What a busy week it has been! I flew back to Arkansas on Monday. It was my first time having to catch a connecting flight by myself, but everything went as smooth as possible. I'm glad to be back at JBU. It's always nice to get into a routine again. I'm taking 18 hours this semester, so I'll be quite occupied with classes, and I think that, by the looks of it, this will be my most challenging semester academically. I'm up for the challenge though. I can't wait to see what God is going to teach me and how He's going to work in my life and transform me more into His image this semester!
Towards the beginning of this week, I was plagued with all kinds of worry. I worried about basically every single thing that there is to worry about. Would my books get here on time? If they didn't, would I be able to find someone to borrow them from? Is there a certain amount of money that I should be saving each year? What's sort of funny and like a slap in the face is that just last week part of a sermon was about not worrying, and I thought to myself at the time, "I'm not the sort of person who worries. I have peace about things in life." Wow. Don't ever think that you're immune of a particular sin or habit, because then you'll be proved wrong the next week.
Since I was saved when I was a fairly young child, there was not really a big change in my life, or, at least, not that I can remember. I wasn't some alcoholic who never tasted alcohol again after being saved. I wasn't a drug addict. No, I was a child, still possessing innocence, but still filled with the sinful nature. Even so, I can still measure God's grace in my life to a certain extent, even though His grace to me is immeasurable. I look around and see those who don't have a relationship with God. I could have been a rebellious teenager and have a child out-of-wedlock. I could have become an alcoholic or a drug addict. I could have had extreme anger issues and perhaps murdered someone. But, by God's grace, none of those things have happened to me. I am so thankful that God found me and chose me. Of course, due to the sinful nature inside of me, I am still largely capable of doing any of the aforementioned deeds. Hopefully, though, by God's grace, I can continue on the path that I am on-- following Jesus.
Words I learned this week: lintel, paragon, conflate, colophon, heuristic, exigent, aberrant, irrefragable, concatenate, desiderata, opprobrium.
I leave you with an admonishment from Galatians 6:7-9, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
I hope that you'll choose with me this week to sow to please the Spirit. I'll fail, you'll probably fail, but thankfully God's love never fails.
Leah
