No one ever said it was going to be easy and that it would all turn out the way that you exactly planed. "So then, why do I assume that it all will be?"

A dear friend captivated my attention for a good week with love and wisdom that came from a place of maturity that I didn't know was there. Same age as me, this person gave two truths that all would benefit greatly from!

Truth #2:

It's not about you and your relationship with God; it's God and your relationship with Him. I have been very stubborn about my dreams for my life...and it's cost me in my relationships, including God. I allowed my concept of God's will for my life to be more important than God's relationship with me. And all along I wondered why I felt stuck! How 'bout that?! The hand I extended to reach out to him was the hand I used to push him back.

One of my major problems is I'm over analytical and it's because I take myself way too seriously. Even when I mean well, I sometimes face resistance in my prayers and my worship. Amazingly, I know what He's thinking towards me: "Trust me...trust me...trust me..."

This is not a race. There is no need to have to prove to anyone how spiritual you are. Regardless of how far along or how much to come short in comparison, this is about simple purity, simple truth, simple faith. We are in Christ. He is in us. When you have Christ, you have everything. Why do we need more?

To look to yourself is to not look to Christ. To not look to Christ is to not see him as the only one. He is therefore insufficient to you - His blood, His favor, and His benefits. Living life is something that God has given to us to indulge in, with what he has predestined us for. We are not wanted by God for what we do FOR Him, but for what we do TO Him. God's commitment to us is relentless and for lack of a better term: stubborn. There is no escape from God's favor and love, as His own. An honest answer to God for the way he is towards us would be, "Leave me alone!"

Can anyone put a restraining order on God? You'd have to have God himself to carry it out.

The question that I'm sure the reader is left with is, "Why, then, am I not convinced of the presence of His benefits in my life?"

I say again...cast your eyes upon Jesus. Look full to his wonderful face and the things on earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

The cool thing about a relationship with God is that it's personal. It is not dependent upon the people around you and it is not dependent upon your performance. Love keeps no record of wrongs and rejoices with the truth. When I see how much God loves me, I find that I am right where I belong: In him and having him in me.

I now have a hard time beating myself up for my failures because the standard that I held myself to is no longer in sight. Yes there is a holy and sacred standard...and it is LOVE.