Sunday, June 7, 2009

My Communion message- May 24-2009

I’m still not really sure what I should be saying for communion so I decided instead to share through my personal experiences with Jesus over the past few weeks and the amazing things he has provided me with and hopefully you will get something out of it.
So I was sitting at home on Thursday with flood pouring down around me thinking about what to write for communion...and I decided I wanted to focus on the joy Jesus has given me and praising God no matter where we are in our lives.
A few weeks ago I went through some hard stuff, I really struggled and I just cried out to Jesus... his response was “Not just now, Don’t just cry out to me when you need something” Habakkuk 3:17-18 says: “though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the lord, I will be joyful in God my saviour” that really impacted me and just made me realise how incredible my life is and that everything I have is from him, and yet the only time I manage to reach for him it is because something is not right.
I was looking back to my relationship with Jesus over the past year and it actually reminded me of a dog we had when I was younger, this dog rarely came near me and when it did it was only because it was hungry or after I had just fed it... over the past year I only reached out to Jesus when I needed something, when something was wrong, when I was upset... and I only praised him when I had received something or when something good had happened, this year has been stressing me out a lot, especially year 12 and I’ve been feeling pretty down and so far from God
If any of you saw me last Sunday during worship, I completely broke down- in a good way, I lifted my hands in praise to God and just started crying... firstly crying is a rare thing for me but it wasn’t just any crying I was shaking and tears were streaming down my face... at that moment I just realised how incredible my life actually is, how much God had given me... friends, family, health, opportunities, education, happiness. And for once it wasn’t just about circumstances, I realised that circumstances will always change, bad things will always happen, but God is always there, Jesus died for us, he endured such a painful death in order to give us life and even when we stuff up he still forgives us and promised us eternity with him in Heaven. I realised how much God had given me and how little I praised him for that. I completely re committed my life at that point and it is the closest I have felt for ages.
Over this past week Jesus has just been helping me to see the amazing things in my life, he has been helping me to see the good even in the bad situations and showing me that everything in my life is there for a reason, whether person or opportunity. He has just been redirecting my focus, to the bigger picture and the opportunities that will come from things. He didn’t change any situations, he just helped me to see it differently. I have found that by praising god even when bad things are happening I have become so much more joyful, and have such a deeper insight into life.
I have learnt over this past week that = When you say God is awesome, or openly praise God, people generally jump up in excitement and think something awesome has happened – like your cured of a disease, you passed a test, you found love... 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: Be joyful always; pray continually give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus. No matter the circumstance, no matter the problems in your life, no matter who is around we should go out of our way daily to praise God, because we all have life and none of us here has been through half as much as what Jesus went through, and he didn’t do that for himself, he did that for us. We don’t need good situations in order to praise him... he died for us to have life and I think that’s worth praising for.

1 comment:

  1. Sezrat, your heart is so beautiful! Thank you for being brave enough to share some of it! I love you and I am so excited for everything going on in your life. I miss you! xoxo, Rach

    ReplyDelete