Resting before the Reverent Party

Tomorrow night, I will be joining 18,000 other students in seeking God’s face and amplifying His greatness in Nashville.  I’m pumped, soo very excited, and in need of a bit more rest to get rid of this cold i’ve had since like Tuesday.  I’ve been imagining what that sounds like, looks like, feels like…to be in one big room with people from “every nation, tribe and tongue” to come together, joining as one to bring glory to God. No matter how loud the music from the stage is gonna be, our unified voices will be louder!  I wonder how deafening it’s gonna be =D I can just picture it, standing in awe of the grace of God that will have brought us together; humbled that it’s not just one or two of us worshipping God in song, not just 18,000 of us, but to think that we are only a spec in the grand scheme of things…to consider ALL the people around the world, along with the countless angels and heavenly hosts that will be worshipping with us!  WOW!!

I was listening to Beth Moore’s message she preached last year…and i’m just so amazed at the powerful voice of God that comes out of her mouth as she preached.. i’m not sure about this whole women and preaching/pastoring thing, but she’s got one heck of a gift–she just brings it straight to ya, loud and clear, no holding back at raising her voice to call upon the Spirit to saturate our lives.  her message was on passion, being as much a thing of the MIND as the heart…to guard our minds, as much as we guard our hearts.  just as Christ called us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, we must not neglect protecting our minds from the Evil one.  Our minds is what our faith is entrenched in–not just that we need to know what we believe–but also why.  Beth called the students to root our minds into the WORD of God, to hold up with the Shield of Faith in one hand AND the Sword of the Spirit in the other–so that our minds, and thus our hearts and our lives, would be strengthened for the glory of God.

I couldn’t agree with her more. And i’ve just been pondering about that, that we’ve SOOO often talked about guarding our hearts, that we’ve neglected to protect that which has opened up a gateway for our hearts to be shaken and broken–our minds.  Satan has tempted us and tricked us, told us lies that there is something better than Jesus…and we’ve one way or another, no matter how small, we’ve bought into that lie. and our hearts have been broken, our lives been torn apart because of this.  it’s because our minds aren’t strong enough to withstand…we gotta put up the Helmet of Salvation and protect our heads from thinking anything else than God satisfies.  ….and getting hurt in the process of “loving others” has tremendously impacted our “loving God” with all of our heart soul mind and strength, and all this due to our weak minds.

We need strength, Father.  Be the strength inside of us.  White flags all around… no more trying to do the right thing. Time to surrender to Your power within and stop doing the wrong things..stop sinning against You.  Thank you for saving me, for saving us.. That when we were dead in our transgressions, you rescued us..and by Your grace we are healed, through faith we are righteous.  Be the strength in our weakness, be the treasure that we seek, be all in our all.

Amen.