I haven't updated in a while since finals and everything has been all over the place.
So before I go into this message, I just want to say that I watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 yesterday and it was AMAZING. You have to see it if you haven't. So many feels . . . almost cried, but didn't : > I still reign as the stone face of the movie theater mwahaha . . . though I think HTTYD3 might break the streak . . . or is it 4?
So I have two worship songs for this topic and the first is "I Am Set Free" by All Sons and Daughters：
So todays topic that I am going to talk about is Grace from Bondage (funny how it has the same thing as my brother's sermon, God works in mysterious ways)
So I noticed this a lot in other people's lives and my life too. We chain ourself to too many bondages.
The first week of summer is probably the boring-est part of your year. There is nothing to do which leaves plenty of room for the devil to trick you. You may be obliged to things that you would usually say no too.
Some of the biggest things the devil uses to mess up your mind is lustful thoughts, gossip, and poor language. Be truthfully honest with yourself, have you been stuck in these things? I certainly have.
You sit around bored and you think of one of those things and you find it very interesting at the moment.
I was reading my A.P. English Language book and read into a very sexually impure part that I had to examine and answer on. The problem was, it was very descriptive. I couldn't stop myself before I got a twinge of interest towards this type of topic. Near the end, I felt so regretful and guilty that I read and had pleasure in reading such a horrible thing. Just a required book from school opened up my mind to things it never thought before. If you looked into my mind before that reading, it's all about God, dragons, peter pan, etc (innocent stuff).
Then I read a few devotionals the days after that lifted my spirits and taught me something.
Before I had quiet time, I felt very depressed and started to think that God would never forgive me for thinking of such horrible things and that I just got my first class ticket to hell, forever. Because it kept coming up in my mind and I couldn't control it. It was a bondage that was a burden with my walk with the Lord.
Then I read two verses one night that lifted my burden:
"Search my, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1
I remembered that God is a forgiving God and all I need to do is give my burden to him. Let him do the offense for me, not by myself. If I did the offense, I would just fall down again and be in the same bondage or worse.
I gave it to God that morning when I read the devo. I finally realized that God knows my internal struggles in my mind and I know that God will take those evil thoughts and destroy them. After that prayer, I wasn't interested in lustful thoughts or anything impure like that. God is keeping his hand of protection over my mind and for that I am very thankful. I still have to read that book to get a good grade in high school, but I won't let the content control my thoughts and the way I see things ever again. Because God is there and the devil can do nothing against him.
From this trial that I have been through, I was reminded that God gives grace to any type of bondage that I chain myself too and never assume that once you do a really impure act you can go nowhere but hell.
Funny how trials come in the strangest ways but you become stronger and learn more from it?
Trials that lead us to bondage are going to shoot at us continually and we have the learn to stay steady under God because we have to give it to Him to keep us away from those evil things of this world.
The last song is about grace and it is "Like An Avalanche" by Hillsong United. This is a cover I made for the purpose of worship so excuse my not-so-good voice :P
- あむ
