I have been asking God lately to help me to hear Him more.  A few blogs ago I blogged about how I believe hearing God is suppose to be a lifestyle.  Like, I believe that it's suppose to be weird not hearing His voice, but instead today it seems weird to hear His voice.

Yesterday I went for a walk.  As I was walking and asking God to help me to hear Him, I passed by a Wal-Mart shopping bag on the side of the road.  The thought occurred to me to pick up the bag.

Could this be God telling me to pick up a trash bag?

No, that's ridiculous, God wouldn't tell me to pick up a trash bag.  So I kept on walking.  But the thought wouldn't leave my mind.  So I turned around and picked up the trash bag.  Whether it was God or not, picking up a trash bag is no big deal.

But then I got another thought to use this Wal-Mart shopping bag as a trash bag and pick up all the trash on the side of the road that I see while I'm walking.  Was God telling me to pick up trash on the side of the road?  I wasn't to sure, but I couldn't it out of my mind.  Either way, it's a good thing to pick up trash on the side of the road.

So I began to pick up trash on the side of the road as I walked.  I picked up trash from four different fast food restaurants.  I guess I'm not surprised.  But it made me think how awful fast food is.  Not only is fast food bad for you and everyone hates it whether they know it or not, but it just litters our country.

About two blocks from my starting point the bag became full.  But then I looked into the ditch and just waiting for me there was another bag.  It was a Cub Foods bag. Empty.

Was it coincidence?  Or did God really tell me to pick up trash on the side of the road and He is supplying all the bags I would need to pick it up?

So I picked up that bag too, and kept on walking and picking up trash.  Eventually I arrived at my destination which was Lakeside Christian Church where I threw both bags away in the dumpster.

I do believe that God did speak to me.  I had asked Him to help me hear Him more and so He spoke something simple to me.  Pick up trash.  It seems crazy.  But it got me to thinking: How many other times does God speak something very simple to us but we disregard it because it sounds stupid?  Would God really be saying that?

Just remember, God speaks to us way more than we know.  Even if it's something simple like "Pick up trash."

I feel jipped. I feel like life isn't being fair.

So I'm messed up. I have issues and things in my heart that make me not a cool person. But I never asked for them. Is it my fault that I was raised the way I was raised and that contributes to the mess that I am?  I don't want to be this way. The things that I hate about myself, if I could change them in the blink of an eye, I would. But it doesn't work like that. I have to let go of things. I have to walk to Jesus and allow time for Him to heal me and change me.

But in the meantime, I'm still a mess and have to deal with who I am.

I hate it.

A few things have been on my mind lately.

I believe that God speaks to us way more than we know.  It seems that we have come to a place where the voice of God doesn't exist.  We got the Bible and other people, and that's all we think there is to hearing God.  But really, God said He has much to say to us!  Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice. 

I believe that hearing God's voice is suppose to be a lifestyle.

So for me, I have been trying to be more intentional about asking God everything.  Literally.  Asking God what He wants me to do today.  Asking God who he wants me to interact with today.  Asking God if He wants me to go to college and if so which one.  I believe that God speaks about a lot of things.  We have just come to a place where we think we don't need to hear Him.  We think we don't need to hear Him because we have a brain and make our own choices.  We have become so independent.

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Have you ever prayed and asked God for something such as, "God I pray and ask that You would give me more faith." or "God I pray and ask that you would help me to love like how You love."??

I have prayed prayers like that.  But here's the thing I realized recently:  I believe that when we ask God for things like that, He doesn't stretch out His hand and magically give us the ability to love more or have more faith.  I think God instead gives us the opportunity to love more or have more faith.  Like, for example, when the disciples asked Jesus to give them more faith, He told them that if they have enough faith, they could tell a tree to uproot and walk into the sea.  Just imagine:  

"Jesus, we ask that you would give us more faith!"

"Ok, then… see that tree over there?  Go tell that tree to uproot and and walk into that lake over there."

"Um.. Jesus.. that's not what we meant.  Why don't you just give us more faith?"

"You have the faith!  I'm just giving you the opportunity to use it!"

"Oh…"

Well, I finally found a post editor that I like!!  So that's good news.

I was really thinking last night, while doing some hardcore dishes at my work, about what life is really all about.  In a number of places throughout scripture it says that we, human beings, were created for God's glory.  Now I have heard of a lot of things that "bring glory to God," the most common one probably being: "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him."  To an extent I believe that to be true.  But I got to thinking about the overall BIG picture.

In the beginning when God created Eden and placed man there, He said to the man, "Make the rest of the world look like this."  The rest of the world was wild and not tamed.  I'm sure the rest of the world was beautiful, but I don't think it was "orderly" like the Garden of Eden was.  I believe that Eden is a reflection of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is perfect.  It is where God rules.  It is, I believe, the place where God's glory is ultimate.  He is most glorified there.  Then Jesus later on when He was walking the earth, said to pray that "the Kingdom of Heaven would come to earth."  And that is the mission that He gave us:  To make Heaven come to earth.  So I believe that God is most glorified when Heaven is come to earth.

With that, I got to thinking that it doesn't matter my circumstance.  Weather single or married, rich or poor, my life's cause is to bring Heaven to earth, to glorify God.  I then suddenly felt very satisfied actually.  Satisfied that I am single, living in a single room in the basement of a friend, making only $600 a month and not being able to pay all my bills.  Now sure I do desire to someday get married and would like to have more money flowing in, but those things are not the point!  Those things do not satisfy.  No matter my circumstance, my life's cause is to bring Heaven to earth.  Nothing more.

And just to clarify, some people might be thinking, "Well what about having a personal relationship with Jesus?  We were created for that too!"  Well, having a personal relationship with Jesus is, to me, Heaven come to earth.  Heaven cannot come to earth in our lives unless we have a relationship with the King!  So it all goes together.

So anyway, these are my thoughts the last few days.  :)

 Hey everyone!  So, a friend of mine shared this video with me and I thought it was amazingly funny.  So therefore, I would like to share it with all of you.  Tell me what you think!