To be more like Jesus

Taking a break from studying this morning, I was catching up on a new issue of the SetApartGirl magazine. I love reading these articles as they offer a lot of topics I can relate too. An article in their recent Mar/Apr 2014 issue really spoke to me this morning. I am not much of an arts/creative person (as much as I wish as I was), a paragraph in this article really spoke to me.

“God did not purchase us with the blood of His own Son, to be “free to be who we want to be”. He has set us free to be conformed to the image of His Son. God desires us to be more like Jesus, not more like ourselves. The Bible says the He must increase and we must decrease (Jn. 3:33). Our talents, creativity, skills and abilities must all be surrendered unto God, to be tools used to  glorify Him, and not draw attention to ourselves.”

“Creativity’s Creative Deception” by Elsje Zornes

Wow!! Time to think and rethink how I have been living my life. Have I surrendered completely unto God, not just saying so but also my actions, skills and abilities? I am God’s tool. God use me to glorify YOU. I find myself having to catch myself on  how often I think about receiving recognition. It is such a dangerous area. Even going into things with the right motive, sometimes I feel swayed to think different thoughts. I am not a spotlight seeking person, but sometimes these attention seeking thoughts do pop up. This is such a great reminder that all I do should be glorifying God and furthering His Kingdom and not for my own attention seeking ways or my own recognition.

LORD, guide me to be more like Jesus and not like myself. amen.

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Christian Resources

I want to share a couple of Christian online resources I really enjoy reading.

1. Boundless.org is a Focus on the Family site, geared towards young adults. D introduced this site to me when we first started dating. They have tons of resources regarding dating and life from a Christian perspective. I also enjoy listening to their weekly podcast so much that I have it automatically download onto my ipod every week.

2. Setapartgirl – This is site is run by Leslie Ludy and her team. Leslie and her husband Eric Ludy are well-known Christian authors. She then started the setapartgirl magazine which publishes online every other month. This magazine’s purpose is to point young women towards Jesus. I find this magazine inspiring and encouraging. I really enjoy reading the stories and articles these women have to share.

I’ll be sharing from these sites and others whenever I find an article or story that I really like.