What God is teaching me

Hi blog friends! How are the each of you doing? Happy Sunday! I hope that the each of you were able to spend your day in fellowship with others, pursuing the love of Christ and understanding His love for you even more! Today I wanted to talk with you about one of the things God is teaching me. If I had a list of all the different things God has taught me over the past few years, I don't even want to know how long that list would be, ha ha! The point I'm trying to make is that as a Christian, I'm always learning new things about my Savior and what it means to live a life sold out for Him! I decided to write a short condensed list for you guys on the different things God has taught me lately.

     1) Seek the Kingdom of God above everything else. (Matthew 6:33). I have many desires that I feel the Lord has given me recently. These involve ministry, relationships, etc. However, the Lord has made it clear that there is a specific agenda for when these desires will be fulfilled. He has made it clear that it is crucial that I wait on His timing for these desires to be fulfilled. Whether or not Jesus comes before they are fulfilled, I will choose J O Y!

     2) STOP WORRYING about the future. (Matthew 6:34). Often when I want to know what my future holds, I became anxious and overwhelmed, and begin to demand God for an answer at that exact moment. I then realize how selfish this is for me to do, and I repent. God tells us to not worry about the future, and focus on depending on Him moment by moment. I feel so much more peace living my life without worrying about the future.

   3) Intentionally surround myself with a community of people who are like-minded with me through faith. (Hebrews 10:25, 1 Corinthians 15:33) Certain people throughout the past have told me its wrong to surround myself only with a group of Christians like myself. "But Jesus didn't do that! He hung out with sinners!", they have said. Actually, the first thing Jesus told these notorious sinners to do when he was around them was to repent and change their lives around. If they didn't, Jesus didn't stick around with them and hang out with them, he kept moving on and told others to repent! I'm not saying to not speak truth into non-Christians lives, definitely do that if you feel called, but don't spend time with other people who are going to cause you to stumble in your own walk.

...So now it is your turn to share. What is Jesus teaching you right now in your life? I would love to hear what our Savior is teaching you and how His wisdom has impacted your life. I love you guys!

<3 Jess

We are the BODY of Christ: Introduce Yourself!

Hello blog friends!

      I am elated to announce that Forever Convinced now officially has its own domain! Yep, I bought my own page. This is awesome. I'm feeling really good right now. However my page is going to need a huge makeover. I'm going to be doing some work these next few weeks. Anyways,  how are you lovely ladies doing? I would love to hear updates on the each of your lives! The Lord has been teaching me SO much lately. He is so so good. I am realizing more than ever lately how important it is to become involved with a specific church community as Christians. 1 Corinthians 12:27 says that "We are the body of Christ." What does this mean exactly? I believe that it means that as Christians, we are ONE body. We can't expect ourselves to grow spirituality if we are not surrounding ourselves with other believers. I recently switched churches in my town and I am so happy that I did. I'm not saying that the church that I used to attend was bad or anything--but it just wasn't for me. I like that the church I go to now feels more like a family. It's a lot smaller, but I have seen myself grow closer to Jesus more than I ever have before through my spiritual walk.  It was scary when I first started attending the new church--I didn't know a soul and I'm pretty sure everyone was wondering who the heck I was. But my lovely friends, when we make ourselves vulnerable to the Lord, it is a beautiful thing. Scary, most definitely yes, but beautiful. We are giving Him to the opportunity to do a magnificent work in our lives, and He is so extremely faithful.

      Now, I would love for the each of you reading this to please introduce yourself! Whats your name? Where are you from? What areas in your life is the Lord testing your faithfulness right now? Is he calling you to do something out of your comfort zone? I would love to hear! I'm looking forward to making some new friends! xxxx

Xo Jess

Future Husband Prayer List

Hello beautiful blog friends!

As many of you know, I am currently a single Christian woman. Although the Lord has blessed me with a great group of friends to spend time with as a I wait on meeting my future man, there are times when waiting is extremely hard and I feel very lonely. This morning as I was sipping my coffee, I felt called to make a prayer list of all the character traits that I want my future husband to encompass. I would consider myself to be very Spirit led as a Christian, and when God calls me to do something, I want to act on it!

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.
Ephesians 6:18

So here is my list so far! I hope that it encourages you as you wait on meeting your future spouse. I think that it is important to use our time as single ladies intentionally in thinking about what we want in our future spouses.  It is amazing that I have developed such a specific list. God has seriously placed all of these desires on my heart, so all the credit goes to Him!

Future Husband Prayer List1) Stable, consistent with who he is in Christ.
2) Believes in the power of prayer and will pray for me whenever as his wife.
3) Spirit led Christian, and believes in following the Spirit in all areas of his life.
4) Believes every part of the Bible as truth and acts on all of these truths.
5) Takes his time with God seriously,  and has an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that he is passionate about.
6) Confident with who he is in Christ.
7) Takes going to church & spending time with community seriously.
8) Has a solid group of Christian guy friends who build him up with who he is in Christ.
9) Willing to not drink or give up drinking if I talk to him about it ( this is just a personal preference since I do not drink.)
10) Strong work ethic- takes his job seriously and devotes whatever type of work that he does to the Lord.
11) Good sense of humor, knows how to make me laugh a lot.
12) Romantic
14) Thoughtful
15) Intentional

That is what I have for my list. Please know that it is not in any specific order, just what I'm looking for entirely. The first 10 things on the list are pretty necessary for me- since they have to do with Jesus and living by the Spirit.  I've shared it with some of my best friends, and we are praying for each other for these things specifically! What are you looking for in your future man? God is so faithful, I trust Him completely!

I love you guys!

<3 Jess

H A P P Y new year #seekingJesusfirst

     Hi blog friends!

     New year, new me. I want this blog to be a place where readers can come and feel closer to God.

I want you to know three things as you venture into the new year...

     1) The only thing holding you back this year from an intimate relationship with God is yourself. Know that He, as the King of all Kings, is after your heart. You just have to keep pursuing Him through intentional time alone with Him. Strive to honor Him in all that you do. God isn't going to give up on you, unless you choose to give up on Him.

     2) Surround yourself with people who will bring you closer to Jesus, not farther away from Him. Sure it's okay to have acquaintances that you feel called to share Jesus with, but your closest friends that you spend the most time with should be Christians who are going to speak the truth into your life that non-Christians aren't going to think twice about.

     3) Walking with the Lord is a continuous battle of surrender and release. Your never in control when your walking Jesus. Although a lot of the time this can be extremely fulfilling and joyful, there are times when it can be hard. It is during these times where it will be crucial for to keep trust Jesus, grasping onto His grace. He might take you down some unexpected roads this year, but just know that He is still faithful. He is still good, and His plan for your life this year is going to be greater than anything you could ever come up with on your own. 

I love you guys!

<3 Jess

Christian Singleness: 2 things to remember

I'm not sure why, but for some reason it is this time of the year, during the summer, that I stuggle the most with still being single. It's probably because I see so many other relationships going on around me, and I want nothing more than to just be with my own significant older. Ugh. The struggle is real my friends.

I'll be perfectly honestly, I've been complaining a lot to God about this lately. I've been asking Him to bring my future man into my life RIGHT NOW. I have such a strong desire to be in a relationship with someone, and the desire is only growing stronger. However I'm not just waiting on any guy. I'm not looking for the next "good" guy. I'm waiting on a guy who passionately loves Jesus like I do. Heck, if I wanted to be any old relationship it would be simple. I could probably make it happen in a couple days, to be perfectly honest [not to sound cocky or anything, but it is true, and I am sure many of you Christian ladies can relate]. 

For awhile to diminish the void of wanting to be in a Christ-centered relationship, I thought to myself that maybe I should take action and go make it happen myself. So I started talking around to some Christian guys, and it was a ton of fun. But then, out of no where, a disruption began in my soul. I didn't have a peace about what I was doing, and I felt like God was telling me that regardless of how badly I wanted to be in a relationship at this present time, I need to submit my desires to Him and focus on the other things that He has called me to do. I  knew I couldn't move forward with what I was doing if I didn't have a peace about it from God. So I pulled away, and felt like I had made the right decision.

So now I'm learning that there are two major things that come into play with being in a Christian relationship. Number one, timing is extremely important. You can be like me and have the most passionate desire to be in a relationship and even feel 100% ready to be in one, but if the Lord says the timing is off then you have to listen to Him. I want a peace about my relationship with my future husband that surpasses all understanding, and I think that peace will come when I listen to God and allow it to happen in His time. 

Number two, it obviously needs to be a Christian guy. Jesus is the most important part of my life. I talk about Him all the time [because He's amazing and changed my life, of course!]. Every good thing that I have in my life comes from God. I can't imagine dating someone who doesn't share that same love for Jesus as I do. It would be so horrible and discouraging. Thank you Jesus for giving me the desire to be with someone who loves You. I pray that wherever my future husband is right now, that  you would give him patience in waiting to meet me, and that he would use his time of singleness intentionally to grow deeper in his relationship with You.

So thanks God, for making it clear to me, that as Your daughter, it is just not Your will for me at this specific time to be in a relationship. I'm not entirely happy about it, but I trust You your Your will for my life.

 But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Sincerely,

Jess

Allowing God to work in our lives

Hi friends! How are you each doing today? I am excited to be nearly complete with my first year of graduate school this week! It is amazing how the Lord has been there for me every step of the way this year, as He has given me the strength to do everything that I have needed to do.

Lately the Lord has put a unique topic on my heart. I've been thinking about how easy it is to doubt God when things don't go exactly way I want them to. The Lord has been revealing this to me as something that I struggle with in my walk with Him. 

This might be something that many of you struggle with as well. Maybe your looking a new church to attend, but you haven't yet found anywhere where you fit in and you are feeling frustrated. Maybe the Lord just called you to move halfway across the country, and your having a hard time trusting Him in that new season of life for you. Or maybe things simply just aren't going the way you want them to, and your just plain down about it. Well my friends, I can tell you that if you have surrendered every area of your life to Christ and have given Him full control, then He knows what He is doing, and He has a plan for your life greater than you could ever imagine. It is so crucial for us to keep trusting God, regardless if things don't go the way we want them to. Close friends may hurt us or turn against us, but God has a plan. We may not get into that college that we had been praying about for the longest time, but God has a plan. Our boyfriend or girlfriend may have just broken up with us, but God has a plan. This is something that I need to ask myself regularly: If I don't keep trusting Jesus despite my circumstances, how is that giving God the opportunity to work in my life? 

How is God working in big ways in your life right now? I would love to hear! I love you guys!

Love always, Jess

A season for everything

In the midst of the two graduate term papers that I have yet to write, I decided to take a break and come and write to you guys on here. This blog carries a special piece of my heart, and I remain thankful for the words of wisdom that the Lord has spoken through me on here.

Lately I have been thinking about how there truly is a season for everything. Just in this past year, so much has happened in my life. The Lord has worked through me in wonderful ways, revealing to me more my identity in Christ. As my first year of graduate school comes to a close, it's amazing to look back and see how faithful the Lord has been in everything.  Whatever the next season of life holds (besides my final year as a graduate student,) I trust that with God on my side, I can conquer anything that He calls me to do. 

What season of life does the Lord have you in? Wherever you are, if you seek Him above everything else, He will meet you there. 

"For everything there is a season,  a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die.    A time to plant and a time to harvest."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

I love you, Lord.

Love always, Jess