God said to me, “Emily, you need to make a radical change in your life”.

Yesterday at church, the pastor preached about making a radical change in your life and how you need to give thanks in all circumstances. I personally did not feel like it was directed towards me. To be honest, I was thinking “I’m fine, everything seems in order, and everything is going well”. I pictured my life and I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Leaving church, the message stuck with me. I couldn’t get the phrase, “radical change”, out of my head. Throughout the day the perspective of my life changed. I started sensing something was off, but I pushed it to the side like I do with all of my feelings. Later in the day I went to a friends apartment to make doughnuts (or donuts, whichever you prefer). That was probably the most fun I’ve had in a while and I am so lucky to have been apart of it. But going on with the story, I went home after we finished making the doughnuts and watching Home Alone 2 (which I’ve never seen before). When I got home everyone was gone so I decided to phone up a friend to hang out. Not much happened after that, but when I woke up this morning God said to me, “Emily, you need to make a radical change in your life”. That hit hard, but I know it’s true.

When God told me to make a radical change in my life, He doesn’t mean a tiny portion of my life. He instead wants me to make a complete 180 and change everything.

In the Bible, there is a story about a guy named Saul. He is known for persecuting Christians. Later in the Bible, he is called Paul the apostle. So what happened? One day Saul was heading towards Damascus to capture all of the believers of Jesus, when a light from heaven appeared. In Acts 9:4 it says “falling to the ground, he heard a booming voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'”. We know Saul for persecuting Christians but here God says that he is persecuting Him. He then told Saul to get up and go to the city where he will be told what to do. As Saul stood up, he became blind. Fast forwarding to verse 17, a man named Ananias was sent by God to pray for Saul so that he would see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. All at once, Saul’s sight returned and was baptized immediately. In verse 20 it says “within the hour he was in the synagogues, preaching about Jesus and proclaiming, ‘Jesus is the Son of God'”. Everyone in the area was astonished and confused. They said things like “isn’t this the Saul who furiously persecuted those in Jerusalem who called the name of Jesus? Didn’t he come here with permission from the high priest to drag them off and take them as prisoners?” But Saul stayed where he was for a few more days and kept preaching the good news.

This whole story about Saul shows his radical change. He was a completely different person after he chose to make the change in his life. It might not have been what he wanted but it was what he needed. Sometimes God has to strike us with tragedy to wake us up. That’s why God blinded Saul.

I am very thankful for my friends because they helped wake me up. God doesn’t want to strike us with tragedy, that’s only in the worse case scenario. For me, God used the church and my friends to help get me to this realization.

I thank God today for waking me up and giving me this realization. I thank him for the situation He used to wake me up. I am glad that it happened because I would not be writing this right now.

Here are some reflection questions you can ask yourself:

• Can you thank God when life stinks?
• Are you living a lukewarm life?
• Are you needing a radical change in your life? (if you think you don’t, you might need one because I did)
• What areas of your life could you improve?

This might not be the best blog that I have made but it is something that I really needed to write. Here is one last thing that the pastor said yesterday: Don’t focus on what’s lost, but focus on what’s left. We need to embrace what God is doing and give Him thanks in advance.

“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” – Habakkuk 3:17-18 NLT

Much love,

Emily xoxo