There is a lot going on in the world today. There are distractions–white noise in the background of a bigger motion picture. Recently a few Christians have gotten upset over the fact that a Starbucks coffee cup didn’t have snowflakes and reindeer printed on it. Apparently the company refused to be in the Christmas spirit.
To be honest, I don’t go to Starbucks so this is sort of irrelevant to me. However, I will put my own two sense in here because I feel like this issue is just a symbol for a much bigger problem we are facing. For one thing, Christmas is not really about reindeer, snowmen, or Santa. In fact, it isn’t even really about us at all. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our Blessed Savior Jesus Christ.
Another issue about the red cup phenomenon is that it is only a distraction that the devil is trying to use to sway us from the main thing–Jesus. In case this is news to any Christians out there, the world does not care about Jesus or our Christian feelings. Big corporations are out there to make money–not to please us. Although there are a few rare companies out there that run on faith and integrity, the majority of them are secular and worldly. Our complaints about Christmas offenses won’t affect them.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18 NKJV).
Now this does not mean that we should quit standing up for Jesus or preaching the Gospel, it means that we must stop expecting an ungodly world to act like followers of Jesus.
We have to remember that the world is watching, waiting for us to stumble. However, there is one way to keep going strong in the faith and to not be tripped up by all these distractions:
Keep God as your main thing.
This is the mantra that the youth pastor at my church keeps saying to the students and us leaders. We must put Jesus first. Time with God spent praying, worshiping, and reading the Bible must be our top priority. Serving God, spreading the Gospel, and being obedient to Him is our main job; everything else is secondary.
I must admit that I am guilty of being distracted sometimes. It’s hard as humans to put our spiritual selves before our fleshly desires.
I also admit that with everything going on this season, that I haven’t always been putting my blog in the priority that it should be.
But God spoke to my heart, and asked me, “why do you write Emily?” This struck me like a fiery bullet of revival. I write to express myself. I write to glorify God. I write to preach the truth and message of the Gospel. I write to encourage young women (and sometimes men as well!).
There is something incredibly rewarding and motivating about a simple comment from a reader who tells me how what I posted that day touched her/him. I love your comments and cherish your love and graciousness! I feel so blessed that God has given me such wonderful readers and followers.
In light of this realization of how important you all are to me, and how important Jesus is to me, I would like to announce that I will be publishing two posts a week instead of three.
I know that there have been several changes made to this blog over the year, but I want to put the quality of my posts first as well as interaction with my readers in the comments and over social media. Thank you so much for sticking with me and encouraging me to be a better writer and follower of Jesus Christ.
From now on, you can expect posts on Wednesdays and Fridays. Wednesday will be focused primarily on spiritual insights, life, and poetry. I also plan to keep posting The Writing Diaries series on the first Wednesday of each week. And of course, Friday will still be fashion Friday!
I’m so excited for an awesome new season with all of you! I hope to keep growing and encouraging as I learn from you.
Now I know that this post contains a lot of information to take in, but most importantly, I want this to be a reminder that we need to keep putting Jesus first.
With everything we do, we must ask ourselves what is motivating us. Is it for our own desire our the pressures of the world? Or is it for the glory of God?
Remember this simple phrase as you go about your week. It will keep you strong in the faith when the enemy throws every distraction at you that he can think of.
Remember: Keep God as your main thing.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to comment and share 🙂
