New Life w/ Christ

"Since you have been raised to knew life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven, where Christ sits at a place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of Heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory."
- Colossians 3:1-5

Since this summer I have been trying to honestly remember scripture verses and apply them to everyday things. A couple of years ago I had memorized Colossians 3:12-14, and I looked through Colossians chapter 3 and it is so amazing. So this summer I wanted to try and spend time to memorize chapter 3 of Colossians. I got away from it these last 2 months, but I have remembered different verses when things come up and its been so amazing.

Last night at my youth ministry class, we had a youth pastor come teach the 3 hour class (with a nerf-gun war in the middle for a break!). One of the things that he stressed was prayer and compassion. He challenged us to live a passionate prayer life so that when the students we lead see us, they become passionate too. But even more than that, to be passionate about prayer so that Christ fills us up more and more. WOW! I definately connected with what he said last night. I pray during the day and there are moments when I pray passionately for certain situations. But I can't and don't want to just pray passionately for situations, I want to be passionate whenever I talk to God about whatever! And I want to have compassion and love that comes from God. My fear is that I could grow numb and even calloused towards peoples emotions and troubles because I don't see them as God sees them, that I don't love them as God's children, that I don't have compassion for them that moves me. And there have been some challenging distractions that have occured already after 3 weeks of being here and I know there will be many more to come later on in this year.

Last night was an emotionally draining night, but after my roommate and I prayed, I didn't feel sadness anymore. I honestly felt joy about how beautiful and amazing God is! And it started happening this summer, when difficult things would happen but God would remind me of His glory. Is there anyway for me to adequately explain how glorious and beautiful my Heavenly Father is??? Where do I even begin to praise Him for all that He is and will be, for all that He has done and is going to do??? :)

I feel so loved by God, and it excites me so much that this is only the "beginning" of our relationship and that He will continue to reveal himself to me! And I can only think that things will get so much better as I become more and more passionate about prayer. PRAISE GOD! :)