It's been a long time my loves since I've blogged. I hope you all are doing well. I gotta get this blog out...
So, I was
driving to work this morning and I was praying. It takes me 30-40 minutes to
get to work in the morning, sometimes I listen to music, but lately I’ve found
beauty in the silence and have enjoyed talking to God during this time. I was
talking to God about my future husband and how whoever he is I want us to be
able to talk to one another about anything and everything. I was just noticing
that sometimes I miss out on moments with the people that are in my company at
the time because my attention is divided and I’m on my phone (i.e. texting,
Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc.) or doing multiple things. So, I was praying
that whenever, God decides to cross our paths that we would be able to give one
another our undivided attention when we go out and truly be able to talk to
each other. You know #RelationshipGoals. While I was
praying about this, God placed marriage in general on my mind and I began to
think about how rare it is that couples stay together and how awesome it is
when you hear couples say things like, “We’ve been married for 50 years!” You see
so many instances where marriages are short lived and don’t end up lasting. It
seems like no one stays together anymore.
I get to thinking about this and God
begins to show me how I have a tendency to think, “Gosh, no one takes vows
seriously…”and how I see relationships and marriages not work out and I judge
them thinking you made vows, to stick by one another in sickness and in health,
through the good and the bad, til death do you part and you just walked away
like those vows meant nothing. (Yes, I understand there are cases when people
need to get out of their marriage because there is abuse, etc). So, y’all know
God checked me lol! It’s so easy to think something about certain topics, or
judge people sometimes unintentionally until God shows you yourself in that
thing! This is what He showed me…You can be quick to judge those who’s
marriages and relationships are incredibly short lived or they cheat on their
significant other, but how often do you walk away from me and cheat on me?!? Mariah,
you are guilty of this, when it comes to your relationship with me. You say
you’re committed to me, but as soon as things get difficult, or you get in your
feelings, or your body says it’s tired…you give into it and stop coming home to
me. I’m the one thing in your life that is CONSTANT and
you walk away from me and neglect me for temporal things and people that can
never be there for you all the time. I AM and ALWAYS will BE and you
leave me for TEMPORAL. You’ve
got idols littered in your life that you’ve allowed to take my place. You walk around calling yourself a Christian, you made
vows to me and took that name, but your relationship with me exists when it is CONVENIENT for you.
Don’t
treat your relationship with God like a marriage of convenience. Your
relationship with God is a beautiful gift and should be treated as something
you treasure. #RelationshipGoals
A Christian is a follower of Christ, someone with a relationship with
me. You took my name, but you don’t always come home to me. You’ve been a nominal
Christian lately, Mariah, a Christian in name only, but your lifestyle has not
reflected that you are a Christian or that you belong to me. You’ve gone days…weeks…months without
seeking me out, without diving into my Word and allowing me to pour out into
you. You’re running on empty because of your lack of time spent in my presence.
It’s
kinda difficult to pour out to others, when you’re empty.
Plug
into me.
Not
just for them, but more importantly for you. #StayPluggedIn #RelationshipGoals
So you’re
not out there having sex, going to the club, cursing, stealing, killing people,
etc. And yea, you still attend church on Sundays, but you’re going through the
motions. You’re trying to keep up the appearance of a Christian to save face in
front of people. You’re more concerned with what people think than about really
working on our relationship.
So after He hit
me with that I’m just like #convictedmuch #completelywrecked. I got wrecked again as I typed this blog, with tears streaming down my face. After, God wrecked me, He enlightened me and gave me revelation. We as Christians have to get to a place and come to a point
where through everything we don’t forsake our relationship with God. Through
friendships, relationships, breakups, emotions, feelings, ups & downs, good
times & bad, dry seasons & fruitful seasons, losses & gains, smiles
& tears, trials & tribulations, sickness & health that regardless
of it all we come home to God. We don’t ignore, neglect, forget, or walk away
from Him.
We need to
get like Job. Even after losing everything, he remained faithful to God and did
not curse him, on the contrary when he lost all his possessions
and family he fell to the ground and worshiped God:
“Job
stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the
ground to worship. He said, ‘I came
naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord!’ In
all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.” ~Job 1:20-22
Lord, grow
faithfulness within us, grow a Yet Will I
Praise You within us that in the midst of anything and everything, and
despite changes in circumstances our praise will remain. And we won’t abandon SHIP when our RELATIONSHIP with you is met with some turbulence and difficulty.
When our surroundings are no longer pretty and we are stripped of people, let us
still come home to you and have a Yet
Will I Praise You spirit. It's easy to praise God when everything is going great, its harder when things are bad. That's when you have to sacrifice a praise, and have a Yet Will I Praise You moment!
We should treat our relationship with God like a treasured relationship not a marriage/relationship of convenience. The status of our relationship with God should not be it's complicated because there are other parties (idols) involved. #relationshipgoals
Something else God showed me is that our relationship with Him is going to require us to press
sometimes. You’re going to have to push past your flesh and your excuses. You’re
going to have to press in order to get into His presence. You’re going to have
to be intentional. You’re going to have to prioritize God because the reality
is you’re not going to want to pray all the time, you’re not going to want to
leave the comfort of your bed to press into His presence. You’re not going to
always want to read your bible. You’re going to feel too tired to go to bible
study. That time of month is going to roll around and all you’re going to want
to do is curl up in bed and watch Netflix. But, if we truly desire a
relationship with Him, we have to realize that it’s not going to be a walk in
the park. Your relationship God is going to require press and work.
Relationships are a two-way street. You have to put something into it for it to
work.
The last thing He showed me is striving to please Him, should always trump striving to please people.
I don’t know
if this blog was for anyone else or if it was only for me, but let me tell you
something about God: He will wreck you, enlighten you, and then he will restore
you. God will be the Hosea to your Gomer, loving you unconditionally even when
you place idols before Him, going after you when you leave & run away from
Him, find you valuable when everyone else sees you as worthless &
disposable, and He will buy you back when you sell yourself (Hosea 1-3). He
will restore you like Jesus did Peter after He denied Him three times before
the rooster crowed (John 21:15-17). And He will welcome you with open arms like
the Father did, when the Prodigal Son returned home and celebrate your return
(Luke 15: 11-24). We all mess up and make mistakes, but, Romans 3:23-24 tells
us, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet
God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this
through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” Let me
tell you what the commentary in my NLT Life Application Bible says about these
verses, “Paul explains that God declares that we are righteous. When a judge in
a court of law declares the defendant not guilty, all the charges are removed
from his record. Legally, it is as if the person had never been accused. When
God forgives our sins, our record is wiped clean. From his perspective, it is
as though we had never sinned. He could do this because Jesus took the penalty
that we deserved. Christ purchased our freedom from sin, and the price was his
life.” If this blog sounded like you, pray, repent, turn away from that thing,
and know that you are forgiven. God loves you so much and so do I. I pray this
blog blessed someone. Oh, and one last thing make these #RelationshipGoals a reality. Don't abandon ship, as in your relationship with God. It is important, necessary, vital and a beautiful gift.
Love
you bunches,
Mariah
Some of my favorite worship music...Enjoy my girl, Steffany Frizzell Gretzinger (Yet Will I Praise You) and Hillsong (Touched The Sky)
