What season is this?

Sorry it's a bad picture, but this is our front yard this morning.

It is so pretty in Minnesota. The first real snowfall happened last night. The snow sticks to the trees and makes them look so pretty. The first snowfall is always very exciting because it is always the prettiest. God’s creation is amazing. The fact that our trees became bare and ugly and then He covered them with snow is just great. Sometime I would like to ask God how He is so creative.

Although this is the first snowfall and it is November the major thought on my brain right now is the summer. Not because I want school to end, but because there are options the Lord is giving me for what I should do to honor Him this summer.

Summer Beach Project is a 6-8 week long training in Myrtle Beach with my church’s college ministry (Campus Outreach). In South Carolina students get jobs, stay in a hotel, and are trained in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. This would be an awesome opportunity to develop evangelism skills and see the gospel impact my life in a new way. Both my sisters have done SBP and God used it to develop their walks with Him. Hannah went last year and grew so much from it. I think the idea of being away from home and learning to love the gospel and share it would be awesome.

Another option is to work at camp. I love camp. God used the instrument of camp in my life as a kid. He used it to show me the gospel and to help me grow. The hardest part was coming home, knowing that I wouldn’t be forced to read my Bible at the same time each day. Yet, God was good and He used camp to help me grow into who I am today. I think it would be the sweetest thing in the world to work at a camp for the summer. I think it would be so challenging and tiring. I think God would used the body surrounding me to help me grow. Plus I would be working with kids. I love working with kids and I think that that is something God is calling me to do.

I have really been wrestling with what the Lord is calling me to do next summer. I want to follow His will and not let my own desires or the desires of others get in the way of what I need to do.

This brings up some questions:

What does it look like to seek God’s will?
I think that part of seeking God’s will is asking people what they think. That does not mean doing exactly what they say, but asking them to help you decide the pros and cons of the decision are. I think seeking God’s will is asking myself what my desires are and trying to figure out are those holy desires or just desires because that’s what I want. I think seeking God’s will is praying hard about it. Asking Him to give me ears to hear His will and a heart open to whatever His will is. I think seeking His will is going after the Word.

What does going after the Word look like?
This is also something that I’m working through. How do I go hard after God’s Word? How do I really study His Word? I don’t just want to read the Bible and think it was real good and then just forget everything I read. I want to be able to really absorb something and take away from it. It is especially hard right now because I’m reading in the Old Testament.

Why does God give us the Old Testament?
It is so hard to read. There are names that are way too hard to pronounce and there are way too many of them. It is so long, so why is it so great? Also something I’m working through, but I think God is changing my heart towards the OT. God uses the OT to show His wrath. People in the OT sin, are punished, change their ways, sin, are punished, change their ways, over and over and over again. It is the same thing, but I think the punishment is what I want to say something about. God hates sin. This does not mean hate like 5th grade I hate you type of hate. It is a despising, must get rid of this because it’s disgusting hate. He punishes sin very explicitly both in the OT and the NT. It is important to see that God is a wrathful God. He is not just love and kisses all the time. In order to be perfectly loving He must be perfectly just, angry, and wrathful. He needs to get rid of the sin that so opposes Him. In punishing the OT people He shows them love. In Christ dying on the cross He shows us love. This is awesome.

How do I study this?
Pray. Pray. Pray. It is way too hard to read the Bible without prayer. How will I get anything out of 2 Chronicles without the Lord giving me eyes to see? To any non-believer the OT will look boring and like a lot of names. To many believers the OT is long, boring, and has a lot of names. But when God gives us eyes to see it becomes clear that the names matter. The kings matter. The people matter. The punishment matters.

I’m not saying I got this down at all. But, I think with God’s help I can go after the OT, go after His will, and grow deeper in love with the cross. I just don’t want to be like so many of the rulers in 2 Chronicles who don’t do the Lord’s will, turn away from Him, sin against Him, and then die. Which maybe God is using the OT to show me that. I don’t know.

Seeking God’s will,
Greta