Moving In

When I asked Christ into my life, I had no idea what to expect.  I had no idea that when I prayed that prayer asking the God of ALL to forgive my sins, and to come into my heart that He would literally MOVE IN!   1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (NASB, bible.com)  The few months prior to this I knew that many of my habits were sin, but I really did not care; as far as I was concerned I was just out having a good time.  No big deal, right?  Not until I had the Holy Spirit living in me; He changed everything.  The first time and every time, I went back to an old habit (or a new “focus” away from Him) the Holy Spirit who still lives in me would coax me back to Him and away from sin. This inner working is such an extraordinary phenomenon.  Jesus described the Holy Spirit to His followers as a helper, comforter, advocate, intercessor, He (the Holy Spirit) teaches us all things, brings to remembrance the Words of God (I can totally vouch for that this very second), (John 14:16),  He is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He testifies about Christ (John 14:26).

That first year was kinda rocky.  Think about it, when was the last time you saw a brand new infant stand up and walk?  My daughter, Amelia is about to be 10 months old and she is not walking yet and we know that this is totally normal.  She will most likely fall hundreds of times before she gets to walking well, she already has. The same is true of our faith. I was “born again” and though I had this helper I fell hundreds of times; going between old habit and a new heart was a strange paradox to find myself in.  I think it took about a year for me to really grasp what this is all about and Deuteronomy 31:8 encouraged me so much, “God is striding ahead of you. He's right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you. Don't be intimidated. Don't worry."(The Message, bible.com)  This is such an amazing promise and I just felt that if God wants to do all the things He does for me (for all of us), then the least I could do is give Him my life. This is not to say that I haven’t fallen thousands and thousands of times in the last seventeen years; I have (more about that tomorrow).

The next few years were really cool. My heart changed for the better more and more everyday as I was totally willing to follow anything God (the Holy Spirit) asked of me.  In these early days one of the first fruits of the Spirit He cultivated in me was patience.  When I say I had none, I mean I had NONE, most people annoyed me & my fuse was short.  I remember praying for patience in preparation for a mission trip I was going on a couple months later.  I prayed just before walking in to my afternoon shift as a hostess at a local Pizza place.  I was used to a line being out the door & this particular day was very very slow, it would’ve been a breeze.  I say would have because patience was being grown in me that day , so it was the most difficult day I ever worked there.  I had no idea what patience cultivation looked like when I prayed for it, nor did I know my prayer would be answered so quickly.  It took a while but He grew patience in me and every now and then I’ll be tested in this area again; I guess no one can have enough patience! :)  He gave me a Love for people I never had before and a sense of contentment and joy that I’d never experienced.  I wanted others’ to have this amazing Love in their lives too.  I gave out pamphlets to strangers and books to family; I talked to who seemed willing to hear.  God is amazing, He LOVES us and HAS DONE ANYTHING FOR US TO LOVE HIM TOO. He sent His Son (part of Himself) to live a human life, to die an innocent man who resurrected from the grave to GIVE US ETERNAL LIFE with Him... so that we could be with Him both now and forever (John 3:16)!

after posting this on the 28th, a friend had this song come to mind after reading! its pretty awesome, listen up :)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqFCJ4ma0vA