Living in Jubilee

Living in Jubilee!!!

God wants us to be the happiest, overflowingly sufficient, blessed creatures.

This past week I went home for Spring break.  It was such a needed time as I didn't really realize how homesick I was.  You see, I'm the type of person who is literally used to 1,000 things going on all at once, that I don't realize my stress levels rising nearly ever, until I just burst out with emotion one day.
Sometimes, I've literally been sitting on my dorm floor crying, and ten minutes later actually realize what just made that happen.
In response to this, I would encourage EVERYONE, especially WOMEN, to read the book "Managing Your Emotions: Instead of Your Emotions Managing You" By Joyce Meyer.
It lays out so easily what seems like every situation we could possibly go through, she relates it to her personal experiences (a miracle in itself), and then shows us how the Bible can help us through those times, while minimizing the amount of emotional breakdowns of the future!

But anyway, my Pastor Tony Finley back home has been talking about 2 things for a while now.
On Sundays, He's been talking about "The Year of Jubilee", going at it with an Old Covenant (Testament) vs. New Covenant (Testament) viewpoint.  It's been great! I'm learning that we are to walk in constant Jubilee, which doesn't just mean happiness, but means every good and perfect thing that the Lord has literally laid out for us!
The only thing we must do is be in a position of humility to receive all He has for us! By grace through faith!

On Wednesdays, He just finished up an 11 week series on "Renewing of the Mind".
Now, you may ask, what the heck does this mean?
Well, it means... being steadfast into the Word, and allowing it to transform you from the inside out; make you more like Jesus.
In John 1:1, the Bible says that "In the beginning was the word, and the Word became Flesh, and dwelt among us."
Jesus IS the Word! So literally, when we read and meditate upon scripture in our Bibles, it IS doing something to the inside of you!
I've always believed this, but since Spring break, I realized a few areas in my life where I really WASN'T surrendering to God.
This doesn't do anything BUT slow down God's plan for my life, and stop God from getting all He wants to bless me with! If I'm not in a position where I'm putting Him first, He can't firsthand get all the blessings to me!
Wow, that statement was just accidentally really good. Read that again, haha.
We must put Him FIRST.  In kiddie terms... why?
It's like calling a friend over to "play" when we were younger... is it a lot easier to tell someone exactly what you want to do or to give them something if you talk to them directly? The answer is yes.
But if we don't put God first, talk to Him directly, open our ears ("incline your ears to His sayings"), then it's like going to a friend of a friend of a friend's mom and asking if their friend's friend's friend's child can play with you.
So do yourself a favor and get out of life ALL God has for you!!!  :)

Ok... I have piano class... I'll talk more later!

Thanks for reading!

Megan :)