Once a fool...

When God fights, he wins.

"I posted this almost a year ago on facebook, and decided to post it here, because I felt like posting something and am not very creative..."

Sounds simple, and I'm sure you've heard that before as I know I have at some point (and probably in those exact words.) Friday, I had a breakthrough in something kind of big, I got my passport. I'd had issues (which I'm not interested in discussing) in getting it and it was a huge blessing when it arrived, since I had only sent off the initial documentation and not had to go through any rigamarole to aquire it as I had previously.

Which is a big deal for me because, normally, when things don't work out like they should the first time, even though I've done everything I can think of, I get depressed and lose all motivation to work on them further. However this time it worked.

What was different? As best as I could and knew how, I sought God's will for it everyday. I let it be His fight if He was willing and not mine. He won.

Tonight, as I sit wide awake with insomnia, I realized that He will win any battle He fights. Internally or externally, it doesn't matter.

Depression, self-doubt, jealousy, apathy, laziness, lust, selfishness, (though I guess all of these are selfishness...) distraction, lack of direction, complaining.

Lack of time, work, (or lack there of...) family, friends, people in our daily/weekly lives.

And that's just my list, I'm sure you have your own as well. All of these can be fights of their own in one way or another and you know them so well because you've fought them for so long.

But we haven't won. But God wins fights.

The problem is, we ask God to help US win. But we still try to fight the same way we're used to. Why shouldn't we? We're so familiar with the fight. After all, we've been fighting it all this time, we know how it goes...

But what needs to happen is for us to let God fight, 'cause He wins. We need to step aside and give the battle to Him.

Let Him fight it however He wants, 'cause He will win.

Let Him take His time, and use His method, 'cause He will win.

I know this is harder than it sounds, and I'm kind of scared at the moment as to where I next have to step aside to let Him fight, as that tends to leave me feeling kind of helpless, but at the same time, I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of not winning.

But I also know, that I can't win. I've tried.

But God can! If I let Him fight, He will.

I need His peace, to let go. To let Him take control. To let Him fight. To let Him win.

When God fights, He wins.

Seriously, try it sometime.

God, for the win!

I might get that on a T-shirt... Or a bracelet.

Some encouragement

Sometimes (most times it seems like) things happen that tend to bring you (generic "you", not specific; as this is mainly directed at me) down; Physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Anyway, here's a list of verses I've compiled (with the first having obvious contextual significance to me) to help me out and I thought I'd share them. Most of them are pretty commonly used but, maybe there's something here you haven't seen in awhile... Here goes:

1st Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed... but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

Joshua 1:9 "Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous; don't be afraid or dismayed: for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Isaiah 41:10 "Don't be afraid; for I am with you: don't be dismayed; I am your God: I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will hold you up with the right hand of my righteousness."

Proverbs 30:5 "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield to them that trust in him."

1st Peter 5:7 "Give all your cares, your worries to him, he cares for you."

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are call according to his purpose."

Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a planned future."

1st Corinthians 15:58 "My brothers, be rooted, unmovable,  always working for the Lord, and know that your work is not wasted in the Lord."

Hebrews 11:1,6 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God, must believe that he is, and that he rewards those who really search for him."

An Epiphany... (For lack of a better word)

If you've already lost that which you were afraid to lose, what's to stop you from giving all you have? More on this later... maybe...

Peace, man!

This weekend the CrossPoint youth group went to the Generation Next conference in Gastonia, NC. It was awesome.  I got to see God touching our youth and starting a passion in their hearts for him. Also, there have been some issues of discouragement I've been dealing with, and when we were there, I just felt a peace about them, even though, as far as I know, nothing has changed...

On a related note, I compiled a list of verses for encouragement. I'll post those soon...

A job! Probably...

Well, I went in this evening for a second interview for the job, and it looks like I got it! Thing is, for now, it'll only be part-time and probably just weekends... While that's not quite ideal, I'm still really excited. This will be a new and interesting experience...

Re: mobilized

I now have my car back. (You can stop reading now if you don't want to be bored to tears by my rambling...)

I'd taken it in for repairs sunday evening, unfortunately, the part they'd been sent was the wrong one (which is why I didn't buy it myself and have them put it in, part's places always give me the wrong part the first two or three times...) but they finally finished with it today.

It's funny how much I missed having a vehicle just for two days. Yesterday I was really wanting to get out for a drive, though, that was partly due to how awesomely beautiful it was. As was today. So beautiful that I drove with the windows down for the first time in awhile...

Till my hat flew out the window from the back seat...

Thankfully, Gerry was following me in his truck and was able to retrieve it before it was run over.

Anyway, all told a decent day, though as it's only 4pm, there's still plenty of it left...