What is choking you....

Today I am overwhelmed with the amount of things that come between me and my Jesus....both things that I have put there and things that the enemy would use to distract me ...  These are the things that Jesus battles daily to get to me.  Sometimes, it is easy to misinterpret how our Jesus relates to us.  


Yesterday, God reminded me of His unrelenting pursuit of me. He is not sitting piously on a throne watching me struggle and fight through the enemy to get to Him.....He is constantly pursuing and showing His face to me.  He is battling, He is drawing me near to Him always.  Usually, the things that cause me to feel separated from Him or far from Him are the things I have actually put in my life and distractions that the enemy uses as well.

These are the two trees in my front yard. I love them. One of the main reasons that I loved our house were these two trees covered in English Ivy.  However, after living in the house a few months, I noticed that that beautiful ivy was choking the life out of my beautiful trees.  I knew the ivy had to come down.  On mother's day this year, a hard day for me in remembering Branson, I spent two hours cutting and pulling the ivy away from these giant tree trunks.  




Within a few days, the remaining ivy that was too high was dead.  I had removed its source, rescued the tree.  These trees are outside my front window.  I am constantly reminded of these trees and what they represent for me.  They were being choked to death. They needed to be rescued.  It took sweat and work to remove the parasitic tethers.  God is wanting to do the same for me...to remove the things in my life that hinder my growth...pride, ignorance, apathy, laziness, impatience.....all for my good..all because He loves me.  


He isn't waiting for me to get "better" to love me. Just like I fell in love with the trees when they were covered in ivy, so Jesus fell in love with me when I was covered in sin.  He rescued me...He rescues me..daily. 


This isn't a "what are your sins? fix them!" message. It is a "yeah, me too...and He is still loving me."


Jaden's Bible Verse for camp today is this:
Romans 8:28...For we all know that in EVERYTHING, God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.


He called me and I love Him......He is working for my GOOD...