Ye Are His

I have to report a major praise. Living at home for the past 5 months, I have not been able to find a community of believers like I had in Auburn. I haven't felt at home in my church, even thought about visiting another one. A few weeks ago, I ran into a girl I went to high school with who goes to my church and has just moved back home after graduating. Unbeknownst to me, she is involved in a "young professionals" Sunday School class that I didn't even know existed (at my own church!) and said I should definitely come along. I have only been twice, but it has been such a blessing already! It's a small group, which I kind of like, and we have a married couple who I already know that teaches it. They are going to be alternating teaching time with a woman in her mid-thirties, married with no children. She taught today and seems really cool and relatable. She'll be teaching us about the ways of God...really just who He is and His core characteristics.

Today we talked about the fact that He is love, and the realities of that love. A major point was that He is a God of discipline and I want to share the definition she gave us: discipline - what happens when our loving Father steps in to lift us away from our own destructive and unfruitful pursuits. The phrasing really hit me. I am way capable of pursuing things that aren't for His glory. In fact, I have come to admit to myself that one of the main reasons I want to move off to a big city is so everyone will think that I'm doing something really cool with my life. That doesn't mean moving is wrong, because I honestly think sometimes I'd be happier in a place with more people my age and more job opportunities, but if I'm doing it to please men and to feel better about myself, then it's a selfish move. God hasn't opened any door for me to move yet, and I believe He is working on me in the area of contentment, one I struggle with repeatedly. In other words, He is disciplining me - to simply love Him and follow Him, knowing there will be showers of blessings, but not following Him in order to get the blessings, but because of who He is. I'm coming to see more and more each day that living in this humble state (with my parents in my hometown, not knowing exactly what I'm good at or what kind of work I want to be doing) is not some sort of punishment from our Lord, but in fact, is His good and perfect discipline, which is completely out of His love for us.

"...but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." - Hebrews 12:10-11