Every time I refer to my life in segments of time, I refer to them as semesters simply because I'm a college kid. Each semester I have a phrase or a word that correlates with what God is doing in my life, or what I am hoping to achieve. For instance, two semesters ago it was "discipline" because I had come from a previous semester of straight up complacency and thought that I was doing alright. Last semester it was "valley of vision" because I was in a season where I felt like God was no where to be found, after I had an amazing summer growing in my knowledge of Him. It felt like I hit a brick wall last semester, I wasn't encouraged..and even when I was surrounded by friends I felt crazy lonely. God has shown me such great things through that season though. It was a time where I felt abandoned only to realize I never was, and eventually it made me realize how much I wanted to be near to Him. (There's an awesome poem called valley of vision that a sweet friend showed me and it immediately became the name of this period of time in my life because I loved it so much.) Now, for this semester it's "Choosing Holiness," see what I did there? :) But really, this semester I am realizing the importance of choosing holiness every single day, only by the grace of God, because it's a choice to live like Jesus. You're not going to wake up in the morning feeling like you want to serve people, love people, not yell at people when they cut you off on the road, etc.. Our nature is to be angry, jealous, self-centered, unsatisfied. BUT GOD, is calling us to throw off our old self and chase after Him. Chase after His holiness and to be holy because He is holy. (1 Peter 1:15) I say all of this because over the break for Christmas, I went through a situation where I chose to live in my flesh. God showed me that I was prone to wander, prone to justify my sin and say it wasn't really "that bad." Let's just say that moment scared me, and I realized how much I needed Jesus. How none of this "choosing holiness" stuff can happen on my own. So, be encouraged! None of this can we do on our own, only God can do it through us.

"People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.
We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." -D.A. Carson, "For the Love of God"

Be encouraged, you were created for MORE.

Jenny


"For this is the will of God, your sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4:3