You know what?  Sometimes Scripture can be so refreshing.  Why?  Well, it's nice to know that at least one thing I can count on to be absolutely true and absolutely from God.  Let me explain.  I've been reading this book lately that is dealing with some Christian ideas that I don't agree with and are making me struggle a little.  The guy was just making some assertions about Scripture and the Christian life which I wasn't sure was true, but I really couldn't confirm it or anything.  I've got all this information thrown at me and I had been just getting overwhelmed with not knowing the truth!  I also struggle with this when I'm not sure if God is telling me something or not.  It's so subjective and it sometimes seems like I just can't handle it!  "Ahh!!!!"  I scream in my head.  But, you know what I can do?  I can go to God's Word and it's so comforting.  When everything else seems unstable, I know that God's Word is as stable as it can be.  I can go to it (and I can go to Him) and all my jumbled up thoughts and feeling seem so small and not so jumbled up anymore. 
   Who is God?  Well, you know who can tell me that?  God can, cause I have a relationship with Him.  Who is God?  Well, you know what can tell me that? God's Word, because He gave it to us as a gift, as a tool to reveal to us so much about Himself and about  His will.  And, of course, God does speak apart from Scripture to me and to all Christians.  And yes, I will gain a lot of truth from reading other things apart from Scripture, but it is Scripture that I can count on to be completely solid and true.  When all my other thoughts and beliefs are being challenged and seem all jumbled up, Scripture is there to provide me with the truth I need.  Am I making any sense at all?  If not, it may be because I've been awake for almost sixteen hours today.  But, if you can gain anything out of this post, it's to be ever so thankful that God has given us His Word, which we can KNOW is true.  Never ever give it less attention than it deserves.  t's so good and we all need to strive for that because if we don't know the truth that God is speaking to us, then how are we going to be able to combat falsity?  We aren't.  So, just cherish God's Word and read it often!  It's such a blessing to have something so true and stable.     

Anyone here stressed about something?  Anyone here worrying about anything or anyone?  Anyone here anxious about anything?  Boy, I sure get that way sometimes.  It makes me so tense when I am expected to do something and I don't quite know how to do it.  We all get worried and anxious about things sometimes.  "What do those people think about me?  Oh, no, do any of my friends really like me?"  or, "I know I have to do this, but I don't know how!"  or, "Is God mad at me?  Do I have unconfessed sin?!"  or, "Am I supposed to witness to this person?  I don't know how!  And what if I mess up?!" or, "I'm about to graduate and I don't know what to do or where to go!  What is God's will for me?"  We all have these things that just stress us out and make us anxious and worried.  I have a presentation due in a couple of weeks that is stressing me out because I'll be saying some things that some of the audience may not like, and I don't want to offend anyone.  It's hard not to feel anxious sometimes.  And you know what?  If you really admit it, it can really feel good to be anxious.  Woe is me, woe is me.  There are some people who go through their entire life feeling anxious and stressed and worried.  What a shame. 
      Sometimes I fall into that trap, too.  But, I was reading in Philippians the other day and some verses popped out at me.  Philippians 4:4-7 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  5. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Sweet.  I love verse six.  Why be anxious about something?  Take it to the Lord.  Do you really think you can control what is happening?  No.  Otherwise, you probably wouldn't be worried about it in the first place.  Is being anxious about it really going to help?  Absolutely not!  So, what do you do?  You take it to the person who actually is in control, and you know the great part?  He cares.  He wants us to present our requests to Him.  Notice, though, that we should present our prayers to Him with thanksgiving.  This part is really good for me to remember.  Why?  Because one of the things it is telling us is that there is so much that we should thank God for.  It is a reminder that although our situation may cloud our view and make everything seem dark, God has shown us so much grace, that we need to put our requests into perspective.  Does that make sense?  So, that was something cool that God showed me.  So, when you start to feel anxious or stressed, calm down, go to God, thank Him for His blessings and His willingness to help us, and make your requests made known to Him.  
  

The last couple of days have been amazing.  Why have they been amazing?  Because I feel like God really opened my eyes to see some things in my life that need to change, and how to fix them.  As you can tell from reading my other posts, I struggle with pride and self-centeredness.  I have realized this for a while, but God was finally able to help me see some of the things that I can do about it.  A specific area of pride that I struggle with is the area of pride vs. other people.  I tend to always view myself as better than others and more significant and things like that.  I truly do care for people, but I still have the mindset that I'm better in basically every area.  Yeah, I know, I'm pretty ignorant aren't I? :-) 
      I had a talk with my dad a couple of days ago and he and God really helped me to see this problem in my life.  I saw that I treated others as less significant than myself (in my thoughts, but also in some of my actions).  It's one thing to recognize it, but it's another thing to do something about it.  I'm all about truth telling and seeing things for the way they truly are, so I always struggled with asking God to help me view others as better than myself (since I didn't see them as better).  Do you see what I'm getting at?  My own desire to be honest fueled my pride. 
      Well, after my talk with my dad I prayed and felt like God was really going to help me, though I still didn't quite understand everything.  He opened my eyes even more the next morning when I semi-randomly decided to read Philippians 2 for devotions (instead of reading in Psalms as I have been doing for the past couple months).  Philippians 2:1-4 states, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." 
     Wow, that is just what I needed.  Something straight out of Scripture to confirm my struggle.  I now knew how to combat my pride toward other people.  I must view them as better than myself and serve them.  Perhaps they aren't actually better than myself, but in humility I need to view them that other, otherwise, how can I serve them?  Paul goes on to talk about how Christ took on the nature of a servant for us.  If Christ, who is God and the Lord of the Universe, would come to earth and humble Himself, not considering Himself equal to God, and become a servant, then who am I to consider myself better?
    So, I hope that if you are struggling with the same thing, that this can help.  This is very comforting to see that God sees our struggles and slowly but surely will help us through them.  First, He may reveal part of the problem and then over time will reveal our sin to us more and more.  He will always be there to provide assistance as we try to fight back our sin nature and more and more be conformed to Christ's image.  We aren't alone, God will always be there to help us through our problems.           

Here, let me share a story.  A man in our church, who now is working for Summit Ministries in Colorado shared this story.  He said that when he was in his teens he was a really rebellious person (and I don't think he was saved either)...well, he and a friend had to visit this elderly woman for school or something, and so they talked for a while and left...I don't know many of the details, but here is the gist.  So, as he grew older God got a hold of His life, and really set him straight.  He got saved, and one day (when he was a senior, I think) he went back and visited the lady.  She saw him and said, "I prayed for you this morning."  It had been several years since she had seen him, but ever since she met him, she had been praying for him every day.  I firmly believe that God blessed those prayers, drawing the once rebellious teenager to Himself. 
  What a story.  As a teenager, I've seen the development that God has done in my life, getting me to think outside myself, to pray for other people.  Most of the teenage Christians I know, seem like they have some desire to help their friends.  Well, there is no better help than to pray.  No one really knows what prayer does, but we do know that God honors the prayers of the righteous.  I know that God is the one who has the power to sanctify, to save, and to truly change someone.  Praying for other people is so important.  Sometimes is takes months, years, or never for a prayer to be answered, but be assured that God was using that prayer for the best, whether for your benefit or someone else. 
   Any cool ways God has answered your prayers for someone else?

Whew!  I'm sore!  I have done four sprint workouts in eight days and three of the four sprint days I either played tackle football or soccer afterwords.  Man, I'll be glad to get a rest.  But, it's interesting looking back on to today's events.  I played football, and I wasn't the fastest and I wasn't the strongest.  I wasn't the best.  And it was a little annoying.  I find that many times I struggle not to get frustrated or envious when I'm not the best at something.  It's very hard to concede that I'm not the best at something.  But why?  We are all given the desire to excel and do well, and this is a very good thing to have.  How much work would be accomplished if we were all apathetic and never wanted to be better?  But, as with most things, this good gift has been perverted.  It can instead be based on selfishness and a false sense of adequacy.  We HAVE to be the best otherwise we get frustrated and envy the person who is better.  We never stop to acknowledge that they are better, though, because that would be admitting to the world that someone is better than we are.  We are just worried about ourselves and our image.  We have a false sense of adequacy whereby we think that what makes us good or adequate is based off of what we can do, not who we are.  This can lead either to a semi-harmless drive to excel and be better than everyone else, or it can lead to things much worse.  It can lead to anger or even hatred towards those who are better than ourselves.  It can make us always paranoid that someone will come along who is smarter, or fast, or stronger, or better looking, or can do something better than we can.  It can affect how we interact and view others, accepting them only if they are good at certain things, or if they can help you be better.  It can also hurt our relationship with God if we start thinking that God judges us only based off of what we do.  God looks much deeper (into our soul and into our heart, revealing the real man) and we must too.  We must not worry about being the best, because in the long run it really doesn't matter.  Are we trying to impress God? God gave you the abilities that you have, and if He gave you a lesser ability than someone else, then so be it.  Praise Him for the gifts He has given you.  God doesn't accept you because you are really good at something.  Hopefully people don't as well.  Hopefully, people accept you by who you are, not what you do.  And if they don't, then why hang around them a lot?  I remember a famous line in the movie Batman Begins.  Rachel says to Batman, "It's not who you are on the inside, but what you do that defines you."  That is so wrong!  Yet our culture accepts it as truth.  Do our actions matter?  Absolutely.  But we are defined by our heart attitude.  We are defined by Christ's work in us.  And only after our heart is changed can our actions show forth God's grace.  Every good thing comes from above, and it is only after God has worked in our hearts that we can right actions.  But back on the subject of being the best.  I struggle with this a lot.  And I thank God that He has shown that to me so that I can work on it.  Any thoughts?