31days // Humility {My Story Cont.}

Purity is a journey. For some, we were born into it. The road was paved for us by our parents, or by the church. And for some, we found the road later in life. We had to unlearn so many things that we had learned over the years to carefully put one food in front of the other along this road paved by God. 

Regardless of if you have been on this journey your entire life, or 7 days, I'm sure you have had moments of struggle. Whether it's battling your own temptations, or dealing with the confused looks of others who don't understand why you would choose to walk this path, there are difficulties. It's worth the struggle, but the struggle is there. 

Something that I have learned in my life is that purity and humility go hand in hand. I would venture to say Christianity and humility go hand in hand, but we'll focus on the main topic here ;). 

For the majority of my life, I never thought that I could pursue purity because I thought that sex was a vital part of a relationship. I'm fairly certain that I told myself this to ease the guilt of having sexual relationships before marriage, but regardless, I strongly believed it was true. And I had people around me who agreed, so who could argue with that? 

This view of mine didn't go away over night. Even after my surrender on this day, I still wasn't sure where I stood on the issue. I think this was mainly out of fear, I had been walking on one road for my entire 22 years of life, how could I change that now? 

I have seen that a major way to combat fear, is with pride. Instead of acknowledging that fear, it's easier to just shake it off by assuming "I'm right. Sex is a vital part of a relationship." And that is exactly how pride gets in the way of purity and Christianity, because we start believing that our views are better than God's. 

God is never going to run out of things in our life to heal. He's never going to run out of things in our heart to reveal to us. In order to be healed, and in order to have those things in your heart revealed, you have to have humility. You have to be willing to believe that maybe, just maybe, God has a point here. Maybe His way is better after all. 

I say this because this is exactly what my last {almost} two years have been like. God is constantly healing me, constantly digging deep into my heart to free me of things I didn't even realize were there. 

And this happened once, shortly after that January 1, 2012 day. It had been a few months, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Bible reading, and worship music lovin' hadn't faded yet, like it had before. I was driving home to visit my family in San Diego, and had made it to Irvine, which is anywhere from 2-3 hours from Santa Barbara, with traffic. I had switched the radio station to Country music, and suddenly wanted to switch back to the worship music I had on before. I didn't know the stations well, so I simply flipped through them until I heard a song that I recognized. 

Well, I didn't find one, but I did find a voice. I found a station that was streaming a sermon, and even though I never listened to sermons in the car, something tugged at my heart to hear this one. I quickly realized, and was surprised to find that I recognized the voice behind the radio. I wasn't certain, but thought I would listen anyway. 

It turned out to be a sermon about dating. It was a message to people like me, out on the hunt for marriage material. And in it, this man emphasized the importance of being equally yolked, and staying pure in your relationship. He was sharing stories of experiences he has witnessed, and I was hooked on every word. For the first time, it made perfect sense. And it didn't matter that I had made mistakes, 22 years worth. All that mattered was I suddenly had the desire to pursue purity, the way that God designed and intended it to be. 

The sermon ended, and they announced the speaker. I already knew, but hearing it confirmed gave me goosebumps. It had been my pastor, Britt Merrick. I was 3 hours from home, and God had so intricately put my own pastor on the radio to preach straight to my heart. My heart was changed in that moment. 

So get rid of all the sin in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. 

// James 1:21 //

What does God have to teach you today? 

Happy Friday, loves!