Btw, church is about God..

I think I'll write this in purple. 

Recently, my best friend in the whole world (Kellye DeMott) told me her and her family were being called to leave New Covenant and going to Heritage, a church here in Moultrie. And trust me, I was DEVASTATED. I loved that I was guaranteed to see her every week at least once, no matter what. I loved teaching the 3,4 and 5 yr old Sunday school with her, I loved going to worship practice knowing I would get to see my very best friend. And I have loved that for years. Ever since we became friends (whenever it was). 

So I pretty much moped around for a week, cried every time I thought about it, and let myself just bask in the thought of "losing my best friend". That was ridiculous. No, I won't see her at worship practice and get to look over at her when something hilarious happens anymore, And yes, I will have to teach Sunday school to our favorite kids by myself. But I WILL still see her. And I will adjust to teaching alone and keeping my hilarious thoughts to myself.

One night we were texting about how our different church services went and I'm pretty sure we were both crying our eyes out but the next morning she sent me a very long (nothing unusual), very life changing message and here it is...

" Just a reminder that church is about God. I know you know this. But keep in mind that it doesn't, or it shouldn't matter who you're with, how things go, or even how it sounds although we do want to give God the best worship that we can and do everything in excellence. If you're just focused on God, hearing Him, and having an awesome time with Him, you can have the best service of your life by just choosing to focus on Him, worship Him, hear from Him, and have an awesome time with Him. Regardless of what is going on around you. I love you and I don't want this to be hard for you for long. I want you to be able to get everything out of your experiences at church that you can. And I'm not saying you aren't it's just a friendly reminder just in case."

So there's that. Think about it. Why am I so worried about how the music sounds or who will be there? I don't want to serve God unless my best friend there with me? That's harsh, sorry God. Church is somewhere you go to be fed spiritually and to fellowship with other believers. And my job is to serve Him, not to whine about God calling Kellye to greater things. That is exactly what I DO want for her. So what the point I really want to get across is, church is about God. And that's exactly why we should go. Not to please the flesh, but to please the spirit.

This might be very obvious to some of you, but to me it was just what I needed to hear to keep me going. my pray, friends, is that I serve God for the right reasons and that I glorify Him in every season no matter what. Amen.



  

Fasting

So every January my church does a 21 day fast to pray about what God has planned for the new year. Last year I fasted wheat and sugar, and that was awesome. Well.. I mean the results were awesome. And I don't mean physical. It was the first time I had really taken a fast seriously. I had fasted some as a kid just to do it but never really prayed about anything specific. Last year God really showed me some things to improve.

This year I chose to go the media rout. When I say media I mean Facebook, Twitter, any apps on my phone that I would spend free time on. I really don't ever watch tv so that wouldn't help me much but I'll probably try to avoid that as well.

As I was deciding what to fast, I was thinking about what I spend the most time on. The first thing that came to my mind was work. Then school, church, friends, etc.. And obviously I can't fast work or school, though I wish I could. But if I spend so much  of my 24 hours a day on that, why am I not involving God in it? Why do I need to get away from it to spend time with God? Now media is different to me because it is something I choose to spend time on instead of God. But what would my day be like if I woke up and fasted thinking negative thoughts? Or jealousy or selfish motives and replaced it with pure and holy thoughts? What if I woke up and brought God to work with me and spent time with Him there? I think it'd be beneficial to give Him a chance to go to one of my least favorite places and brighten it up for me.

With that being said, my goal is not to only fast what I do in my free time, it's to fast how I spend the time I don't necessarily have free. I also hope this lasts much, much longer than 21 days. Maybe God has chosen January to hold a season of difficulty (with worrying about school and work and pretty much everything else I can think of) cause he knew I'd be fasting. Who knows! There's a lot of things I would like to improve this year and just the way my days go about is an area I know I need His help in.

So pray for me. A Facebookless world is going to be tough. :)