Well, I asked for it....

Does this sound familiar?

"I'd rather take bad times with You by my side
Then nothing at all with You gone from my life"

Haha, Our God is so ironic. Be careful what you wish for, cuz you just might get it! Well, I got it. Praying and praying for redemption, and I get totally ignored yet AGAIN by someone I really care about and just want to be reconciled and redeemed with. But I know what God's doing. He's testing me. "Are you going to trust me when the going gets tough, and it LOOKS like I'm not going to fulfill My promises?"

Uhm, of course. Can't chase me off that easily. ;)

The truth is that the devil can chase me off that easily. Because yesterday, I was on the verge of breaking. I wouldn't talk to God. But He has the Amazing Grace to keep knocking.... keep knocking... Stubborn Christina, open the door for Your Prince... keep knocking... I love you, Christina.... knocking, knocking, knocking.

SO basically, He helped me open the door that was too quickly sealing. God's Mercies are new, EVERY morning. We've just got to remember that. So, today's been a good day, spiritually. Because I came to the conclusion that God is just testing me. Besides, God promised redemption. And I'm pretty sure God even gave me a timeline (kinda hard to explain, so...yeah.). But now He's seeing if I'll really trust Him; if I REALLY want Him through the bad times rather than not at all. And it's true, I want my relationship with Jesus to only grow stronger. But it's hard, having all these bad times, no redemption yet. So I am asking that you'll pray for me. Pray that God will give me the strength to run to Him, my True Lover and True Prince, when it seems like nothing's going the way I want it to go. I've got tunnel vision, but Christ sees the whole view, not just the view from inside the tunnel (though He sees that too... He humbles Himself to see things from our point of view and sympathize with us even though HE KNOWS what's going to happen! (He even does that in the Bible! : John 11) I don't deserve His love.

So I was reading an article. And I came across something amazing.

Lamentations.

Bam. Right there. I know, you just passed out in your chair from all the...amazingness.

No, but seriously! This book is all about the prophet Jeremiah lamenting (hence, Lamentations...) The seige of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC (Babylon was under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, remember him? Think Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego). So in this book, Jeremiah is all "Woah is me! Woah is this country. But God is still here. I haven't read it yet, but that's what this article basically said. So in a time in my life where I'm saying "Woah is me... where's the sympathy ice cream?" God has a BOOK for it! Two actually, including Job, specifically devoted to hard times. When I sing Amazing Grace, I really mean it. Because His Grace... is Amazing. It's Awesome. Literally, full of awe. He is FULL OF AWE.

So I have a challenge for you:
Read Lamentations with me!
Are you going through a hard time in your life where you just can't see God involved? Read Lamentations. We'll do it together. :)

Prayer requests (Comment if you have a prayer request):
For me to trust God and have faith. To continue to give everything to Him.
For courage. September's the month of courage, according to 89.3KSBJ. I'm specifically praying for the men in our lives, whether it be fathers, brothers, boyfriends, friends, or anyone for that matter to have the courage to stand up and be the leaders that God has created them to be.
And for all of us. We all could definitely use courage and faith. Give it all to God. I promise you won't be the lesser for it!

While I'm on that note, check out this song from the new movie coming out from Sherwood Pictures, Courageous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkM-gDcmJeM

Where are you, men of courage?
Let the men of God arise.