Hey guys!!! I'm super excited to be back with y'all, creating content, and sharing the love of God! I didn't realize what a big part of my life TBQJ, and content creating, really is until I totally stopped everything for those few weeks. By the way, on that note, thank you for holding in there while I was taking that break! :P You guys are pretty darn fantastic, if I do say so myself (which I do). But to tell you a little bit about how the break went, it was a good, healthy thing I needed to do. I know that I briefly mentioned in a previous post, that Jesus and I were working on adjusting the way I operate in regard to my priorities. And stopping everything for a while was the slightly-crazy shift in life that I needed, in order to be able to see the priority issue in a better, clearer light. The break also showed me, how much The Bible Quizzing Journey and such, really help me personally. "Creating content" is such a fun term, but in reality, it's just me taking some time to intentionally focus on letting the Spirit take over, and speak (or type :P) through me. The funny thing is, though, that God's pretty much always telling me something through what I'm saying, too. And even though I've been experiencing this for a while, I'm still finding out how that doing ministry-oriented things doesn't take away from my personal, spiritual walk, but rather enhances it. I used to see writing blog posts, newsletters, filming vlogs, or ministering face-to-face, as me giving away the spiritual food (if you will) that I had gleaned from my quiet time, or youth group, or Sunday morning service. But that's not actually the case. The case is, that God fills me up, all day, in every moment that I'm acknowledging His existence, presence, and present help. He is sharing with me His abundant life, when I (the branch) am connected to Him (the Perfect Vine). A branch doesn't lose any of it's life when it produces fruit, am I right? If it's a perfect tree, that will never die, then the branch has no limits as to how much fruit it can bear (as long as it allows itself to be pruned by the Gardener - in our case, this is allowing God to continue to teach us, mentor us, and really just love on us, even after we've got the basics down and start seeing the first fruit). When we are connected to the vine, we constantly have new life flowing through us - an unlimited supply, that we draw on involuntarily when we are voluntarily connected. (Side note: being connected with the vine doesn't mean that we're constantly in deep conversation with God; just because I'm in the same room as someone, doesn't mean that we'll be talking to each other the whole time, but we are aware of the other person's presence, and we talk off and on as we go about whatever we're up to - simple as that :)). So I'm starting to learn, that my morning quiet time doesn't just give me a number of "spiritual calories" or something, and then when I'm doing something ministry-oriented I'm spending some of those limited calories. Nah. Ministry is just the overflow of your personal walk and relationship with our God. And that's pretty awesome. Man, it's good to be back! I nearly forgot how much I love this. Just kidding :P. BUT ANYWAYS... I know that was a long explaination, but now we can get into the actual topic for today, which is "defining and achieving victory in 2018" - so lets get into that!! First off, people think of victory in different ways. "Victory" means something different to each person. Victory to the natural mind could be anything from being simply happy, to being a really good business person, to having a lot of good relationships with the people around you, to - you fill in the blank. But of course, we children of God know that real, all-encompassing and long-lasting victory can only come through having a healthy, joyful, thriving, blazing relationship with our Father God. Our resolutions, although good, can't bring us that feeling of achieving victory. There is definitely a place for resolutions and goals for each year - I love making them! - and I'm going to talk about that a little later on, but our actions aren't strong enough to be the basis, the foundation, for our life's victory. Do you see what I mean? Focusing on ourselves is a slippery slope, and it's really not fun - and I'm sure each of us has experienced this at one point or another. It's like a dog chasing it's talk. They're like, "My tail! My tail! My tail!", and chasing it around and around and around. And you know, it's really hard to play fetch with a dog that gets so easily distracted with that :P. And this is kind of like what we do, when we get focused on ourselves, and our natural inability to be perfect in this fallen world. We're like, "Self! Self! Self!", and we will probably end up tripping on or running into something - and we are definitely unable to carry out anything in an efficient manner. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans 7, and what he gives the solution to in the beginning of Romans 8. He says that being carnally minded (focusing on self) is death, but that being spiritually minded (looking up to God, and putting our relationship with Him on the top of our priority list) is LIFE and PEACE. It's just better not to lean on our own strength, try to do it all by ourselves, and start chasing our tails, am I right? Better just to look up, and to God, so we can see where we're going. In the end, actually nothing else matters besides that. In the end, we were originally created for fellowship, so that's the top thing. Everything else, no matter how much external sources may tell you they matter, they fade to almost nothing in comparison to knowing Jesus. Proverbs 4:23 says to diligently guard your heart above everything else that you guard, because out of it flows the issues of life. What better way to do this, than to spend time leaning on and learning from the One who created our hearts, and who was the first Lover, and Care-Taker of our hearts? One of the best things I love about my Abba Father, is that everything He is and everything He's set in place is so simple, and yet are the craziest things that I've ever experienced. So you know, there are a lot of little, fun things that we can do to kick off the year and such, but we shouldn't try to forcibly create a counterfeit version of victory through our actions. Instead, we can just get connected to our God, who infuses us with real life, and brings out the real victory that our Spirit has already been programmed with. In regard to annual resolutions and goals, I'm totally supportive! In fact, I'm actually nearly finished making my "vision board" for 2018, which has the list of my 13 resolutions smack in the middle :P. But I think it's important to talk to God about the resolutions you make, and even let Him suggest a few things that you can intentionally try to move forward in, during the next year. Also, as a final, quick note on this - a great way to remin your soul of all the victory that you already have (when you might be feeling a little bit discouraged in the natural), is to go back and review, and thank God for all of His blessings and promises to us, and realize and acknowledge how that they are already all yours for the taking. Completely yours. If they had deeds, your name would be on them :P. It's seriously so good to be back.
Actually, I want to say thank you, to you, the Quiz-Journeyers, for being the people I can share these things with, on a regular basis. That's pretty awesome. I hope that each and every single one of you have an incredible week this week, and that the year of 2018 proves to be the VERY BEST year that you've ever had, and that especially, you get a fresh, brand new revelation of how much insane and selfless love that our God has for you personally. He knew every mistake you would ever make, when He decided to save you, and when He decided to incur the worth of His life, onto yours. He knew every single misstep, sin, mess up that you have ever made and ever will do, when He made the decision to love you. Doesn't get much better than that. God loves you so much, and I feel like He just wants to talk to some of you; He says He doesn't judge you, He doesn't think any less of you, that you still have the same exact (huge) value, and that you're always gonna be His favorite kid. When the prodigal son came back, in that parable, the father didn't even acknowledge his apologies, because the father had already forgiven him for anything that he could ever do. Instead, he wrapped him up in the biggest hug ever and kissed him. Running to Abba is one of my favorite things. Keep living and quizzing victoriously, wonderful child of God. You're a strong warrior, perfectly loved, fully known, absolutely and totally safe in God's arms. Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer, Mallory <3 P.S. Once more for good measure: it's good to be back. I love you guys!
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Trending Posts:Author:Mallory is a graduated Teen Bible Quizzer originally from the Southern region, moved to the Northwest, coaching quizzing over the book of Matthew. Check out our
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