For His Glory

Recently, I had the chance to go to a concert for a very well-known rap artist. During the breaks between songs he took the time to continuously brag about himself: how he’s traveled all around the world, has his own private plane, several number one albums, lots of beautiful women, etc. While everyone was shouting his name and the girls in front of me were falling out as he jokingly extended an invitation for a few ladies to ride back with him in his plane, the Scripture Matthew 6:2 popped into my head: “I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.” As I looked around at the roaring crowd, it suddenly became clear that this would all pass away — the celebrities, the fame, and the money would come to an end. When I got home that night I read the rest of Matthew 6, and in verse 19 Jesus tells us to “store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.” I started thinking about treasures and how

When I thought about glorifying God in my life I would often think about what I can do in my schoolwork, on my job, in my friendships, or in a future romantic relationship to bring Him glory, but I never stopped to think about how I could glorify God right now in a state of singleness. Of course I had constantly heard the single woman’s encouragement verse, 1 Corinthians 7:34, “The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.” but I never took that as a way to glorify God, it was more of an advantage of being single that I read whenever I needed to feel better about not being in a relationship.  One definition of the word “care” means to attach importance to. So you could read verse 34 as, “The unmarried woman attaches importance to the things of the Lord.” Whatever you think is important is what you give first place to. If you want to

Today, being in a relationship has become a god in our society. We idolize romantic relationships; making movies, TV shows, and songs about it. We plaster the words “relationship goals” to every cute couple on social media. And we even get bitter when we see our friends dating while we’re still single. The desire to be in a relationship isn’t necessarily bad, but when we start to settle just for the sake of being in a relationship then we hit dangerous territory. In times of singleness, it’s often tempting to settle for someone less than God’s best in order to satisfy our desire of being in a relationship. When we choose to settle, we’re telling God we don’t really believe that he will bring us the person we really want. As hard as it is, if they’re missing something you find crucial, then it’s best to let them go. We all have a dream of what our perfect mate would be. In the qualities we look for in our significant other, there are things that are negotiable and things that a

My freshman year of college, I had lunch with a friend of mine who wasn’t a Christian. We were just getting to know each other and I was telling him about some Christian organizations I was a part of. “Oh so you’re a church girl, huh?” He asked “Yeah, but I mean, I still want to go out and party.” I replied. He shook his head and laughed, “No, if you’re going to be a church girl, be a church girl. You can’t do both.” I was speechless, and his response has stuck with me ever since. I think a lot of young Christians live where I was during that conversation; in a position of straddling the fence with one foot in the Church and another foot in the world. I believed in Jesus, but I wasn’t quite ready to give my life up and completely live for Him. I could act like a Christian when it was convenient; when I was at church, or at a youth conference, or I needed a nice inspirational verse to post on twitter. But if you saw me in real life, you might not have been able to t

For the majority of my life, I tried to hide the fact that there was something different on the inside of me. See, I didn’t just grow up in a regular church, I grew up in a tongue talking, spirit filled, laying on of hands, casting out demons, speak to your situation, use your authority type of church. As a kid, when you know that much Word, it requires you to live your life on a higher standard. However I wasn’t ready to do that. I wanted my salvation and to walk in my authority as a believer, but I also wanted to fit in with the crowd. Eventually, I got to a point where I was all God’s on Sunday, but Monday through Saturday I was busy trying to figure out how I could blend in with the people at school. People at school cussed, I cussed. People at school smoked weed, I wanted to smoke weed. People at school got drunk, I wanted to get drunk too. I saw the lifestyle that everyone lived that looked so fun, and even though I didn’t have access to things like alcohol and weed in high scho

It’s been a long week of finals and now all you want to do it curl up on the couch and binge watch a couple seasons of your favorite show on Netflix. But before you log in, take a moment to stop and think about how binge watching television shows affects your heart. I speak for myself when I say that I had become so desensitized to the garbage I had let into my life through television. Every time I turned on the TV hatefulness, gossip, lies, greed, cheating, lust, etc. were everywhere. I wondered why I was so hateful when all I watched on TV were teens my age rebelling against their parents. I wondered why I was gripped by fear when I had to go outside at night when I constantly watched shows about murder. I wondered why I lusted after every cute guy that walked by when I was constantly bombarded with sex scenes. Jesus cautions us in Mark 4:24 to “take heed what [we] hear. With the same measure [we] use, it will be measured back to [us].” We can’t allow ourselves to listen and