It's so easy to remember to ask God what we want from Him and it's so easy to forget to thank Him for what He's already given us. So many times in my life, I've kept a roller coaster relationship with my Lord: I ran to Him whenever I was scared, confused or sad; but when everything was going fine, I knew that God would be there when the time was convenient for me.
No one likes to be manipulated that way; especially not God.
Of course He wants you to come to Him, but not just when the time is right for you. Just as Coleen York said, "God doesn't deserve your last thought, He deserves your EVERY thought."
I once read a beautiful short story that was so true in my life. A man finally opened up his heart to Jesus and let Him in. The heart was metaphorically a home with an office, dining room, library, etc.... Once Jesus came in, He began cleaning the man's heart. In the library, He threw away every book and magazine that didn't belong: books and magazines that would stop the man's growth and spiritual development. In the dining room, Jesus sat down and ate with the man every evening. (See Rev. 3:20). Once the rest of the house was clean, Jesus said to the man, "Every night I would like to meet with you in the library so we can spend time together." The man promised to do so.
So every night, Jesus would wait in the library. The man was committed for the first few days, but as time went on, he became "busy."
"Jesus, I can't tonight! I have so much work to do."
"Jesus, I can't tonight! I'm so exhausted!"
"Jesus, I can't tonight! I'm meeting up with some friends."
Then Jesus asked, "Remember me? The one who saved you, forgave you and loves you?
I can see this story so clearly in my life. There Jesus is, waiting to talk to me about my day and to teach me wonderful and amazing things, and there I am saying, "Sorry Jesus, I can't! I just feel like relaxing in front of my T.V.."
We so easily forget who God is; just like the Israelites.
God showed miracles to them time and time again, and they still complained to God for a king. We constantly fall into the same patterns as the Israelites. We forget what God has done, only remembering it when we've hit rock bottom.
"But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old." (Psalm 77:10-11)
I'm not a parent yet, but I know I would be deeply hurt if my child constantly forgot the sacrifices I made for them; if they only came to me when they needed something.
God addresses these kinds of people in the Bible:
1) Matthew 7:22-23: "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"
2) Revelation 3:16: "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
Is that what we want to hear the day we die? Or would we rather hear, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' (Matt. 25:23)
Let us not only give thanks in November, but let us give thanks to God CONSTANTLY. In every moment, let us remember Him and thank Him for all He has blessed us with.
I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving with the ones you love. And let us not forget to remember God and all He has given us!
-Taleen Afsharian
I don't know about you, but often times, I feel like I have no one to talk to. It isn't because I don't have family and friends who love me, but it's because I feel like no one will truly understand what I'm going through. Sometimes, it's also because I feel like no one cares. Everyone is busy with their own issues, tasks, and obligations. Why would they have time for my problems? Sometimes, I feel lonley.
Different kinds of people do different kinds of things in order to fill their lonliness. Some get into relationships, thinking that that person will somehow fulfill the emptiness inside of them; and some make unwise choices in order to receive some sort of attention. Both of these options, along with others, will never satisfy.
Jesus felt lonely, too, you know. When He was near His gruesome death on the cross, bearing our sins, he felt completely and utterly alone. He cried out to His Father in Heaven, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:45-46) The burden of our sin and God's wrath was so heavy upon Him, that He felt totally alone.
Feeling lonely is not a fun feeling, as we all know. We all want to feel loved, cared for, and appreciated. All too often, we forget that God is interested, loving, and caring. He wants us to talk to Him and to let Him in. He really does understand everything we're going through. In Hebrews chaper 4, God's Word assures us that "...we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." He understands our troubles, our needs, our trials, our anger, and our sadness because He too has experienced all of these.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)
When I feel lonely, I write to God. I tell Him what I feel like no one else will understand. I tell Him that I feel alone and that I need His comfort that He so willingly gives. I stand here and can honestly say that God is everything you could possibly need and more. He is more than enough. He satisfys every hunger and thirst. He accompanies every lonely soul and gives light at the end of the long tunnel.
When you feel lonely, run into the Mighty arms of Jesus and always remember that God "sees us as we are, but loves us as we should be." Nothing can separate you from his love (Romans 8:38-39). You are NEVER alone.
--Taleen Afsharian
Do you ever get that discouraging voice in your head saying, "Try harder! Be better! Stop being a failure!" I know I did, and sometimes still do. Sometimes, the things we need to fix about our own personalities may seem overwhelming. It's a great thing to find our faults and weaknesses and fix them, but we need to come to the realization that as hard as we try, we will never reach perfection on our own.
I'm not saying that you should just let go and stop bettering yourself, in fact, we should spend alone time with God to get to know our strengths, weaknesses, and shortcomings. But we need to stop letting Satan control us with the idea that if we just try a little bit harder, we will be good enough.
If we were able to be "good" enough for God's grace and mercy, then we wouldn't have needed Christ's blood on the cross. Christ came to pay the price that we and aren't able to pay.
We are dirty, broken, useless, and downright shameful. However, we have the best lawyer in the business: Jesus Christ.
Picture this: You are seated in a courtroom and God is the Judge. On one side, we have Satan laying down all of our shortcomings, imperfections, and sins. But on the other side, we have Jesus witnessing on our behalf. There he is saying, "Judge, this one is mine. He is innocent." When God looks at you, he doesn't see your imperfections and sin; He sees you as beautiful innocent royalty. What a mighty Savior we serve! Doesn't it seem too good to be true? But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. -- (Isaiah 53:5)
We are free from sin. We are healed. Jesus has made us perfect. We need to stop trying to think that we can reach this perfection on our own. We will NEVER get there. When we fix one thing about ourselves, there will always be something else we need to fix. The list goes on and on.
Godliness isn't defined by our own "goodness" beause we aren't good. We are forgiven. A godly person realizes that his/her godliness comes from God's righteousness alone. We can't be godly by our deeds.
According to the online dictionary, the definition for godliness is: "Having great reverence for God." It isn't "being a good person."
You cannot be perfect or godly on your own. Perfection and godliness doesn't come from within YOU. It comes from HIM. So starting today, stop "trying to be good." There is no secret formula on how to get on fire for God. It's simple! James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and he will come near to you..."You will never be "good" enough for God. That is why Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is NO WAY to God EXCEPT through HIM. You can't get there on your own, don't let Satan trick you into thinking otherwise.
Now, by saying all of this, I don't mean that you should stop doing good deeds. But once you draw near to God, your faith will increase, and once your faith increases, good works will be a second nature for you. You will want to do them because you will want to serve God.
Anything we do will only succeed if we go through Christ. He is all you need. So lean on HIM.
--Taleen Afsharian
Today in church while learning about how the disciples often forgot how powerful Jesus truly is, my pastor was trying to make a point and told the congregation a short story about the leader of the 16th century Reformation, Martin Luther.
Here is the story my pastor told us:
The Reformation was the birth of the Protestant church. Martin Luther found many flaws within the western catholic church and decided to tackle these problems head on. Like any leader, Luther went through trying times. His attitude changed and he was beginning to be discouraged, so one day he came home to see his wife dressed in black from head-to-toe.
Luther asked his wife why she was mourning and she replied, "I am mourning because there has been a death." When Luther asked for the name of the deceased, his wife answered, "God."
Luther began rebuking her saying that God is eternal and powerful and that death cannot overcome him. He warned her against such blasphemes. Then his wise wife said, "Lately, you have been acting as if God is dead. Your attitude is so downcast that it seems as though you are serving a powerless God."
From that moment, the Reformation took a 180 degree turn and the world has never been the same since.
When facing battles, we often act as if we have lost. We act as though we are on the losing side. God has triumphed. He has already won.
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." --2 Corinthians 4:8-9
The Bible never tells us that this life is going to be easy. We are going to be hard pressed on every side, we are going to be perplexed, we are going to be persecuted, we are going to be struck down. We aren't in Heaven yet, so all of these things will happen. It's a promise.
But, along with that promise comes another promise: you will not be crushed, you will not be in despair, you will not be abandoned, and you will not be destroyed. He's there with you through it all and is never going to leave you alone.
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” --Hebrews 13:5
So why do we act as if we have lost? "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." --John 16:33
God is alive and well. He has triumphed, He has overcome, and He is never going to leave you. And because of this, we rejoice in any kind of trouble because we know the end result: Through HIM who strengthens us, we will overcome.
Fight on my brothers and sisters; the battle is won!
--Taleen Afsharian
For some of us, this sharp rock may be a parent, a friend, a sibling, a teacher, a boss, or a co-worker. Whoever the person is, we must be thankful for there part to play in our lives. If everyone around us was easy to love, we wouldn't be able to determine if we were really practicing Christ-like love. "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" --Matthew 5:46-47
In the past, I asked God why he put a certain difficult person in my life. I asked God how he could possibly expect me to love and respect someone so stubborn and often times, so rude. Boy, was I in for a wake up call. Immediately, memories began flowing into my mind. I began to reminisce on all the times I was stubborn and rude with those around me; but most importantly, I remembered all the times I was stubborn with God. "God, I don't want to bring that friend to my youth group on Friday night! I won't be able to spend time with my other friends!" I remembered all the times I was rude to God: "God, I'll spend time with you later, I can't miss this T.V. show!"
Whatever complaints we have towards others in our lives, we have done the same and far worse towards God, yet, His love remains constant, unchanging, and it overflows with Grace.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." --Romans 8:38-39
If God can look past our filth, our complaints, our stubborness, and our rudeness, and still love us with this crazy love, why can't we love the sharp rocks in our lives?
Let us remember to thank God for the sharp rocks in our lives because it is through them that we practice Christ-like patience and love.
--Taleen Afsharian
