Protecting Your Path

Since moving back home last July, I took a break from the church searching- just attending sporadically. God fed me spiritually despite my lack of interest in being spiritually fed. I think that I just spent so much time searching for a place that felt like a church home in Charleston, that my spirit just needed to regroup and refocus on what I really wanted in a church body. After all, I had just completely rip the cord from old life and stepped into a new one. To say that I was overwhelmed, well, that was an understatement. 

Last September/October, I began to feel my way back into the church body, by joining a small group of ladies that in which one of my best friends was a part. Re-ignition was taking place, but I still attended church out of when I felt I needed to go, rather than making it a priority. 

In January, I decided to make a commitment to attend church on a regular basis. My parents attended church in Suwanee that I began joining them at, along with my brother. While I wasn't sure that I wanted to call this place home just yet, I enjoyed going and reconnecting with my roots. 

Attending church with your parents, it is much different as an adult than when you are a child, but as an adult you notice things about your parents and their faith that you may have never noticed. For example, the value of commitment, hard-work, service, investing in your church and its future, and developing relationships, among others. It is these simple things that are at the cornerstone of belief in Christ as our Creator. It is from the belief in Him and sharing Him that all of these things come to fruition.

It used to be that I would think, oh, I wish I had had more boyfriends or I had experienced things that other people experienced. I used to think I was missing out. Lately, I have come to realize that all of these things were kept from me in the light of the protection God has evidently placed on my life. I may experience life in a different way because God knows what I can handle. He is my Protector. So now, when I hear about people experiencing things both good and bad that I haven't, I am completely at peace in the knowledge that my Protector knows better than me about what is right for me. Some people know there path from an early age and others God reveals later and at a more leisurely pace that we can handle. I don't know my path, but I'm certain my Protector has paved a way for me to get there, if I just let Him do it. 

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace."- Acts 20:24

Today,  the pastor was discussing the "Seven Highly Effective Habits of Christians" in Acts Chapter 20, in relation to Paul's final journey to spread the gospel.  One that we must know is that we are all ministers of the Gospel, no one is greater than the last, as well as the fact is our job to choose to grow in faith and minister to the groups God has called us to minister. If you have children, nieces/nephews, younger siblings, coach a team, or whatever other group you might lead, the Holy Spirit has called us to lead and minister to them. I feel honored to have a new group of people that God has called me into ministry for- my new sisters in my small group. I can only trust that as I choose to keep watch of my faith, that He will equip me to minister to them, as they will to me. 

"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood"- Acts 20:28