Looking Back

As the first part of Advanced EXCEL is coming to a close, I have been looking back at the last five weeks and seeing what I’ve learned. It’s amazing how much you can learn in five weeks. God has taught me so much; that it’s going to take a while to process it all. I want to share a couple things that He has taught me.

The biggest truth that I have learned is the importance of God’s Word and the need to be in it. All the speakers that have come to AE have radiated God’s love and I know by looking at them and hearing about their lives, that they have a deep and lasting relationship with Him. Every one of them is constantly in God’s Word and you can see it in them.

From the first week with the Davis and all throughout Advanced EXCEL the constant theme has been God’s Word. I have always known that God’s Word was important and that I should be reading, memorizing, and meditating on it, but I never realized that my relationship with God depended on how much I spent in God’s Word. Meditation on the Word is what brings me to a close, deep relationship with God that I want. Meditating is the most important thing that we as Christians should be doing.

Even though it’s important, doesn’t make it easy. Meditation is hard work and a constant battle. We are always meditating on something; it’s just training our minds on what to meditate on that is so hard. It is one of my struggles, my battle with my old nature. For me to have that deep relationship with the Lord I MUST meditate, that’s the only way I’m going to get that relationship. But I cannot do it without God’s grace to help me do it. This is one area of my life that God has been working on me, and by His grace and His alone will I win the battle with my mind.

Another area of my life that God has been pounding on is who I am. I didn’t realize that the person I had made myself to be was a person that was built on lies and fears. I was not who Christ had made me to be, I was someone that was trapped by those lies and fears. It has been a hard, hard struggle working through my fears and lies and asking God to show me who I am, who He made me to be.

It has been a long process that has yet to be completed, but I am know that God will continue to reveal who He made me to be. Actually He is showing me right now, but it’s a slow process that takes a lot of time. It’s something that is not done in one day or hour. It is a matter of trust…trusting that God is doing something in my life, even though I don’t see it. As a plant never can grow in one day, I will not fully know who I am in one day. It’s hard, but, in the end it will be all worth it.

These two things are just a few of what God has taught me. It has been an amazing adventure that is going to continue for the rest of my life. It’s exciting; it’s hard; some days you don’t think that you can go on; but life is a race that we must persevere at. We can’t stop running, or we will loss the glorious prize in the end. Life isn’t easy, God never meant for it to be easy, but with God by our side, we can win! God isn’t watching us run; He is running right along side of us, helping us through every step of the way.

So don’t stop running, keep going, even in the tough times, “looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Through Him we can WIN!

Carissa