I'm reading this great book by Joel Osteen called "You're best life, NOW!"
I LOVE IT! It's really opening my eyes and showing me a side of God that I have forgotten about. The part of God that truly wants the best for me and wants me to be happy. I have had a saying for the past little while. "I think God has called me to a job that I'm not going to like." I'm starting to realize how wrong I am and how I have completed forgotten about the character of the God that I serve. God wants to bless me more than I could ever dream, and If I could see all that God has in store for me, it would blow my mind! I love God, and I've never stopped loving him, but I think part of me forgot why I love him. I love him because of who he is. He is Love. I love him because of his amazing character and his nature as my creator. I don't love him for what he's done, but I love him because of what motivates him to be so amazing and incredible. (thanks des, you're blog opened my eyes to that) I've also come to the realization that I need to start expecting great things to happen to me. In the book I've been reading, Osteen refers to a passage of scripture in which Jesus says, "You can't pour new wine into old wineskins." I've read this passage before and it never really sunk into my brain. But I now realize what Jesus was saying. When new wine is poured into a wineskin, the wineskin stretches out and looses its tightness. If you pour new wine into an old wineskin, the wineskin will burst, because it will have no more room to expand. Jesus is not going to pour blessings and fresh ideas into old attitudes. I've had a pesimistic attitude and I have expected that life is going to be hard. I've been meditating on the fact that we don't make alot of money, that getting a home is going to be nearly impossible for us anytime in the near future, that my job isn't going the way I want it to, and I've been dwelling on the impossibilities of my situations instead of praying expectantly that God is going to pour new wine into my life. I have made the decision to change my thinking, and I know that through this, God is going to change my life. I had fallen into the habit of feeling guilty all the time. I've tricked myself into thinking that every decision I make is the wrong one and that God is going to smite me because of it. I feel very freed by this renewel of my mind. It's a truth that I have known all my life but had lost grasp of. We say "God loves us" all the time, but if we really thought about that and believed it, then we would have no trouble tithing, our attitudes would be nothing short of excited and positive all the time, and spreading the gospel would be unavoidable for us. GOD LOVES US! And he wants to bless us. Not because we deserve it, but because he is just that crazy about us.
So I would like to publically thank God for my incredible job that fits me to a tee, the beautiful home I am going to own, the raise I'm going to receive at work, the joy I am going to maintain in my life, the Greencard I will soon hold in my hand, the unbelievable tangible and spiritual blessings that he is going to bestow upon me, because I have asked, I believe and I am his child. Some of you may be thinking, "What if nothing happens Kathy, what if you get your hopes up and nothing happens for you?"
I say, What if something does happen? Spending my life in eager expectancy, constantly thanking God is so much better than living it down in the dumps, not getting my hopes up. I say get your hopes up as high as you can get em' and thank God in advance for his incredible moving in your life. Get rid of the old attitude and choose to have a better one.
Do that, and Jesus will fill you with new wine, even if you're a Salvationist.
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