The thought occurred to me this morning, in only the way that God can lead my thoughts, that I have been given an amazing opportunity to influence people and encourage people. And I’m not alone in this – we all do.

Take a step back from your situation for a minute – & try to look at all that is in your life right now, job, hobbies, activities, relationships. Think about the people you come in contact with everyday. What if the purpose for all of it is to make sure you’re standing by Joe at Starbucks on Thursday morning at 8:06 to smile and say good morning. What if it’s about the people that God has placed in your life that are so difficult, that if you were to be honest, you try to avoid when possible – but what if there was purpose in those encounters as well – to mold and make you, but also to sharpen that other person by your lifestyle.

I just think that I miss it, being so focused on the details, that there is this whole mesh of events intersecting in my life to fulfill exactly what God wants to do – and it’s my choice whether or not I’m willing to be used by Him, aware that its even happening, or to stick my head back into the sand of details and issues. Of course – there needs to be balance in this, but if you’re like me, you just swing between extremes most of the times that that this is what I need to hear to re-correct my perspective.

But so often, I personally get caught up in my routine, being the detail-oriented person that I am, and get so focused on the obstacles and issues in my life that need to be worked out that I forget that all around me are people that I could be used to encourage, to challenge, to point to God.

What is it that God has uniquely designed you to do? Do you make people laugh easily? Do you draw people out in conversation by your willingness to listen and ask probing questions? Do you have this quirkiness about you that inspires others’ creativity just by the way you express yours? It’s not there just for you to enjoy – God’s placed it there to connect you to those other people, to encourage and influence them for His purpose – and He’ll use them if we let Him. If we’re willing to be aware that He’s already at work all around us, and is inviting us to join Him.

Scripture says that we long for Him, whether we see it as a longing to be comforted or to be rescued or to be affirmed- He is the sum total of all that we need and could ever want. AND when He uses what He has given us to reveal Himself to others, they will be drawn to us – and what will be give them in return? Where we will direct them from there?

In college, the analogy came to me of an arrow and a roadblock bench (is that what they’re called – those things they set up in roads to block the path – like on all the flooded streets in GA at the moment). I was walking on-campus at UCF, which at the time was always under construction, and had been struggling with yet again another failed relationship. By this time, God had gotten a hold of me enough to have at least dated a Christian guy. But it just didn’t seem to really have a different outcome than the rest – disappointed expectations, going in different directions, etc.

Anyways, as I’m walking past these roadblock signs, it occurs to me that this is what I felt was happening symbolically when I entered into these relationships, that as I’m walking with God and trying to follow His lead, I was getting distracted down these relationship paths that ended up at a dead-end, an impasse. And so being the black and white thinker that I am, I immediately concluded that this was God’s sign to me that He was calling me to singleness in my life. (yeah, dramatic, i know) – But then He continued to speak, which is often my problem, i jump to conclusions before He’s had a chance to finish communicating His thoughts to me.

He told me that I could find an arrow, someone that I could be in relationship with that would continually point me back to Him. That is wouldn’t be about someone ever fulfilling all my needs, or me theirs, but that it would be someone that God used in my life to remind me that He is my Source, and if he chooses to use that man to meet some of my needs, great. But if not, He is still my Source and it’s not the purpose of a relationship, anyways.

All this relates in that it’s stuck with me – not just in the context of romantic relationships – but in who I want to be to other people, and who I ultimately want to be around. Those individuals that are used by God to reveal more of who He is, and then continually point you back to Him. It means that they don’t go glory-seeking for credit, or try to even meet/fix your problems themselves, but they recognize their own depravity & need for Christ, and encourage you to go to Him as well. And it means being so filled up by God, allowing Him to teach me that my worth is in Him, that when I am used by God, it doesn’t become a threat to me – that I don’t start thinking that my ‘usefulness’ to God dictates my worth now.

So – that is what I want to be – an arrow – and that is who I feel challenged to be this morning, if God chooses in His infinite grace and mercy to use me to reveal more of Him to someone else, that it wouldn’t really be about me at all – but just pointing people back to their Maker, their Lover, their Redeemer, their Friend, their Comforter – to the One that is able to meet whatever need drew them in in the first place.

And we have that opportunity, even today, to point people back to Him!

^{Ephesians 5:15-17 –}
Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is.

I am feeling the need, with my lack of motivation/desire to do anything and nothing, to persevere, to remember what it was that God said last to focus on, and to do that faithfully while waiting for Him to reveal more of Himself. To stand firm in the things that I know He has asked me to do – be kind, faithful, generous, patient, loving – which could keep me busy for the rest of my life, and pray that He will complete these things in me as I wait.

I’m also feeling the need to cling to His Word, not because of its benefits to me anymore, but because it’s Truth, it’s solid, it’s unchanging, it’s my only Hope of maneuvering through this world with any purpose. So often I convince myself of the reasons why I should be obedient because of the benefits of said obedience, instead of just saying, “I love you, Daddy, and therefore I will obey. You are Lord, and have the right to my life.”

I was challenged by this today from an email that I received through this online mentoring program that I get the blessing and challenge of being a participating in. The girl was telling me that she’s heard all these reasons as to why she shouldn’t have pre-marital sex, from God’s Word, from other believers, etc., but even as a believer herself, she isn’t convinced, not even by the Holy Spirit inside of her that convicts of every time she has sex with her boyfriend.

When did we make Christianity about our benefit and not about being obedient to what God’s Word says? When did we make not have pre-marital sex more about avoid STDs than doing it because God says to honor the marriage bed? We accept His salvation greatly and gratefully, but we rejected His Lordship from the get-go with our attitudes of convenient obedience.

Maybe the ‘we’ really is just me – because I can only speak for myself – but I’m being challenged today, as Joshua was, to answer “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” -not serve my flesh, not serve my emotions, not serve my reputation or what others think of me – but serve the Lord, give Him my life, my time, my desires, my money – all of it.

“But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: “In the last days there will be people who don’t take these things seriously anymore. They’ll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts.” These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!

But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!

Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.

And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.”
– Jude 1:15-25

So, God has been continually bringing my attention back to the issue of purity, specifically regarding the struggle today that people are having (Christians included) with pornography and sexual sins. This is definitely not a topic that I am comfortable with, with my somewhat shy, reserved nature, but when God gives you a passion for something and persists in leading you towards it, at some point you just have to surrender to it if you want to go with Him.

Anyways, I was burdened again tonight with the fact that so many believers seem so desensitized to the sexuality that they promote, the lack of clothing that they wear, etc., as though they have no idea what this does to men, even their brothers in Christ, or that they don’t care. I choose to give them the benefit of the doubt that they have just been so exposed to the sensuality of TV/media, etc., that they no longer see the danger of it, and it just has slowly crept its way into their wardrobe and behavior.

But it burdens my heart for two reasons in particular. One, the immense struggle that people have, mainly guys, when it comes to being visually oriented, and seeing women wearing revealing clothing and acting in a provocative manner, especially when they are in an environment that is supposed to offer safety and shelter from this.

Secondly, it burdens my heart for these women, who for whatever reason, have fallen into the lie that they need to act this way for attention, or have just been so deceived into not seeing how it affects others around them. And in this, they miss so much of what God offers to those that desire and seek after purity of mind, heart, & body.

I’ve always been told that I’m ‘too sensitive’ and so often have felt as though this was a huge weakness personally. But I’ve come to see more and more of God’s purpose in creating me this way, that not in my own righteousness do I have the ability to see this, but in the specific way that He has created me that enables me to be set apart by my sensitivity to these issues to see it more clearly. Lord knows that I have had my days behind me, and even some days more recently in terms of my heart’s condition, that have been far from pure. But He has also blessed me with some experiences of Him that result from giving up certain things that were desensitizing me to Him, and once you have a taste of His goodness, you don’t want to turn back.

Anyways, i find myself so often responding in my flesh to others’ lack of purity, angered and frustrated by it, as though it’s a personal offense. But the Lord is slowing changing my heart to see that so often we’re blinded to these kind of things, and in the same way that I did not draw myself out of my own pits, others don’t have the ability to either, except through surrender to God, that is.

And it was very cool because tonight He led me to some verses of purity that can better help me to pray for myself, my marriage, and others around me by speaking God’s truth to it. He is the One that opens our eyes to reveal Truth, and the battle that we face is spiritual, so allowing myself to get frustrated or disappointed at individuals is just missing the point.

This is not to say that we, as believers, once we have learned the Truth that we don’t have personal responsibility in how we respond to this. I believe that we are called to pursue holiness, which necessitates purity, with all that is within us, in order to walk in the Spirit, abide in God, and to fulfill the purposes that He sets before us through His Spirit. And I believe that we forfeit this intimate nature of fellowship, the higher calling on our lives, when we settle for a remote relationship hindered by the ways that we settle for the lesser, impure things of this world.

^{2 Timothy 2:20 – 21}

“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use]. So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work.”

Scripture says that if we pursue our own desires long enough, the Lord will give us over to them. We will no longer hunger for the things of Him and no longer remember what it was like to experience anything better. It’s the anesthetic nature of sin – numbing us to the Truth for a while, but it never lasts forever, and we have to continue to go back to these broken cisterns to try to get another swig before we start to feel the pain and hint of emptiness in it.

consecrated – set apart, distinct from its surroundings

Does your life look consecrated? Does mine? Do we stand out like a light on a hill, because our purity and integrity speak so loudly for themselves, or do people only know that we’re Christians because we say that we go to church, attend a Bible study, pray before a meal? Do non-believers even see Christians as different anymore?

I challenge you to seek out personally what God’s Word says about purity – the promises offered those that pursue it, the benefits provided by those that abide there, and the dangers that come when we so easily forsake it. And until we can get freed from the bondage that this type of deception offers us, we’re never going to be able to reach out to the world around us to offer them anything other than a sympathetic handshake and nod, because we know what it’s like because we’re right there with them. I personally want to “see God” (Matthew 5:8).