My class were reading Hosea 9.1-4 today in my Interpreting the Bible lecture, and it talks about Israel being unfaithful to God and turning instead to prostitutes. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, because I’m not seeing prostitutes, so I must be doing pretty well, right? Wrong.

My Mum is terminally ill, I’m pretty run down and fighting hard to stay on top of my depression and anxiety. It’s been a rough few weeks. Did I turn to God the Healer, the Father and the Lover of my soul and draw my strength from Him? I wish I could say that that was my first reaction.. But it wasn’t. I sought comfort in the form of physical affirmation from boys, hugs all the time. When I realised that wasn’t right, I didn’t even turn to God then. I turned to ‘comfort food’ and lots of crappy tv and movies to distract me from the pain. Key word, distract. I was momentarily ignorant of the pain, but it was still there. These things couldn’t take it away.

But, there is a happy ending to this story. Jesus invites us in Matthew 11.28 to take our burdens to Him, and find rest there. Tonight during our worship time I felt God prompting me to come to Him, instead of these things. He loves us so much. He wants all parts of us; all the pain, all the hurt, all the confusion, all the anger… God wants all the feelings that you’re feeling. He wants our brokenness. One of my favourite songs is ‘Any Other Way’ by Tenth Avenue North and I love the line “I need your hurt, I need your pain. It’s not love any other way.” Love wants every bit, even the hard stuff. And that’s how much God wants us, wants me.

I took my pain, my burdens to God. And felt as the weight lifted off my shoulders and onto the shoulders of someone who can handle it – Him. I’ve since decided to stop comfort eating, and to stop watching crappy tv. No more junk food in my life for the foreseeable future. Yeah, it’ll be hard. Especially considering the amount that I eat at the moment! But I don’t want anything to be in the way of me going to God. Junk food is a distraction for me, and I don’t want anything distracting me from Him. I guess the question this poses is would be are you being unfaithful to God too? Is there something you’re looking to for love, for comfort, for worth? He’s the only one who can give you everything you really need. Don’t settle for anything less than Him.

Anonymous asked: This is about your most recent story about the guy with a speeding problem. As much as it has a great moral I feel like praying for him to be in an accident and for someone to get hurt was a little bit excessive.. I don't agree with praying for someone to be physically hurt, no matter what the cause. However I love the moral of it :D <3

Haha we were just praying that God would bring him to his senses, and as we were brainstorming ways that could happen, that was the only thing we could think of. It was dumb, sure, I agree with you there. I’m glad that God’s ways are higher than our ways because at the time, to us, it seemed like there was no other way. I guess that’s the thing about God is that He makes a way even when it seems like there’s no way. He’s so good. :)

I’m going to tell you a funny story, but first I must tell you that no offense is intended. The guy I’m about to tell you about, the youth leader I had for the last couple of years of high school, is a fantastic guy. He’s now someone I would consider to be a dear friend, and one of the most humble, loving and hilarious guys I know. So this is by no means a way for me to slag him off, I love the guy.

Now, the guy I’m talking about used to have a little problem with speed, and this one time in particular my friend and I were in the car behind him as he was driving a carload of young guys up to a music festival. They were towing a trailer, and even when we sped up to 120km/h we weren’t keeping up with them. (For this story to make sense you have to realise that the speed limit here is 100km/h ordinarily, or 90km/h with a trailer). We don’t actually know what speed he was going, just that it was faster than us and definitely faster than was legal. We were freaking out. I was on the verge of tears, worried that someone was going to die. My friend and I got talking about this guy’s affliction for speed, and wondering what it would take for him to overcome it. We came up with this idea that if he were to be involved in a minor crash, where one guy from the youth group was to break say an arm, he might be shocked into changing his ways.So we prayed for God to make this happen. 

A few months later the traumatic experience of helplessly watching them speed had faded from our minds. No crash had occurred, and his speeding continued. I hadn’t seen him drive for a couple of weeks though, and it came out that he wasn’t driving because he’d recently received another speeding ticket, which tipped him over the limit of demerit points and lost him his license for a few months. This caused him to review his speeding practises and reconsider them. WHAT. My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing. The end we desired had been achieved, without any of the young guys getting hurt, and with a lot less damage being done (except possibly to his ego).

That was three years ago. Still, to this day, I laugh every time I remember it. Sometimes uncontrollably. God cracks me up! The point of this story is that God worked in a way I couldn’t have imagined, and that though He answered them in a different way than we expected. He answered our prayers. It may have seemed silent for a bit, but that’s because He was busy working.

Honestly, I thought that God hadn’t heard me. Or that He had ignored me. That He didn’t want to answer me. But that is never the case. God is always working, always moving, always doing something for us, even if we can’t see it or feel it at the time. He promises never to leave us or forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31.6, Hebrews 13.5) and we can trust in this because He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10.23). My life is a bit chaotic, and honestly, it isn’t easy. Sometimes I can’t sense God is working, but I can rest assured that He is because He is faithful, and He loves us, and in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8.28). 

I don’t need to know what the future holds - I know He who holds the future. And I know, from this example and many more, that He has a plan for the future and is working in things even when it seems He isn’t. So let God be God and let yourself fall at His feet. He knows best.

(via musingsofadisplacedmind)

My cat ran away the other day. He’d been hit by a car on friday, had two muscles severed and a huge gaping wound in his leg. The vet operated on him on the saturday and when we got him home on sunday, he escaped before we’d even had the chance to close the cage door. He was meant to be in the cage healing for three whole weeks. I guess what frustrated me was that we were actually trying to do what was best for him, and what he wanted to do was actually detrimental to him. I wished, so badly, that I could explain to him why we were doing this to him. But I couldn’t, and he couldn’t trust me without an explanation. I guess that’s like us sometimes with God, when we don’t like what He’s doing, and we don’t have an explanation. Maybe we need to trust Him too, that He’s doing what’s best for us. He loves us, and He really has our best interests at heart. So, I’m going to make an effort to learn to be faithful in situations like that, where I’m scared and confused and have no idea what’s going on. All I really need to know is that I’ve got a God who loves me and will look after me, and that’s enough for me. 

And when my cat came home, I gave him cuddles and treats all morning, even though he woke me up at four am by meowing in my bed. I was just so pleased that He’d come back. Don’t run away from God when you don’t understand, pull closer. There’s been a lot of stuff in the last few years that I haven’t understood His will on, but I trust that He loves me and is working in this for me (Romans 8.28 - For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him). Trust. Have some faith. He will pull you through. :)