Being Fully Dedicated To God

I've been struggling to be really dedicated to God; mainly because, in order to be fully dedicated to something or someone, you have to love it or them, and know that any effort you put into the cause will be worthwhile.

For example, there was this kid named Jaydee who loved horses. He would get up before the sun, take some carrots to a horse farm, make a stew/mash for the horses that would simmer all day. Then, he would do a normal job running telegraphs back and forth during the day. Then, as soon as he was off, he would days home, change, and run to the horse barn to feed them the mash and brush them and all that good stuff. All his money from telegraph-delivery went to help support his mother and grandmother. He walked both to speed up the process and to save money. He bought the cheapest food for lunch that was possible. Why did he do all that? Why did he even both to help with the horses? Because he was dedicated to horses. He loved them. If he hadn't loved them, he couldn't have been that dedicated to them. But he was, and in the end, he became a very good jockey.

If you are totally dedicated, you will do pretty much anything for that person or goal.

My problem is, I have doubts. "Is God really there? Is he hearing me?  I've asked SO MANY TIMES!!!" I want to be sure that I'm pouring myself into a worthwhile cause.

The point of my saying all that is that, just so you know, this is a not-fully baked lesson. I'm still learning. But I've heard it said that you teach best what you need to learn most. So, that's what I'm doing.

I'm gonna start with a story of someone who was doing it right, just so you catch the vision.

William Carey totally dedicated to God. Mad wife, obstacles, poor communication, 4 children died before he did, 2 wives out of 3, missionary board working against him, other missionaries working against him, England working against him, no converts for 7 years, yet...learned languages, didn't give up, worked hard, translated a lot of stuff, fire and flood (stood, looked, wept, and rebuilt), gave money to support, lived godly life, loved mad wife, kept preaching, working with government officials to advance the kingdom. :-)

He knew God was faithful, and so he was willing to pour his all into an effort that seemed totally futile.

You can't be dedicated to God by your own effort, though. I've tried to be dedicated to God. I started a BL group. I tried to start a teens group at OB. I tried to memorize a lot of verses, and know a lot of Bible Trivia. Nothing, in the sense that I am totally dedicated to God. Those are all good things, and stuff I should do, but I've been trying to do them in my own effort, kinda to MAKE myself dedicated to God. But that won't work. It's like an elephant. My sinful flesh is like a big fat huge elephant, and my efforts to try to make that be dedicated to God are like a little girl trying to make an elephant go where it doesn't want to go. It may LOOK like it's working, but it isn't really. Just as soon as the little girl relaxes, the elephant will go it's own way again.

But, what if, the elephant was replaced by another elephant that wanted to go the same place the little girl wanted to go? Would it be hard to the little girl to guide that elephant? No! Therefore...

God has to be in you. He must have taken your whole life, and all your plans. Your body must be his. Otherwise, the elephant will keep going its own bad direction, and the little girl will constantly be fighting against it. He takes a few steps when he does this. First, he awakens you to your sin, kinda like Lazarus. Jesus had to raise Lazarus before Lazarus could walk out of that tomb, right? So, God awakens us. Then, we have to give our life to him, and walk out of the tomb. Kinda a no-brainer. But giving your life to Jesus can be rather tough. You have to be willing to give God control over every single nook and cranny of your life! For example, I've always wanted to be married. That's my number one goal in life. But God wants me to give that to him. It doesn't mean that it's a BAD desire. It doesn't even mean that I shouldn't have it. It just means that God wants me to surrender my whole life to him. He may have given me that desire so that I can give it back to him, so that he can return it when the time is right. But, oh! Is it hard to let go! You can't do it on your own. I can't do it on my own. I have to pray (and have been praying) for God to soften my heart so that I am willing to let go of everything. Even marriage. I'm still not there, but through fervent prayer, it can be done.

But what about prayer? It seems as if prayers aren't answered for a long time, if at all. I'm sure you've all heard that God has three answers to prayer, "Yes, No, and Not Now." But sometimes I think that God wants to say yes, but we haven't prayed enough! The Bible talks about the good news being hidden in jars of clay (2 Cor. 4). What if God just wanted us to dig? Dig in prayer? In the Bible, it says that if we ask for anything according to God's will, He will give it to us. So, pretend you are praying for an unsaved friend. Certainly something God wants, right? Pretend that it is a treasure hidden in the soil. You take a shovel, and dig one scoop one day. You don't see the treasure, and so you assume God has said "no" or "not yet". But this is something according to God's will! Do you really think he will say "no?!" But what if you dig 5 more times? Still no treasure. Others may commend you, saying, "Wow! You dug 6 whole shovelfuls! God must be saying no or not yet for sure!" But the treasure is still there! It is according to his will! You just haven't dug deep enough! Only have digging a hundred times do you reach it! Now, what if a friend joined you in praying for this person? Now, you have two people digging out of the whole, and it goes twice as fast!
So, every time you pray for something that you know is God's will, imagine a treasure buried in the ground. Each time you pray, you scoop a shovelful out of that hole. If someone else prays with you, you are both going at it, and it will go faster.

And God answers prayer!

It just requires perseverance. Any of you ever had your perseverance tested? Well, you're about to. I'd like each of you to stand up, and to hold your arms out for 3 minutes. I'll time you. :-)

Perseverance is hard, isn't it? Especially when you're doing it in your own strength. But, what if someone was holding your arm up. Would it have been any easier?

That's why we need God in us. You can't do it on your own. You can know all about it, yet not really know IT. You have to know the God you are dedicating yourself to. Imagine an airplane. You must be in it, in order to beat gravity. Thus, you must be in Jesus. You have to be in Christ, but He has to be in you for you to be in him. :-)

Accepting God's Design For You

Tonight was a very informal meeting... Jael and Abi were gone, Sophia and Kira were sick, and I did not have a whole lot of time this week for preparation! 

We had planned a hairstyle night, so several of the girls brought accessories, and Desiree brought a curling iron and straightener. 

Mary doing Rosemary's hair 

Desiree curling Larissa's hair 

Rosemary with her "poofy" ponytail 

Daisy fixing her own hair :)

Larissa looking lovely 

Cecily with her crazy braid giving Mary a ponytail 

Mary :)

Gloria making Daisy look "fancy" 

Cecily

Larissa's finished curls 

The lesson topic this week was accepting God's design for us. Insecurity is a huge issue with teens and preteens in America, and girls feel a lot of pressure from peers, movies, advertising, and family members. However, according to a poll Jael and I took of 42 girls (all Christian, many homeschooled or partially-homeschooled), the pressure is not nearly as great as it is for "the rest of the world". Only 2 out of the 42 girls said they were insecure about their physical appearance. 21 said they were "sometimes insecure" or "a little insecure", and 19 said they were not insecure at all about their appearance.

Still, I would venture to guess that at some time in our lives, all of us feel insecure for some reason or other. What we need to remember is that we are made in the image of God, that He designed each one of us uniquely, and the He makes no mistakes. When we try to change how we look or be someone different than who He made us, we're rejecting His perfect design for us. Romans 9:20 says, "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? 'Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"'" Dressing up, doing our hair in fun ways :), or otherwise trying to enhance the beauty God has given us is fine... in fact, I believe God has given us girls the desire to dress up, to try to look attractive, to have fun with our appearance. However, if we start obsessing over how we look and spending hours of our time on makeup or hair or making sure our clothes are in style, that's going too far! 1 Peter 3:3-4: "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." We are to focus on our relationship with God more than our outward appearance.

The root problem of insecurity is fearing men more than we fear God. If we're focusing first of all on the Lord, then being outward-focused and looking for ways to meet the needs of others, we'll forget all about our insecurity and our worries about how we look!

However, we still need to be careful about the image we are presenting to the world. We are Christ's ambassadors, and we are to reflect Him. Psalm 100:3 says, "Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." We are His, and we need to show that in the way we dress, act, speak, etc. We need to reflect Christ's love and joy in the way we speak and act, and be honoring to Him in the way we dress. The world's styles should not be the standard; instead, we should dress in a way that is first pleasing to the King, then honoring to our parents, then honoring to those around us, and lastly pleasing to ourselves. Things to evaluate are:
1. Am I portraying myself in a Christlike way, or am I trying to draw ungodly attention to myself?
2. Do my parents approve of the way I dress? (We don't have to dress according to their likes and dislikes... my mom and I have TOTALLY different tastes when it comes to dress. However, we do need to respect  their standards for us, such as whether they want us to wear makeup, avoiding styles they disapprove of or think are inappropriate, etc.)
3. Am I dressing modestly so that I don't cause anyone to stumble, and respectfully to show others that I care enough about them to not dress like a slob?
4. Do I like the way I dress? Does my appearance reflect the personality God has given me and highlight the beauty He has bestowed on me, or am I trying to copy the world's styles and trends to look like someone I'm not?

There's nothing wrong with trying to look stylish, but often things that are popular with the world have very negative associations.
There is nothing inherently wrong with carrying a realistic-looking toy gun around all over the place, but you will scare a LOT of people if you do so! If you could somehow travel back in time to the Middle Ages with a toy gun, these associations would not exist, since guns had not been invented yet! The image of the gun would earn you some blank stares ("What is that thing?"), but would not have people running away from you and screaming. :) Today, however, the image of the gun has such associations that it will elicit quite a bit of nervousness from those around you if you choose to carry one around (which I don't recommend).
Likewise, many clothing styles have negative associations that will get you categorized as rebellious, disrespectful, or ungodly just based on your appearance. It's important to use discernment to avoid some of these associations, but of course, we should avoid taking this too far. Every dress style has some negative associations; we just need to be sensitive to how we're presenting ourselves and make sure we're glorifying God with our appearance.