Are You There?

To say I haven't written on this thing in a very long time is such an understatement. Life literally has been knocking me off my feet and just been crazy and kind of hard to be quite honest. No matter how hard life may get and how far I fall, Jesus has literally been so so so faithful. I could totally add more "so"s but you get the point. Sometimes when life does get you down and you feel like you are going through more trials and problems than helping situations, we can get like Naomi in the book of Ruth. I don't know if any of you have ever gone through the book of Ruth, well I'm still in the first chapter and it's seriously blowing my mind. Today's passage that I went over was Ruth 1:19-21. It says, "So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, "is this Naomi?" She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Lord has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?" I don't know if you know anything about the book of Ruth but let me give you some background. Naomi was married and had two sons and two daughter in laws. Her sons and her husband end up dying. Ruth was one of her daughter in laws. Ruth however was a Moabite, which didn't have good relations with the Israelites. Ruth will not leave Naomi but the other daughter in law Orpah does. Anyways, it's obvious by the verses that the Israelites were so happy to have Naomi back in Bethlehem and this shows that her and her family had earned a lot of respect and had great family relations in Bethlehem. In these times, family was EVERYTHING, and if you didn't have children or even lost your children, it was considered a huge curse. As you can see Naomi has brought everything full circle and has blamed God and thinks it's God who has put this curse on her.
Now when I first read this, I was thinking bad of Naomi and thought to myself, "she should know it's not God." "Who would think that God would do such a thing?" But let's be real for a second and realize that we all have thought that way, and sometimes we think this way a lot more than we should. When things don't go our way, we do ask God why. This is doing the same thing that Naomi has been doing. Lately for me, it's been why did my papa have to be taken away from me so quickly? Why am I the only one of my friends that isn't in a relationship while all my others are just so happy in theirs? This is thinking that are problems come from Naomi. Problems are a GOOD thing and they help us to view things with a higher perspective. In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 it says, "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." We do not know why God does what He does or lets bad things happen to good, God fearing people, however God DOES promise us that all things will work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)
So you're probably thinking okay Katelyn, we get it, now where's the encouragement here? Well this might not be an encouragement, but I just want to challenge you to give your WHOLE heart to God. Not just part of it, not just the parts that need work, but every single little bit of it. Be totally transparent. Be YOU. For forever, I would just pray things because I knew that's what I thought God wanted to hear, but really God LOVES you and CARES for you beyond our comprehension. So give it all. Give him even the parts that are the dirtiest, nastiest, and just the parts that you yourself are even afraid to speak out loud. He already knows everything about you and created you and knit you in your mother's womb. I started doing this, and you know what, all I did was feel the love of the Lord even stronger and realized how great a God I serve. He wants intimacy with you. Don't doubt. He's there and He wants all of you.