Picture of the Day: Memorial Day

Does that flag still wave o'er 
the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

Picture of the Day: Rose for Jesus

I find roses absolutely breathtaking.  It may sound corny or strange, but my prayer is that I will be a rose for Christ--rooted in Him and receptive to His pruning so that I may bring Him joy.  May my heart bloom forth in beauty and sweet fragrance as I find myself in Him and seek to radiate His glory! 

Two Great Things

Wow.  I haven't been on here in a while.  So much has happened over the past several months I barely know where to start.  This past semester especially has been quite the whirlwind.  In the midst of all the busyness, however, God has been so abundantly faithful as He has worked in me in so many profound and exciting new ways.  I could ramble on forever regarding the things that God has taught me and shown me these past few months.  Right now, however, I will only touch on two areas.

The first thing God has really brought to my attention is the extreme awareness of how short my life really is.  This may sound morbid, but it isn't meant to be.  God has just really impressed upon me a sense of urgency to serve Him with every aspect of my life and in every moment of my life.   My life is like a fleeting vapor, one moment here and the next moment gone.  In fact, one hundred years from now, no one on this earth will know or even care who Sara Seeland was.  I need to stop living for this world and for my own vain pleasures, and put an end to the mindset that I will allow God to use me later in my life once I have "settled down."  No!  The time I have right now is precious, and there is no guarantee that I will be granted tomorrow.  My life is not my own, and beginning now I want my short breath of life to radiate that reality.  I went to spend and be spent for my Lord and Savior and to take every thought, deed, and word captive to Christ as I wholeheartedly follow Him.  I want to possess a heart that is so deeply rooted in Him that I am willing to follow wherever He leads me.  My life is so short, and I don't want to waste a moment on my own vain pursuits.  I so desperately want to glorify the Lord with my use of time, classes, relationships...everything!!!.  I want to be pursuing Him wholeheartedly NOW.  I am so thankful that God has opened my eyes to the light of eternity, and my prayer is that I will not lose this sense of urgency.  I wholeheartedly wish that God will use me, however He chooses, for the advancement of His kingdom.  

The second great thing God has shown me is that I was created to delight in Him.   Somehow, in making God my Lord and my Savior, whereby I have always sought to glorify Him and honor Him with my life, I have somehow missed that the key to all of this is delighting in Him.  I do not know how, but I have misunderstood this for so long, and I have therefore never truly delighted in Him.  Christ stated, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me."  If my heart is unmoved, my woship is vain and empty nothingness.  That's a chilling thought!  I fear that my greatest enemy has been my own misguided virtue.  I have sought to reflect the worth of God in my outward actions, but I have misunderstood that the  essense of true worship begins with the heart.  If I am simply pursuing God out of pure duty, it ceases to be worship.  Yes, there is an element of duty to worship, but there is so much more.   God has been so merciful, however, that though my longing and delight are so meager, He continues to draw near to me.  Thankfulness can't even begin to describe what the Holy Spirit has been doing in my life as my eyes are opened to God's glory and my heart is transformed such that I delight in Him simply for Who He is.  I have this new and longing hunger to see and know God better, a hunger that is so much deeper than previously.  And now, like never before, I can pray with the Psalmist, "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is" (Psalm 63:1).  As I stated earlier, I realize that my longing and delighting are still so meager, but I am so excited for how God is transforming my heart to one that earnestly desires to worship and glorify Him by delighting in Him.

I am so blessed for the ways in which God has worked in my life this past semester and I am so excited for the ways in which He will continue to do so.  My prayer is that God will continue to lead me as to what He has for my life and that He will continue to direct me as I pursue Him.  As I seek to be open to what God has for me and where and how He is calling me, I also pray that I will day by day grow in my love for Him, love which not only manifests itself in obedience, but also in true delight.