MORNING MUSE 11: DENY AND OBEY

Hi everyone, it's been a while hasn't it? I am still alive and so is this blog! I've just been really busy with school and life itself, but I am back because I have something for you. Dont mind that this post is all over the place, these are the things the Lord has placed heavily on my heart for a really long time. Part of the reason why I hadn't posted anything in March was because I was trying to put everything together perfectly, but at the end of the day I am not perfect and if I wait too long for the perfect time it might be too late and I might lose inspiration. I hope this little post finds you all well. Enjoy!

1. LEARN HOW TO DIE TO YOURSELF
What does dying to oneself mean?
When you die to yourself, it means that YOU do not matter anymore, you die to who you are. Your ideas, your way of life, your decisions, your plans, your conversations etc all do not matter! You deny who are and you live for God (Luke 9:23). Is it easy? No! Is it worth it? Definitely!!! It's a process, it doesn't take one minute but as time goes on it becomes second nature. You begin to crave God's presence more and more.
So what do you do? How do you die to yourself?

1. You ask God. Tell Him you want to live for Him, tell Him you want your life to be about Him. Ask Him to teach you how to die to yourself. Get on your feet and let God know what you want. The bible tells us that God has given us the choice to go in any direction we want, but why would you want suffer when you know that there's so much peace and joy in living for God?
2. Meditate on Scriptures that talk/teach about dying to oneself
- Luke 9:23
- John 12:24
- Mark 8:34
There are so many others,google search it!
3. I also believe that starting your day with a conversation with God is a game changer, at least for me. I don't do this everyday because my schedule gets in the way, but on the days that I get to sit at the feet of God, my days are just so much better. This is what I do;
 - I set a strict date with God every morning. Before I go to bed I tell Him the time and location of our date in the morning. I normally have these dates at 7am on my bed.
- I play gospel music to set the mood lol!
- I have the bible app on my phone, so I read the verse of the day and I pray to God, I tell him about my excitements, things that bother me, people that bother me, I tell him about things that upset me etc. And then once I am done, I stay quite for a while and then I ask him to deal with my situations for me.
- I am not really good the bible yet, I am still learning but when something bothers me a lot, I google the problem and it helps me find scriptures that relates to that problem. So once I am done praying, I meditate on these messages and then start my day.

2. JUST OBEY!
From experience, I feel like once you are at peace with God you begin to feel good about yourself, you become confident ( Isaiah 32:17) and almost cocky sometimes. Confidence is good, Cockiness not always.
Once everything comes together and life flows perfectly, you get this feeling that you don't need God to handle everything for you because "you got it" and the truth is you don't! Our ''I don't need God to handle my situations anymore" attitude opens a door for the devil to use us or throw stuff at us. You do know that the devil is WAY stronger that you right? Yeah, that is why you have to constantly sit at the feet of God and die to yourself, die to your selfish ways, your cockiness!
I was recently in a situation where I basically told God not to worry about me because "I got it". No I didn't have it, it actually ended me up in so much trouble. Things are good now all because of God's love and mercies.
I am going to honest, this journey with God can be plain hard sometimes but just remember the joy(s) that comes with it. Don’t get stuck trying to hold on to something that’s over and done. Dont go back to relationships, friendships, etc that God has ended for you, its not worth it. Dont let your emotions get in the way. When you're feeling some type of way, just pray to God. Have an emergency date with Him, pour out your heart to Him. He is always there, waiting for you to call out on Him.

Love you guys so much, good luck in school and with everything else you're doing. I will see you all in my next post.

xx