Why did I start to blog?…God intervening in my life.

I wanted to take a different approach today…

I am new to this blogging thing and by no means claim to be a professional blogger. I am just doing something I really enjoy. If you want to know the truth, I really love to write. Seems like when I sit behind the keyboard I just float away. I actually get excited in the morning, thinking, what can I blog about today…What is on my heart?

What is God telling me? Is he saying anything? That often happens….I look for answers but I hear nothing…Often times I think is it because God cannot hear me?…and the doubt kicks in. I don’t claim to be this perfect person, in fact, I think one of my biggest weaknesses is being my worse critic, being a failure. I often think about how hard life can be and if i don’t succeed in this or in that, it would make me a failure.

The main reason I started to Blog is because of Gods calling, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me that this would be a means of teaching people, strengthening and bringing people to Christ. If this blog helps at least one soul get to heaven it’s already played its purpose.

I started a blog because its my way of meditating, when I write I get relief. I use to have a different form of meditation; talking endlessly to people. I would talk for hours, sometimes so much I would start to feel stupid, thinking, I must of embarrassed myself…But have found my calling to writing. I remember when I attended Whatcom Community College I use to have to write for my English class.

There was this young, attractive, young blonde instructor I had. She was an amazing teacher, when I wasn’t distracted by her charming personality and good looks I would often learn something. She spent an overwhelming amount of time talking to me about my writing structures. She would try and find the nicest way to tell me, that my writing was terrible (and obviously I got the hint). However, as I practiced writing more analytically I became more aware of my flaws. I tended to repeat myself in my writing and never get to a point (hope I don’t still do that HAHA).But this instructor although, was probably not Christian was a great inspiration. She often would tell me things like, “Vitaliy, you have a great mind. You have some very compelling arguements..However, you have to somehow be able to successfully express that on paper, without going on a rant, stating personal opinions or spinning in circles…” cause after all this was analytical writing not creative writing.

This experience in my life boosted my self awareness and influenced me to practice on my writing. I shortly after became a great writer (well so I thought so). To write a paper for any class, was a walk in the park. I preferred that over any exam.

The reason I decided to start blogging, is because I realized how good it made me feel. I know you are probably thinking (man, that didn’t sound selfish at all). And I just want to point something out. There are selfish deeds and there are selfless deeds. I consider most things for God selfless deeds, unless your motives are to earn human approval of some sort. Most deeds that are done in society are typically done for acknowledgment of some sort. Even tiding is now tax deductible. Often times people donate money to the church because it is beneficial for their yearly deductions (cause after all why give to the government when you can give to God, right?).

After all, at least they are praising you for being Godly right? Well, the problem with this, is most people that do things for Christ will eventually run into this. The works that you are doing for God starts to become widely acknowledged by others, and as a human thing to do, people will tell you how much of a good person you are or what you are dong is amazing. And that the gift you have is so impressive, and so forth…..

Blogging really keeps me on track, when I throw myself into writing, especially about Christ, it really strengthens my faith. It also makes me accountable. Accountability is something extremely under valued these days. No one wants to be accountable for anything. Being accountable in front of people shouldn’t be the motive, however, sometimes it can help you stay focused. Because we all have those moments where we just want to hear someone acknowledge what we do.

We have to be very careful not to fall into this trap…because something that essentially had good intentions can cause a downfall. We will start to confuse confident behavior about our deeds with self righteous gratification. We naturally want people to be proud of us, and yes, we all need some words of encouragement from time to time…but this if not dealt with properly can lead to pride. We start to feel that our accomplishments outweigh those that are around us. This type of mentality can lead us to eventual destruction. We are all called to do different things in this life. Not all will be teachers, preachers, singers, good talkers, good listeners, good writers, etc….we are all built different, and so are our natural abilities. Sometimes I see people that are always so naturally nice, and wonder…? what is wrong with these people (joke).

I naturally am very prideful, I will not pretend I’m not…success has always been in my drive. I naturally always compare myself to others. I tend to talk at people instead of with people, this has been a struggle my entire life. When i went back to school I was exposed to this truth…I also realize that I was a bad listener. We have to be careful because we often times confuse pride with confidence. They are not the same thing, a person that is confident will never brag about his accomplishments because confidence doesn’t seek approval.

I often times have to remind myself that God is amazing, that God has blessed me beyond what I deserve. I have to humble myself (against my will).

Spending my days in Gods presence reminds me that I am nothing, I am just a servant of Christ, and all the glory go to God. Do not take away from God that which is his. If I had to give you any tips, I would say, a humble heart is the only way to live a Godly life. Through humility God can work through us, through humility God can shape our character, he can bless us beyond our belief. But we struggle with this, because naturally we are proud, we are self centered. Do not confuse humility and humiliation; to humble yourself is to lower your view’s of your own importance. This doesn’t mean doing something embarrassing that makes you less of a person. Jesus never humiliated himself, Paul never humiliated himself. They humbled themselves, they became servants to the people. Jesus even washes the feet of his apostles and their reaction was; “we are not worthy of you washing our feet…”

Jesus came here with a humble spirit and wanted to show us that the only way to accomplish humility is to serve others.

Interestingly enough, in our society we are conditioned to think quite the opposite. We are taught that humility is humiliating and you will lose face. OH….NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN…EVER..or the people will use your weakness against you. Women are offended in our society by things like stewardship, by being considered the helper of man, to give a loving hand to a husband, because we are all equal and no one wants to humble themselves. Saying things like; “I’m not your servant…” Men are no different, “I am the man, I won’t serve a women…” Men have pride that can often times exceed women pride, which is highly driven by testosterone, which often times can turn into aggressive behavior (all this is because of pride)!

Do all these society norms sound familiar? We all see them, and some practice them…

In society we are expected to be selfish, we are conditioned to be independent and to worry about number one (me). But by Biblical standards this is the opposite of how we are to act! We are called to serve others, we are called forsake ourselves and take the cross…

It says if you do this you will be hated by most, because wickedness is repulsed by light, evil runs from truth…People will even hate you simply because you are not selfish…They will often times say things like, “oh, he is only helping others because he wants attention..” There is no winning with this world, especially when you try and follow Christ. No matter what you do, people will judge you, people will reject you. This should be expected. Keep in mind if everyone loves you than you are probably doing something wrong in the eyes of God.

Growing up, my dad would always apologize to my mom first, or for absolutely no reason. I’m not saying I totally encourage this, because against popular belief women aren’t always right (this stigma and seed has been planted by Satan himself to encourage women to be prideful).This just showed that my mom tended to be more prideful than my dad. My Dads daily walk with God was a huge inspiration in my life. He lived by actions not by words. But why did he lower himself in front of my mom…well, because being right wasn’t as important to him as being a good Christian. Did this mean that my mom wasn’t Christian? No, it didn’t but it meant this was a very difficult area in her life that she struggled with. We all struggle in different areas….

If you spend day to day working on a humble heart all other things will fall in place….

It’s easy to love when you are humble, it’s easy to forgive when you are humble…it is impossible to love when you are full of hate and pride…it is difficult to forgive when you are on your high horse.

My recipe to maintaining a healthy relationship with God is blogging, whats yours? Have you found it? If not pray about it….there is no general way to build up a relationship with God.

#word4thought #Humbleyourheart