"For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Philippians 2:13
This has been sticking out to me the entire day. I don't know why exactly. I feel like it's reassuring that God has everything in control. He's the one "who works in YOU to will and to ACT in order to fulfill HIS good purpose." It's more fun when read like that, right?
Lately, I've been thinking a whole lot about deferred gratification. Now, people might ask what that means. It doesn't matter (well, it does a little) what It means to me, but what does that phrase mean to you? Defer means to put off, right? And Gratification is "pleasure, especially when gained from the
satisfaction of a desire." (I had to look that one up to get it exactly right). Basically, it means to put
off this pleasure of our personal desires. If you've seen the Harry Potter movies, the mirror of Erised shows anyone who looks into it their greatest desire. Our biggest desire as Christians should be to live
a life that's pleasing to Our Lord and Savior.
Now, I'm not saying that we're all so good at that, but I pair the word "desire" with "sexual desires". Aye, now we've got something to talk about, right? It's so so so easy to fall into this temptation as a hormone-driven teenager. Constantly I have to remind myself of deferred gratification. The more I wait on the temptations, the more I'm going to be able to give to my future Husband. Make sense? Sort of?
Basically, I want to give every single part of myself to my future husband because God has already
picked him out. The more I give myself away to temporary people, the less I have to give the (already
God-Chosen) man. We have to guard ourselves from the people who only want us for our bodies, and
not as people to strengthen our faith. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but if you're not
happy or praising Jesus in everything that you do- maybe evaluate your life and sort out your priorities.
Personally, I've done a crummy job at putting Jesus first in my life. I think it's time to spend less time on
Twitter and more time in my Bible. Anyways, as random and sporadic as that was, I hope it made you
think at least a little bit. Have a great week:)
Emma Jane
