As I was speaking I heard something in my own voice saying "this is good!" God was speaking to me as i was speaking! I allowed the Holy Spirit to be the words I spoke and by goly God delivered! So I want to share with you guys what God spoke I me.
I'll begin with a little bit of story time::
I was in Fort Wayne yesterday and I'm not down here much anymore without something to do. Usually that's Wednesday nights and Sundays.
Now, let me back track a little. Back in the day, I used to live this life where I was a shopper. And I was that shopper that Didn't care about sales and as long as I bought it at the mall I was happy. My bank account was out of wack a lot and sometimes bills were not my first priority. But that's another part of my story :)
Anyways, I was down at Jefferson pointe yesterday and I was using some coupons at a store. Well when I got that, all I wanted to do was buy some boots that were on sale, and then I knew skinny jeans were on sale at American Eagle. So i texted Jarod(knowing he'd say no) and he said no. We have a lot of bills that we need to pay for. All I had to hear was no. But It actually kinda hit me and I got really upset that I couldn't buy anything!! And finally I was mentally smacked myself in the face (but i stilll think God did lol)and said "Mary snap out of whatever this is! You need to be grateful for what you have! As a matter of fact you have more than you need!" And I sat and I said "you're right.. I have more than I need and I am given more than enough on a daily basis."
So. I said sorry to Jarod and I asked God to forgive me for being selfish and as I was driving I said to myself.. I would have offering message tomorrow. I'm speaking about giving and there I went and wanted everything for myself.
I sat in my car and asked God to please show me what he was trying to tell me?!
He revealed to me the story where Paul is writing to the Phillipians an he's saying you know, when I needed help financially, you guys were the only church that reached out to me. And before that he is talking about how the Phillipians were the only ones concerned about him, but he was never fully in need. He goes on to say he has learned to live off of almost nothing. That he figured out how to live on everything from a full stomach or an empty stomach and that is through strength of Jesus Christ.
So I got out my actual bible(as opposed to my bible app) and opened it up. And then I fell upon this verse that really took my shopping craze to a little weeping:
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ (Philippians 3:7, 8 NLT
WOW! It doesn't matter what it is; compared to Jesus, it's considered WORTHLESS!! It's all garbage! Whoa...
If we craved things for others like we did for ourselves what would that look like?....think about that.
You say, “I am allowed to do anything” —but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23, 24 NLT)
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (1 John 2:15, 16 NLT
So the question is: what are you holding onto that is keeping you from having an even closer relationship with Jesus. What can you do to crave God more?
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