BE "THE ONE"

So Valentine's Day is coming up and if you're anything like me, you're probably single.... even if you're not keep reading. This message is for you too. I'm a seventeen year old girl, who frequently has her head stuck up in the clouds, thinking about all the "Somedays". I love romance movies & am a big fan of Christian fiction. I am just in love with the idea of being in love. I want to find "the one". I've come to find that this is a dangerous mindset. Why? Because we become so focused on finding that special someone that we forget about ourselves.

I recently listened to a sermon by Andy Stanley. He talked about how he gathered a group of singles to talk with them about the things they were struggling with. One woman's story caught my attention the most. She said she used to go out and spend her nights dancing in clubs and hanging out with friends. Her mom would always try to get her to come back to church and live a Godly life, but she never heeded her mother's words. One day she was sitting in a restaurant with some friends, when this handsome guy joins them. He was a Christian, and was polite, compassionate, and a man of integrity. You could see this by the way that he carried himself. God was definitely living in this man's heart. The woman went home to her mom and said, "Wow, mom, I met this guy and he is just perfect! He is the kind of guy I've always been looking for! He's the one" Her mom just looked at her with a sorrow in her eyes and said, "But honey, you're not the kind of girl he's looking for." The woman collapsed to the ground and began to cry, for she knew her mom's words were nothing but the truth. She wasn't the woman of God that that man would want in a wife.

This is what I'm trying to tell you. We focus so much on looking for "the one" that we forget a very important detail.  Are we "the one" for that significant other? Whether you're single or dating someone, you need to be cultivating a godly spirit in your heart. You need to be constantly growing your relationship with the Lord to become the man or woman of God you are destined to be. One of my favorite quotes goes like this:

"A girl should be so lost in God, that a guy has to seek him to find her."

That works both ways, man or woman, you need to be lost in God. He is your first love. He knows the desires of your heart. Devote your life to him & he will bless you with someone who is better than anyone that you could've found apart from God's love. That is how powerful he is. Awesome right?

            So, I encourage you to dig deep into God's word, because that is what will satisfy.

BUT WAIT! I'M NOT DONE YET!

           As you read earlier, I absolutely love to read. This week I re-re-re-reread "The Christy Miller" series by Robin Jones Gunn. She's an amazing Christian author. In these books the main character is obviously Christy and the love interest is Todd. The books follow Christy through high school, college, and her adult years. Christy first meets Todd when the ocean spits her out on the beach at Todd's feet. Romantic right? Todd is a christian, and they become friends. When you're reading from Christy's point of view she is an extremely insecure, typical, teenage girl. Todd is good for her though. He is the type of guy who challenges Christy to be a better Christian and to follow God's will. But Todd's not as perfect as he seems. Over the years Christy always wants their undefined relationship to be more, but she knows that if anything happens the guy needs to be the initiator. Still, this doesn't calm her frustrations with noncommittal Todd.

          Her theme verse over the books is Solomon 8:4"...Do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases." Christy looks back over the last 5 years of their relationships and is glad that they took things as slow as they did. She realizes that if they had become more involved with each other emotionally and physically (they hardly ever kissed, and when they did it was always in public) that they would have been blinded from many of God's calls on their life. Todd had always wanted to be a missionary. He finally got a chance a year after him and Christy became "official". He was going to give up his call because he didn't want to leave Christy. She forced him to live up to all his big talk and she let him go. She let him go where God had called him to go. She let him go across the world, thousands of miles from Christy. This is an example of what can happen when you start to arouse love. Christy knew that if Todd had stayed they would've been way too emotionally involved with each other at such a young age, when they needed to be focusing on other plans that God had for them.

  The point of all this, is here, whether you're dating someone or you're single it doesn't matter, this message is important for everyone. For one, if you're younger than eighteen there is really no point in dating anyways, you can't get married right? Secondly, if you do date, dating doesn't mean that you have to KISS! You don't need to kiss on the first date, or week, or even year. I'll leave that to your discretion.... but the point is that you don't need to be physical in a dating relationship. That's not what it's about. Dating can simply just be talking, getting to know that person's likes & dislikes, your similarities and differences, and things like that. You might be thinking that sounds more like hanging out with a friend than a boyfriend or girlfriend. Well, who doesn't want to marry their bestfriend? What is better than that? Cultivate a strong heart connection, that's what lasts in a marriage. Most importantly, make sure that God is always at the center. Make choices that will honor Him. Don't arouse love before it's time. One of my favorite things my mom has always told me is that whenever you date someone that's like giving away a piece of your heart. Then when you get married you won't have your whole heart to give to your spouse. How sad is that? So, don't just date to date. Be wise. Save your heart. You're a gift. Whenever you get lonely thinking about "the one", pray to God and ask him to quite those desires in your heart until the time is right. Also, pray for "the one". I've heard so many testimonies where spouses find out that they prayed for their future spouse at a time when they really needed it. It's not silly, pray for them. I even write letters to him. How awesome of a gift would it be to give that to your future spouse when you get marrried, and to be able to tell them that you waited for them. That you saved you're heart for them. That even before you knew them, you prayed for them and were thinking about them. 

 

Save you're heart & remember

BE "THE ONE"!

Peculiar Treasures

pe·cu·liar [pi-kyool-yer]  

adjective

1.strange; queer; odd:

2.uncommon; unusual:

3.distinctive in nature or character from others.

4.belonging characteristically (usually followed by to ):

5.belonging exclusively to some person, group, or thing

  
treas·ure [trezh-er]

noun

1.wealth or riches stored or accumulated, especially in the form of precious metals, money, jewels, or plate.

2.wealth, rich materials, or valuable things.

3.any thing or person greatly valued or highly prized: This book was his chief treasure.

Peculiar Treasures- What does that mean? 

Exodus 19:5 says, 
"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant then ye shall be a Peculiar Treasure unto me above all people: for all the Earth is mine." 
  
So a Peculiar Treasure is someone who obeys Gods voice and keeps His commandments even when the world is doing the exact opposite. Ask yourself this: "Can I be defined as a Peculiar Treasure?" So look at this--are you obeying God's voice? Some of you may be thinking, "God's voice? huh? How do I 'hear' God's voice?" Am I right? The following is Karen Wolff's (founder of Christian-Books-for-Women.com) answer to How to Hear from God:

How to Hear from God

"Wouldn't it be great if God decided to use billboards to talk to us? Just think, we could drive down the road and God would simply choose one of a zillion billboards to get our attention. There we'd be with a mapped out message straight from God. Pretty cool, huh?

I've often thought that method would certainly work for me! On the other hand, he could use something more subtle. Like a gentle rap on the side of the head whenever we veer off the course. Yup, there's a thought. God smacking people whenever they don't listen. I'm afraid we'd all be walking around in a daze from all that rapping "activity."

Hearing from God is a learned skill.

Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones like Moses, who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled upon the burning bush. Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God.

How Can I Tell if God is Talking to Me?

Here are some common ways God talks to us:

• His Word
  In order to actually "hear" from God, we have to know some things about God's character. We have to develop an understanding of who God is, and the way he does things. Fortunately for us, all that information is available in the Bible. The Book goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react, what kinds of expectations he has for us, and most specifically, how he expects us to treat other people. It's actually a pretty good book, given its age.
• Other People
  Many times God will use other people to try to get through to us. It's possible for God to use anyone at any time, but I find more messages coming from people who are practicing Christians than non-practicing ones.
• Our Circumstances
  Sometimes the only way God can teach us something is to allow circumstances in our life to lead us to and through the very thing we need to discover. One of my favorite authors, Joyce Meyer, says, "There's no such thing as a drive-through break-through."
• The Still Small Voice
  Most of the time God uses a tiny voice inside us to let us know when we're not on the right path. Some people call it "the voice of peace." Whenever we're contemplating something and we don't have peace about it, it's a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There's a reason you don't feel peace about it.
• The Actual Voice
  Sometimes we're able to "hear" something in our spirit that sounds to us like an actual audible voice. Or all of a sudden, you just know you heard something. Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something.

When God Talks, Shut Up and Listen

Let me give you an example. A couple years ago I signed up to become a hospital visitor for my church. When I first saw the notice in our church bulletin, I immediately felt that I should respond. But, I let it pass. Over the next couple of weeks, the thought occurred to me off and on so I said to myself, "If I see the notice in the bulletin this coming Sunday, I'll sign up."

Of course, it was in there. But this time when I saw it, there was no getting away from it. I finally had to say, "Okay, okay God, I'm going!"

So there I was doing hospital visits for the first time. I was nervous, but I prayed a lot before I went, and I was doing okay. But on my way to the second hospital, I prayed again that God would use me to represent Him to all the sick people, giving comfort, etc.

Right in front of the hospital was a crosswalk with a traffic light. As I stood at the corner I kept praying, starting to cross, even though the light was red. I mean, I was in a hurry trying to get to all those sick people!

Right in the middle of the street I heard, "So you want to represent Me, and you can't even make it across the street without breaking the law?"

I was so shocked by this, I said the most spiritual thing I could think of, "Oops."

God uses lots of things to talk to us. But actually hearing from God isn't so much a matter of if he's talking, but rather, whether we're listening. 

 So that covers the first part: Listening to God's Voice. Now how about the second part "Keeping God's commandments"? What does that mean exactly? It means to follow the rules that God has set for us. Read what Exodus 20 says:

Exodus 20

 ^1-2 "God spoke all these words: I am God, your God,
   who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
   out of a life of slavery.
³ No other gods, only me.
 ^4-6 No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things that fly or walk or swim. Don't bow down to them and don't serve them because I am God, your God, and I'm a most jealous God, punishing the children for any sins their parents pass on to them to the third, and yes, even to the fourth generation of those who hate me. But I'm unswervingly loyal to the thousands who love me and keep my commandments.
 ⁷ No using the name of God, your God, in curses or silly banter; God won't put up with the irreverent use of his name.
 ^8-11 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don't do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.
 ¹² Honor your father and mother so that you'll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.  ¹³ No murder.
 ¹⁴ No adultery.
 ¹⁵ No stealing.
 ¹⁶ No lies about your neighbor.
 ¹⁷ No lusting after your neighbor's house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don't set your heart on anything that is your neighbor's."

Okay, so now we know how to hear God's voice and we know what His commandments are let's take a step back and get some perspective. Ask yourself this question again, "Can I be defined as a Peculiar Treasure?" I want to challenge you to go out this week and be a Peculiar Treasure. Listen for God's voice and follow the rules He's blessed us with. Strive to be the person God has destined for you to be! I pray you'll encounter many Peculiar Treasures this week!