Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Era (02/03/11)
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TITLE: Before and After | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jennifer Hill
02/10/11 -
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Many of us do find God. He catches us and we give our lives to him. As we live our lives we continue to encounter those ‘before and after’ moments. Our faith is tested and our devotion is sometimes mocked. Our words are asked to be put into actions. Do we really trust God?
If it is good, some of us consider it a blessing from the beginning. God has given us this wonderful moment. Where our world is right and everything is as it should be. If it is bad, God is there waiting to help us pick up the pieces and see us through the turmoil.
No matter what the event, God is there with us. It is up to us how we respond to our circumstance. Will we see all of God’s goodness and give thanks for the wonderful life and things he has given to us? Or do we overlook the creator for the creation? Do we forget all good things come from our Father above? As it is so easy to do in this life, we take the good for granted and the One from whom it is given.
Just as it is so easy for us to blame God if our lives are falling apart, many of us will hold the negative in our lives against God. We forget that God didn’t create sin, man did. Sin is what causes all the heartache in our lives. It is the root to all that goes wrong. Sickness is the deterioration of our bodies, because they are no longer perfect, living in a perfect place. Man gave up God’s perfection in the garden and chose selfishness; living as the god of our own lives. We choose to serve ourselves rather than serving an everlasting, loving God. Sin entered into the human race, by man’s choosing. All the crime that goes on in this world can be broken down to selfishness, people caring only of themselves, not caring how their actions hurt others. Man is dying due to sin and the only cure is God. He has given us the antidote for death: Jesus. God’s very own Son, we only need believe in Him for our salvation and God’s grace is ours.
Sadly there are those who never choose to trust God, they continue in this life forgetting there is an era coming, that no one will escape. How each of us spends eternity is in our own hands. Stop and think about it, do we give ourselves over to the hands of God? Or do we take this life and eternity for granted? There is the before and after and the right now. Who are we trusting ourselves or God?
Right now, we live our lives either in the before or after. There is an important choice to make when the pinnacle events in our lives happen; what do we do with God? Do we turn against him or do we choose to fully rely on him for his grace, comfort, strength and perfect guidance? Or do we betray God and quit trusting him?
I challenge you to make this a pinnacle event and choose the hands you want holding your life and eternity. With God by your side, leading you on the path of this life, your before is guaranteed to be made into beauty. Your after is promised to be glorious. Only God can do such things. So as it says in the book of Joshua, “…choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…” (NSA Joshua 24:15)
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