Tuesday, April 17, 2012

What's God Doing In Your Life? ~ Funto's Story

Hi everyone! My name's Titi (or Funto on the web). I live in a beautiful diverse little city in Europe and also study here. I'm a 20 year old law student in my second year of uni who loves all things literary. I enjoy singing to God, appreciate every opportunity spent with friends and family laughing over one thing or the other, enjoy watching silly cartoons that make me feel ten years younger with my big sis while laughing till it hurts. 

 Since the end of 2011 till this day, my God's been teaching me several lessons most of which come down to the same point. There’s a void in ALL of us that only God can fill. The more you draw closer to God and the more you go out of your way to know Him, the more that void will be filled. It got to a stage where I realized I had such a void. I realized there was a void in my life that needed filling. But truth is, the void had been there for some time, I just didn’t realize it. It wasn’t that I’d drawn away from God. It wasn’t that my love for Him had diminished. It wasn’t even that I’d started to pray less or read my Bible less. It was that more was demanded of me. 

This race of faith is like climbing a mountain. And that climb starts the day you fully give your life to Jesus. I didn't go rock-climbing much while I was younger, but I’ve done it enough times to realize what a laborious task it is. Oh man, it is tough. One of the times I went, a friend of mine got to a point where she felt she couldn’t go any higher because her legs started to shake terribly. She was weary. But coming back to the climb referring to our relationship with God, the thing is, I’d gotten to a point in that climb, to a level and I felt I could take my time before moving forward. Maybe I was scared that if I kept climbing, I’d get to that stage where my legs would start shaking from the strain. Maybe I just wasn’t in a hurry. Maybe I felt I had all the time in the world. Maybe I just wanted to take a long break before continuing on that journey. But one thing was for sure, I’d stopped climbing and remained at a level before God said it was time. 

You see, in this climb you cannot move on to the next level, you cannot move higher without having acquired the strength necessary for that level in the previous level. It’s like when you’re playing a video game, you can’t move to the next level without having fulfilled the tasks required. In the “relationship with God” climb, you simply cannot climb higher without dealing with certain things or overcoming others or fulfilling certain tasks, most of which involve ourselves. So before continuing on the journey, God will take you through all the necessary in the previous levels.

I remained at a level when God was saying, “okay, you can keep climbing now”. I just didn’t realize it. So, God demanded more of me. But the fact that I was still on a level I should've left created a void somewhere. And I didn’t even realize there was such a void. So I tried to fill it up with the wrong things. Part of my joy sometimes depended on who I saw that day and who I spoke to and what they said and a bunch of other insignificant things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying people aren’t good. What I'm saying is that your joy should not depend on them or any other thing. People or any other thing you value in your life is not supposed to be in anyway the source of your joy. They’re supposed to add to that joy! When your joy depends on people and certain circumstances, there is something wrong somewhere. 

 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” 
Galatians 5:22-23

God should be our source of joy. But the many blessings He blesses us with are only meant to add to that joy. At the time, I didn’t realize my joy had started to rely on certain trivial things. Because God loves us, He teaches us certain lessons, but only for our own good. I guess it got to a point where I had to learn one. My awesome God didn’t strip me of all those things I’d started to build my joy on, no. But He showed me what it would be like if He were to do so. In a matter of days, I realized that all of those things and people my joy depended on, all of those things and people I had tried to use to fill up the void only God could fill could easily not be there for me every day of the week. You see, people come and people go. The world is always changing. When people leave you, it’s okay to be sad, it’s perfectly normal to miss them like crazy but when your joy is built on the solid rock which is Christ, eventually you will be okay. God has a purpose for those people too, and that purpose might not involve them remaining in your life.

Well, my heavenly Daddy showed me what that could be like. And it hurt. Believe me. I found myself thinking “why?” I cried. But He didn’t just let me cry, he wrapped me in His loving arms and speaking through a spirit-filled someone very close to me, He simply spoke the words, “I AM ENOUGH”. Wow, what a word!

That truth is GOD IS ENOUGH. He is enough for you and He is enough for me. After Job lost EVERYTHING he still held on to his God because he understood this. Only God could ever fill any type of void we might have, anywhere we might be lacking. When all else fails, He is enough. You don’t need a bunch of irrelevant things to make you happy. You don’t need to have what everyone has. Stop chasing after trivialities. Job's life was turned upside down in no time. But he knew in his knowing, that come rain or shine, I’m gonna be just great because God’s got me, and He’s enough. 

We live in a world where it’s easy to get carried away even when you’re not doing the things of the world. It’s easy to get carried away even when you’re still that good God-crazy person you’ve always been. That is why it’s important to examine and search our own hearts once in a while. Daughter of Zion, son of the Most High, God is enough for you! Walk in that confidence! Every other thing comes from Him.

 ~~~ 
Visit Funto's personal blog at Tell The World
Thanks for sharing your story with us, Funto! 
If you'd like to share what God's doing in your life, click here for details.

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