Devotional // Are You Being Made Perfect? // Not Today

I've been reading "Experience God Day by Day" by Henry T. Blackaby and Richard Blackaby. Recently I've been inconsistent with reading, but here are some gold nuggets, as some say, that I'd like to remember.

"If you become bitter over your hardships, you close some parts of your life from God...Some places in your soul can be reached only by suffering...Don't make all your decisions and invest everything you have into avoiding hardship. God did not spare His own son. How can we expect Him to spare us? Learn obedience even when it hurts!". 

Man, even though I'm only 15 I can say that there are a few occasions in my life that I can pinpoint and still feel the pain. I'm definitely guilty of becoming bitter about them too. From personal experience, it is a very dangerous thing to do that. It closes off your access to God and allows room for the devil to dwell. Tell the devil Not Today.

Here's a cool song, check it out! I want to have a jam session recording one day and cover this song, that would be fun. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrvIQMPZvk

I forgot that choosing Jesus is an every-day effort. That's extremely hard as every day walking into the halls of high school I feel like a fish out of water. Even if I wore the same Adidas sweatpants, slides, or Supreme hoodie I don't think I would feel any closer to my peers. It's the lifestyle, views, and beliefs that cause me to be set apart. It's a good thing, right? To be set apart for the Lord? But it doesn't always feel fabulous. 

I love these lyrics because they assure my confidence in the Lord. God gives me strength, and because of this, I want to sing fearlessly without any self-consciousness

"Trouble won’t throw me

Won’t break me
Won’t scare me
No more
Fear must have thought I was faithless
When it came for my heart

‘Cause I got a song that will never die
I know Your love is the reason why

I’ll sing the night into the morning
I’ll sing the fear into Your praise
I’ll sing my soul into Your presence
Whenever I say Your Name

Let the devil know not today."