You're the God of this City

There is no one like our God. Can I get an amen? :)

As I sit here in my room, unable to sleep again at 2am, I decided I should blog. Sometimes, with no reflection upon one's day, we so easily forget how God is at work in everything-things we do not even know and things we can not even see. But He is there, working, preparing, and being ever so faithful to the promises He has made to His children. Now that I reflect back on the day-WOW-has He done so much, even just in the past 24 hours of my life.

I recieved a text message today from a friend. She has recently decided to put Christ back in the center of her life and she is already doing some ROCKING things for the Kingdom. Like so many of us who have gained our faith later in life, she struggles sometimes with people assuming that she is the same person she used to be. When I first decided to follow Christ, and I mean truly surrender my life to His will, it was just a year ago. In the weeks that followed my decision (which is actuality felt nothing like a decision on my own part but instead being handpicked by God to recieve His Holy Spirit) I had to sacrifice many things, one of them being hanging out with friends. Now, I am not saying that you cant have friends who arent believers, and I am not at all saying that being Saved means ditching the people who surround you that need Jesus too. Hear me say that I made a personal decision to stop going to toxic places and surrounding myself with temptations that were only harder on my own walk with God. I was hanging out with a big bar hopping karaoke crowd at the time, and for me to continously turn down offers to go out or hang out with the group that had become like family to me for over a year, probably really confused and hurt them (and for that I am deeply sorry). But to make my point, some of those people as well as many others in my life chose not to see that I was a changed person and insisted on treating me like the same old Meg. The Meg who cussed like a sailor, the Meg who liked to drink, the Meg who was not filled with the Holy Spirit but filled with the brokenness and the anger of someone whom satan had been working on all her life. But I am not that girl anymore. Christ gives me my identity. Nobody else.

The text I recieved today was similar-a girl at work listening to her co-workers talking about affairs and things she in the past had laughed along with. But today, something inside her told her 'This isnt funny. These people are broken and need to be loved on. Are you the girl for the job? Or are you going to sit back and act like I never came into your life and rescued you?' WOW. (Talk about a Holy Spirit nudge right there!)

If you have ever been or are in a situation now where you find yourself getting defeated or frustrated at things in your past coming back to haunt you then just remember that it does NOT matter who people think you are because the Lord in Heaven KNOWS who you are. And your life should be a living testimony to His love for us by how you love on others. Satan loves to make us think that we are not worth it. That we can not be used for ministry because we used to lead jacked up lives. That we will never amount to anything because of decisions we once made. But do you know what? SATAN IS A LIAR!!

Simple as that. Dont listen to the voice in your head, listen to the voice in your heart. The heart that is the dwelling place for the LIVING GOD!

There are a few songs I want to share that relate to the topic of being remade one by tenth avenue north and the other by casting crowns.

"Remade"
You are more than the choices that youve made. You are more than the sum of your past mistakes. You are more than the problems you create. Youve been remade
"Who Am I"
Who am I? That the Lord of all the earth, would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt? Who am I? That the bright and morning star would choose to light the way for my ever wondering heart? Not because of who I am but because of what Youve done. Not because of what Ive done but because of who You are!"

The second thing that happened to me today was a situation with a friend, where God hit me over the head and reminded me that something I was doing was hurtful-completely unintentional, but hurtful nonetheless. As people who love God and follow His will in our lives I feel like it can become difficult in areas where you have to blur lines in order to help. In this particular situation I had a friend confess a hard situation she was going through and immediately wanted to share with another friend-not for gossip sake, but from one prayer warrior to another asking for help. But the friend who confided in me wouldnt have looked at it that way at all because she is not follower of the Lord. In that situation God very clearly told me to apologize to my friend and how I need to watch out for doing things that others did to me when I was not a Christian, things I hated then and now find myself doing to people who were like I was a year or more ago. Funny how God works huh?

The last incident today that really showed me how God is doing SO much more than we know or give Him credit for is the community prayer service held at my church tonight. Spiritual leaders from congregations and denominations all over NEA came to pray for families and marriages and soldiers and the world and churches and everything you could possibly think of. It was beautiful, hearing these men of God asking the Lord to show up in all of these places. I was particularly touched when things were mentioned about churches and spiritual leaders, and prayers were made that they be reminded to that God is in control and not them. So hard I pray that (not just spiritual leaders but) people as a whole could recognize that what we think is important sometimes is in fact, not that important in the grande scheme of things.

In my own life I weigh decisions with "In the grande scheme of things how important is worrying about this fill in the blank issue?" or "Is a new pair of shoes that would make like 50 plus that I own really that important when there are shoeless children all over the world who could use them more?"-that is just the way my brain processes things. So when I sit in church (and not just my own church but churches in general especially in this part of the world) I cant help but deviate from the sermon sometimes to notice the things that seem to be going unnoticed. In the grande scheme of things is a church remodel more important than using the money for more outreach in the community? Well, no not really-because "church" which is really just the body of christ, could be held in a tent for all I care ya now? Is making people feel comfortable while their butts are in the pews on Sunday mornings what is more important? Catoring to the crowd we already have? Well...I would say no, because we are not called to live "radically" we were DESIGNED to BE radical. Always.

The things of this world have so many Christians being lukewarm that sometimes I fear that we have forgotten what it is all about. And we all have moments of this, sure. There are no fingers being pointed here. I just feel like it is a nice reminder for us to put priorities in check and to figure out the things that really need to be DONE and SAID in order to recruit for the Kingdom and show Gods love to others. (Sorry, once Im on my church and religion soapbox it is HARD to get me off)

WRAPPING UP---it was an absolute PLEASURE and BLESSING to have the worship and prayer time with members of the community tonight. I feel like God IS doing something in this city, and if we all work together as one body stripped of denomination and prejudice or grudge or whatever, then we can TRULY Impact this world!

God is not only working in this city, but as you read this He is also doing AMAZING works in your life...works you may not even see for years to come. But they are happening. If you find yourself in a rut, or find yourself being hit over the head by God who is constantly teaching, or if you find yourself waiting for Him to reveal His plans for this city or for your life then stop a second. And REMEMBER that He is a FAITHFUL and GOOD God.

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord "They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with HOPE"--Jeremiah 29:11

In Him
Meg