Oh This Crazy Life!

Sometimes it's really easy to forget how absolutely crazy life can be!! with so much going on it's really hard to try to find time to just relax and be calm and not have a headache from stress! School being almost done, tomorrow my last diploma exam. as well as being a maid of honor at my cousins wedding, so a lot of planning with that. Then youth group at my church and trying to figure out with college next year and interviewing and job shadowing and work. Sheesh! the list goes on!! With all my day to day stresses it's easy to forget to "Be Still and know that i am God." Be still, relaxed, at ease, unstressed and know and believe that he is who he says he is. He is in all control and he will be faithful. I heard a really neat saying once. The common phrase people say today is "Don't just stand there, Do something!" what we all really need to know is that sometimes we need to say " Don't just Do something, Stand there!" we tend to fill our time with useless stuff to just get our mind off the busy activites of our day to day lives. Sometimes, we just need to Be Still and wait for God's direction. We actually had a really neat sermon in church this morning about whether we just Cope, or whether we conquer (Based on Saul's reaction to strife in 1 Samuel 28 and then David's reaction to strife in 1 Samuel 30). In 1 Samuel 28 we saw how Saul Sought after God. There was no relationship involved. Saul just sought. When Saul believed that God hadn't told him the answer of what was needed to be done, he sought help outside of God, thus coping with the problem on his own Strength. What saul didn't recognize was how God already told him what needed to be done about 5 chapters earlier. Because of Saul relying on his own strength, he was defeated in battle and greatly distressed. That is an example of just Coping when things in life get distressful. Our speaker today then went to give the example of how David didn't cope, he conquered. David returned home from battle (1 sam. 30) to find that the Amalekites had raided their home and taken their wives and children and everything and also burned their houses to the ground. I can't imagine the feeling of desperation he felt then and how tempted i would be to rely on my own strength (foolishly). Instead David "found strength in the Lord"(vs. 6) and inquired of him asking whether or not God wanted him to pursue the Amalekites and overtake them. God told David to overtake the Amalekites and so David did and by God's strength the Amalekites were defeated and David and his tribe recieved back their women and their children and all the members of the tribe, even the livestock. Nothing was lacking from what was taken from them. God is faithful and he wants to be our strength. When we find strength in the Lord, what can conquer us? God is on our side! even when life gets so crazy and overwhelming that you just want to cry, God is our strength, and he always will be if we just find our strength in him! hurrah!