Choose to Love

Stop for a minute.
 I know you are busy.
A thousand million things are going through your head right now.
You are worrying about a situation at work. Pay day isn't until Friday. You checked your bank statement and you only have 18$ in your account. The gas tank is almost on E. You slept on your neck wrong. Your friend is mad at you. Your skinny jeans are a little too tight. You ate two pints of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey icecream. You haven't worked out in ages because work is consuming all of your time. Your dad is sick in the hospital. You just found out your friend has cancer. Summer is almost over. You don't want to go back to school.
I could go on and on with the examples of every day thoughts, stresses, and struggles, but there is somebody that has your current list memorized. He knows how you are feeling in this exact moment. And He knows how you will feel this time next week, next year, and ten years from now.
We tend to look at the world and our lives and see all the things that we DON'T have. We focus on our problems and they become ALL CONSUMING.
God never intended for our lives to be that way. He really didn't.
 I think the average person would believe that God loves them. But have you stopped and pondered that statement?
God loves you. He loves me. He made each and every single person different. No one person is alike, yet we all were made in His image. His creation was intended for us to enjoy. And to REALLY enjoy. Look at all the different types of trees, plants, and flowers. I cant even begin to recall how many there are. Maybe 100,000? Why do you think He did that? He created the sun, the moon, and the stars. He created weather, different seasons, changing temperatures.
And don't even get me started on foods. Don't you think the God of the universe could have made it easy for us and not require food to live? Or maybe one type of food, with no taste? There would be no need for chocolate cake. Why not just created a little pill that would sustain us. Give us everything that we would need to survive.
All of these things were given to us to enjoy and because He loves us so much, yet we abuse what we have been given. We abuse it to the point that we don't even realize what we have; what we have been given. We get so caught up in ourselves and in our every day struggles that we forget why we were even made to begin with.
We were created to be in relationship with Our Heavenly Father. He wants that more than anything, and He wants us to glorify Him and thank Him for all that He has done for us.  We look at our problems and the world's problems and think that He has left us; abandoned us, given up on us. But don't you see that those are the lies the Enemy feeds us?
As followers of Christ, when we commit ourselves to God and fully accept Him as Lord of our life, we freely receive the Holy Spirit. Our spirits are made new. Now, the Bible doesn't say our bodies and minds are made new. Only our spirits are made new. Satan still has free reign to attack our body and mind, yet He fears our Spirit, for He knows He can't win against God. The Holy Spirit is our DIRECT line to God. It gives us the opportunity to be in tune with Him. How cool is that? Because the Holy Spirit is within us, we are given gifts and abilities to be all God wants us to be.
We can step out in faith, and know that God is with us, because He is dwelling in each and every one of us.
Today God gave me the gift of laughter and friendship. He specifically showed me how much joy He wants to give when we decide to trust His lead. Jesus taught by example. He had no agenda, no time table, and wasn't concerned about numbers of people He could save each day. He took the time to get to know His people He loved so much. He MADE the time to really get to know them, their problems, their struggles. He sat with them, walked with them, prayed with them. He was present.
He wasn't on his phone texting in the middle of his conversations. He wasn't consumed by work, lost in thoughts from the previous day. He was present. And He wants us to be present and available to others.
Look around you.
Invite someone into your life today that is totally random. Do something unexpected. Show kindness to a stranger.
He has shown me that even though the problems of the world seem huge, He is bigger than all of those problems. He really does love you and this hurting world, but we have to choose to look to Him. We must choose to see past the lies the enemy makes us believe. We must choose to be the change He wants to see in the world. He wants us to share this gift of love He has given us, yet most often than not we shy away from the world; AFRAID of not being good enough, smart enough, talented enough, pretty enough. But we do really have everything we need, right inside of us.
He is here. He IS ENOUGH.
Jesus has used Africa and the beautiful children here to teach me how to be intentional. To show me that God can do BIG things when you are open to letting Him use you.
 His perfect love drives out fear.
Choose to see. Choose to smile. Choose to laugh. Choose to be different. Choose to be used by Him.
But most of all.....
Choose to Love.