Why worry?

Worry. We all do it. I do it way to much. I worry about what to wear each day. I worry about what to eat. I worry about if I am doing my homework correctly. I worry about tests. I worry about if I am doing the right thing with my life. I worry about if I will ever meet the right boy and get married. I worry about how I will die. As you can see, I worry about a lot of things; things I probably shouldn't be worrying about anyway. But the one thought that I had been worrying about most recently is who in the world I was going to room with next year. My roommate from this year, who I love to death, isn't coming back next year, so that wasn't an option. I probably would have roomed with her next year just because we got along so great this year, but obvioulsy that isn't part of God's plan for either one of us. And it must be because He has something greater planned for the both of us, and knowing that makes everything better. But once I found out she wasn't coming back, I, of course, worried. Who in the world was I was going to room with? I had options, but they weren't for sure. Many people had told me I should just do random again. That idea didn't sound good to me just because there was no way that random person could beat my roommate this year, who was random. I just wasn't sure. At first, I had not, I'll admit, been praying about what to do. I thought, I have a lot of time, I'll think about it later. Then last week, the topic of who I was going to room with came up again. For some reason, when I went to bed that night, I thought, you know what maybe this time I should pray about it. So the next few nights I prayed that God would show me either what to do about rooming or show me a person in my life to room with.
Sometimes it surely does amaze me how God works.
I started praying Thursday night right. I know God answers prayers whether with yes, no, or keep waiting, but I didn't know He could answer one as fast as He did answer mine. Sunday night one worry got wiped off my long lists of worry. I got this text from a friend, Laura, who goes to Bethel and has become one of my closest friends and my "church buddy" so to say, that said, "Hey, do you know what you are going to do about rooming/housing next year?" I think my heart skipped a beat. I didn't want to get my hopes up any, so I just responded with, "No I have no idea what I am going to do!" Later that night she responded with, (not the exact words, but close) "Well my roommate from this year is rooming with someone else next year and I was thinking since we are both athletes (she golfs) that it would be cool if we roomed together next year if you want too." God. is. good. At the time of that text, I just happened to be near my family and it was so hard to explain to them what just happened because I was freaking out! God answered my prayer! To respond, all I said was "Laura Glass!! You just made my day! I had been praying about this so much because I didn't know what to do! So if you really want to I would love to room with you!" She then responded with saying that she had been praying about it too.
Wow, God never does cease to amaze me. Right now I am speechless in how else to describe the feeling I had toward Him after all this happened. AHH!! I just want to jump up and down and scream to the whole world that God really can answer prayers in the craziest ways. That God really is the most amazing man on the face of this earth. Gosh, I can't help but smiling. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep that night.
Sometimes it leaves me in awe of how God teaches me things. Of course as soon as this happened, I thought "Blog Post worthy", so I started flipping through my Bible looking for verses having to do with this because I knew there had to be verses talking about prayers. I came to one of my underline verses in Phillippians. It's Philippians 4:6 its says, "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Why hadn't I been praying about this all the time?!? I shouldn't of been anxious about the idea of not knowing what to do, I should have been praying about it all along. God knows whats on my heart even if I don't pray about it, but He still wants us to hear our requests straight from us. The version of my Bible is ESV, but in my Bible I wrote down what the NLT version says. It says, "Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done." That is what I should have been doing all along telling God what I needed. Why did it take me so long to realize that? But just as I was writing this, the second part really hit me more than it did the first time I read it. 'Thank Him for all He has done." I was so excited that night, I should have been thanking Him as soon as my prayer was answered, but instead I waited till I prayed before I went to sleep. So many times I do that. Why is it that I think I have to wait to thank Him for anything He does through the course of the day until I lay down at night? So from now on, I'll stop and thank Him each time He does something great for me as soon as He does it. I think thats all He wants.
His teaching doesn't stop there.
The basketball team just finished up doing a Bible study called The Christian Atheist. (I would recommend it.) Its main idea is about how someone can believe in God but don't fully believe in all He can do. Sort of like just going through the motions of being a Christian but not fully believing in Him. On Monday, the day after the excitement of finding a roommate occured, I sat down to read the three chapters for the week. Who would of guessed that one of the chapters was on worry. The title of the chapter was When you believe in God but still worry all the time. Holy Smokes! God obviously was trying to tell me something. Its is amazing to think that the idea of me reading that chapter at that exact moment didn't just happen by luck, it happened because God planned it all out way before that day even happened. Yea, He is just that good.
As I was reading the chapter, I was thinking, why in the world was I worrying about something that was going to all work out becasue it was in God's hands. One of the biggest points I learned by reading this is that worry is a sin. Even though there is no commandment that says "Thou shalt not worry", it is still a sin.  It is a sin because its like saying we don't trust what God already has planned for us. While we may know that He has a plan for each of us (Jeremiah 29:11), we tend to worry about the small things in life. But I think sometimes, myself included, forget that even those small things, God still has a plan for them. He has every single detail of our lifes put together! Every. Single. ONE. Why, why, why do we worry then? Here is a quote that explains it: "Worry, in essence, is the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of God. It's choosing to dwell on, to think about the worse case scenario. It's faith in the bad things rather than faith in God." Enough said, worry is having faith in the things we don't want to happen rather than just putting our faith in God who puts all good things together. So in my sitution I was worried about getting a roommate that partied, or didn't have anything in common with me, or who doesn't follow Christ, or who isn't into sports and competition, etc. Instead I should have put my worry aside and put my faith in God that He would place me with the right roommate. And let me tell you, He sure did put me with the right one. My roommate now is the total opposite of what I was scared of, and Laura, is the same way. None of those from my "worry list" apply to her either. I know God placed me with the right person to have as a roommate and I already can't wait for next year. :)
Another quote that stuck out to me was this, "If you do catch yourself worrying even after you've done what was wise, remember that God is bigger than our problems, and that He wants us to hand them over to Him. Worrying then becomes a signal alerting us it's time to pray." I never thought of it like this before. Whenever you suddenly think of something you are worrying about, you should take it as a sign to pray. God obviously put that thought into your head for a reason, so why not stop and pray about it right then and there. I wish I would have known this before. I should have been praying about a roommate every time that the idea of not knowing what to do occured to me. I know now I'll start doing that more often. But most importantly from that quote, God is bigger than all our problems. Every. Single. One. No matter how big or how small they are, He is bigger. All we can do about them is pray about them. He's got it all under control, we don't need to worry.
So next time you worry, don't. Pray about it instead and realize God is bigger than those worries.
I don't ever think I have been as happy knowing that God really can be bigger than my worries and actually will answer prayers that two people were praying. It just amazes me how good God really is. I know He is good all the time, but sometimes I just love it when He is really really good and does more than we deseve Him to do. But you know what, that's just God for you.
He takes away our worries.
He loves us more than life.
He answers prayers.
Here is one last quote for you.
"I don't know what tommorow holds, but I know who holds tommorow."
God holds my tomorrow. He holds your tomorrow. I don't think we need to worry about.
It's all in His hands. <3
:)

Never Once

I have this thing for listening to music. I ususally have it playing all the time. In the car, in my room, on a bus ride, while I'm doing homework; it's on all the time. Then in chuch one of my favorite parts is singing. But my most favorite is when we learn new songs, that yeah I may have heard them on the radio, but never really listened to the words and it might have even been one where I went to the next station because I didn't know it and just wasn't feeling it at the time. Well a couple months at church we started singing this song that was one of those "not feeling it" types of songs. Many of you may or may not have heard it, but it's called Never Once by Matt Redmen. (I'll attach it at the end again.) For some reason, when we sang that song at church and as we continue to sing it week after week, the words continue to speak to me each and every time. It has some pretty powerful words in it.

Its hard to figure out where to begin. I think I'll start at the beginning of the song. In the first part of the song it says, "knowing that for every step You were with us". Those 7 words were enough for me to think, "this is going to be a great song!" And sure enough, those words came true. But wait it gets better.

"Scars and struggles on the way, but with joy our hearts can say, never once did we ever walk alone."

As a christian I know that in my walk with Christ and just in my life in general, many troubles are going to come my way. I have experienced so many of them already and couldn't be happier that I did because they truly have made me stronger than  I was before any of them happened. Some bad things will leave scars, like the song talks about, and even after they do we are going to continue to struggle with something new, that might leave a scar itself, but it is how we look at those scars and struggles that makes them better. During every single scar and struggle, God is present. He doesn't let us walk them alone. At the time it may not seem like He is walking with us, but trust me He is bigger then than He ever will be at those times. Whenever a scar is left or a struggle is happening, He is standing beside you like a buddy on a path, walking step in step with you.

Right after that part of the song comes an even better part. It says, "Never once did you leave us on our own. You are faithful, God, You are faithful". There it is again. He is faithful. He never leaves us. He is walkin step in step with us down the "struggle path". And not just sometimes is He there, never once did He leave us on our own. NEVER ONCE!!!! He is always there! He is faithful through every single thing we go through. EVERY SINGLE ONE!!! Big or small, He is there. Oh man oh man, isn't God just awesome?!

As I have gotten older, I have feel in love with reading my Bible. When I was younger, I would just read it because someone told me too or because we were opening it in church. But now I hate going a day without reading it. I am no perfect Christian and so many times fail at reading it on a daily basis. But the days when I do read it before stepping out into the world for the day, my day just feels so much more worthwhile and I feel more refreshed throughout the day. The days where I don't, I can always tell because nothing goes right. Throughout my whole Bible you will find it wrtitten all over and highlighted everywhere because if I don't mark something good right when I read it, I'll forget about it. As I was trying to think to a verse that connected to the idea of God's faithfulness, nothing came to mind. So I did what I always do when I want a good verse, I just skim through my Bible. For some reason the Holy Spirit was drawing me to the Psalms, so of course I went there. As I was flipping through them, I saw a box around Psalm 23 verse 4. It reads, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff. they comfort me." Holy smokes! Could it be any more clearer?! As I am walking through "the valley of the shadow of death", I have nothing to fear, He is with me. Let me say it again. HE. IS. WITH. ME. and not just through the scary or hard times. ALL. THE. TIME. And when He is walking with me, He has His rod and His staff just to comfort me. Oh man, how can you not love this Man if He does that for you?

"Scars and struggles on the way, but with joy our hearts can say. Never once did we ever walk alone. Never once did you leave us on our own. You are faithful. God, You are faithful"

Scars are going to happen

He is faithful.

Struggles are going to occur.

He is faithful.

We will walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

He is with us.

We will face evil.

He has His rod and staff ready to help us.

He is faithful now and for ever and we will never walk alone. Ever.

Yeah, thats why I love that Man.

:)