Monday, June 24, 2013

Baptized!

So, this past year something has started in me, and while I still don't know all of it, I just wanted to share it with you! This past winter I did what is called a Sozo session (For more information or to find out if YOU should do one, click here. Our church also does sozo sessions right here locally if you want to do one!). For a long time I felt like God just wasn't speaking to me. I never realized I might not be listening! I desperately wanted to hear God, but felt I wasn't. During a sozo session can be very personal so I wont share all the details, but I want to share one huge part of what I got out of it. I had been hearing God's voice all along, but I had allowed myself to grow accustomed to ignoring it. That little voice in my head had been ignored by me for so long that I convinced myself it was me just "thinking" and not God. Finding that connection to God again has been amazing! I have found myself growing in my spiritual walk with God incredibly! Slowly but surely I have been working to respond to that voice. Our relationship is a two way street. Since God is ALWAYS waiting with open arms, when we find ourselves distant, we need to evaluate what steps WE are taking to continue that relationship!

Well, to continue the story..... growing up I had never felt that getting baptized was a huge deal. I knew it was important, but I didn't feel like it was required, and I never felt strongly like I needed to do it. Then about 2 years ago, at our church picnic, I had SUCH a strong desire to get baptized! I ended up chickening out because for some reason I felt so uncomfortable about it. I thought about doing it a few times after, but again, something just never felt right. This past Saturday our pastor preached a GREAT sermon. A part of it was the importance of getting baptized. It just spoke to me! You can listen to Pastor Harvey's sermon here (ha ha, just kidding its not up yet, I will add it in at a later date! You can listen to other sermon's here). I still didn't do anything about it. I had to run home during the picnic that we do our batpisms this past Sunday. I was picking up life jackets for Grace and her friend. When I pulled in, I pulled into the wrong section and had a momentary panic where everyone was! It just hit me then, I wanted to be baptized! NO MORE WAITING! So I found the right section, they had already started, and no more worrying, or caring, as soon as they finished them I asked if we could do one more!

Of course I was an emotional wreck, so I think I strangled out something between crying about why, but of course, later, there is always so much more you want to say!

I was "saved" at an early age. There was never a time I questioned God's existence or if he was real. I never had some dramatic moment where I hated God. Looking back now, I just realized I never truly understood what it meant to be loved by God. To me, love always came with a price or a sacrifice. Usually a dream I had to give up. This past year, I have truly learned what it means to be loved by God and what to expect in love from others. It has been such an amazing experience! It doesn't mean it isn't without its troubles and bumps, but I have a friend right there along the way! It also means I will probably be saying a lot of Im sorry's, but a great thing about God is learning even in the conflict how to handle yourself. You can still stand up for yourself and honor God at the same time!

So, that was my day yesterday! It was a pretty good one :)

No comments:

Post a Comment