To the Daughters of The Most High God

Women of God,

I have been through numerous relationships where I thought I could finally feel complete. I thought some guy could make me feel like I was loved, important, beautiful, all that good stuff. But what I forgot was that I deserved something special. And so do you. You’re not just any girl looking for any type of guy. You are a beautiful daughter of God. Don’t you think your Daddy in heaven is looking out for you? Not with a shot gun and a “Don’t touch my daughter” look for all those guys that come knocking on your door. But instead, He has an “I love you so much that I gave up My life for you. Trust Me! It’s all in My time. I know what you need and deserve.” He created and molded you. Girls…listen! You are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). He knows you better than anyone.

My mom used to tell me that God had someone special for me and if it was taking long it’s because He was building him into the man He wanted him to be. I would settle for guys that knew God but only so much that it became a flirt to convert mission. Several months ago I came to a realization and I finally came to a point where I had had enough. I told God that from that point on I would leave it in His hands; no more trying to do things my way. I knew that God wanted me to be with someone who feared Him, who lived in a way that honored Him. I realized that in order for God to bless me with the man of God I knew I deserved and that He wanted for me I had to be the woman of God that God wanted me to be. I had to strive to be that woman that God wanted me to be and that that man of God He had for me would need me to be. I knew that I couldn't do it alone though. I asked God for help. I asked for Him to help me heal from the brokenness from my past relationships and I asked Him to break me and mold me into what He saw I could be. I prayed that he would make me into a vessel for Him. I no longer wanted to be what I thought I should be, but instead I prayed that God would reshape me into what He wanted me to be.

God has only the best thoughts towards you (Psalm 139:17-18). A friend reminded me that God doesn’t always give you what you want, but He gives you what you need, and sometimes He gives you both what you want and what you need. God has reminded me of His faithfulness with this new relationship He has blessed me with. I never thought I could be with this awesome man of God, but God knew. A relationship with Christ at its core will be fruitful, blessed, and strong. So I urge you, Women of God, take hold of the One Who loves you most, Who has never failed you and never will. He knows what He’s doing, even if we don’t understand. It’s all in His time.

Read Psalm 139:1-18

Bible Prophecy: Jesus, the Messiah

There are many religious books out there, but the Bible is the only one that contains prophecy that has been fulfilled. The Bible was inspired by God. As seen in the last post, these writers knew things that no man could possibly know unless they were informed by the Creator of the universe. If you read Psalm 22, verses 11-18, it is a detailed description about the crucifixion 1,000 years before Jesus was even born (read also Isaiah 53 and John 19). The Old Testament also says where the Messiah, Jesus, was going to be born (Micah 5:2 and read Matthew 2:1). In the Bible, one of the other prophecies is that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18-25) and be rejected by His own people (Isaiah 53:3).

The probability that 1 man would fulfill even 8 of the prophecies for the Messiah would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That would be like taking 10^17 silver dollars and laying them face up in Texas. That would cover the entire state two feet deep. Now mark one of the silver dollars and mix it in with the rest thoroughly and all over the state. Blindfold a person and tell him travel as far as he wants but he has to pick a silver dollar and say it is the one that has been marked. The chance that he has in getting it right is the same chance the prophets had in writing eight of the prophecies and having one man make them come true. For one man to have fulfilled 48 of the prophecies would be 1 in 10^157 or 1 in (I'm not going to write that many 0's). Consider this: the estimated number of electrons in the universe is 10^79 (Peter Stoner). Jesus fulfilled every prophecy (all except for His second coming, which only the Father knows when it will be-Matthew 24:36)! The Bible is inspired by God. There is no way anyone could have fulfilled all the prophecies. God made sure that the time was right for His Son to be born and He made sure that everything was in order. If one thing went wrong, the whole thing would have failed because Jesus, the Messiah, had to fulfill every prophecy '"to the t" and He did.


References: Gideon's Three Hundred//Tactical Guide; Biblegateway.com; Science Speaks by Peter Stoner; The Bible, NIV.

Devotional

"Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma."

-Ephesians 5:1-2

Have you ever been late to class, like, really late? It's really embarrassing to walk into the class late and all of a sudden, you become the center of attention and all eyes are on you...especially the teacher. The teacher stares you down as you walk into the classroom. You can feel their eyes boring into the back of your head as you walk as quickly as you possibly can to the closest available seat. The worst is when that first available seat happens to be on the other side of the classroom and you have to walk across the professor in order to get to it; or maybe you have not been able to find a seat right away and end up standing at the door for what seems like forever and people are staring you down thinking that you standing there is distracting and incredibly annoying. Or maybe what happened to you is what happened to me today. I walked to class and was almost 30 minutes late. When I got to the door, guess what? It was locked. And I decided that I wasn't going to knock on the door like the doofus I felt like at the moment.

I've felt convicted lately about being late to class or talking to classmates while the professor is lecturing. Sure, the teacher may be boring but I came to school to learn. It must be really hard for teachers to get up in front of other students and to lecture about something, and at the same time try to make it interesting. It doesn't help them when students like me show them that what they say doesn't interest me or isn't worth listening to.

We are called to exemplify the love of Christ everywhere we go, even in the classroom. We are called to be a light that stands out in darkness. That means honoring God in all that we do, even if it is something we don't like doing, like school or work. People are watching you live your life. They see the choices you make. Are we living our lives in a way that others will want to know Jesus? Or are we living our lives in a way that others won't want to know the hope they can have in Christ?

"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,"

-Colossians 3:23

Read also: Ephesians 5:3-21

References: The Bible, NKJV; Biblegateway.com