red Sea, it was always hard for me to comprehend that the same God who worked all of those miracles is the same God who loves me today. Those stories seemed ridiculous to me and I never thought that miracles like that could still happen today. Obviously God is not going to flood the whole earth or part a sea any time soon, but He is working miracles all around us that make it so difficult for us to deny His power. Let me just describe to you a few of the miracles I have gotten to witness recently...
A few weekends ago my church did a three-weekend long series called "Unashamed." In this series, people who had committed their lives to Christ but had not been baptized yet were challenged to get baptized in order to show the world that they are unashamed that their heart belongs to Jesus. The cool thing was that people could get spontaneously baptized along with the people who had already signed up in advance to get baptized. There ended up being 842 people baptized at the three campuses of my church over just two weekends! It was truly a miracle that God was able to speak through our pastor to that many people, and that all of those lives were forever changed in just two weekends. Getting to play the honorary role of a "towel girl," I had the privilege of getting to see people's immediate joy when they came out of the water and I got to personally congratulate all those who took this next step with Christ. The most special part of the experience for me, however, was watching my little brother and parents get spontaneously baptized. They were there to support my sister and I when we got baptized so it was amazing to get to be on the other end and support them. I consider a miracle in itself how much God has moved in my family, individually and as a whole.
"This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River." Mark 1:4-5
In the same way that God spoke through John the Baptist to the people of Judea and Jerusalem, convincing them to repent of their sins and get baptized on the spot, God worked the same type of miracle at my church. It's so beautiful that the stuff we read about in the bible is happening today and God is using people like you and me, even if it's just as a towel girl, to play a part in His miracles.
This past Wednesday FCA's annual "Fields of Faith" was held at Texas Tech's Jones AT&T Stadium. Thousands of middle school and high school students from all different churches and schools in Lubbock and the surrounding areas came to worship and to hear students, athletes, and pastors give their testimonies. When the last speaker was finished he called for every student who wanted to commit or recommit his/her life to Christ to come down on the field. There have been at least a thousand kids receive the gift of salvation that night but the even cooler part was the way the other kids in the stands cheered and even shed tears for their new brothers and sisters in Christ. Thousands being saved in one night is no doubt a miracle, but it doesn't stop there. The fact that a bunch of students from competing schools, belonging to different groups of friends, all involved in different activities could come together and lift praises up to Our Father in a division 1 football stadium is also a beautiful miracle and proof of God's glory.
Whatever season you are going through in your spiritual life, I hope you are encouraged by the fact that God never changes. He never gives up on you and never changes His glorious plans for you, no matter how much you drift from Him. He makes all things work together for your good! No matter how messy your life is, He wants you to play a part in the miracles He is making happen today!
Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:17
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8
Pictures of each of my family members being baptized
My sweet family
My friend, Georgia Beth, also got baptized! So happy for her :)
All the kids who were saved at Fields of Faith
My friends and I at Fields of Faith
