Good Times, Bad Times

by Sharnessa Shelton

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the front seat of our tour bus while one of the Earthsuit guys was driving, we were in Northern California and it was snowing like mad! (Is that an oxy-moron or what?! "California" and "snow"?!) It was a bit scary as we were driving on pure snow and ice. On the other road, however, there were loads of snowplows to clear the way for those going in the opposite direction. We noticed this a few times as we desperately needed a plow on our side! We were like, "That's so not fair!" Then later on he jokingly said, "Maybe God's trying to teach us a lesson!" I half-jokingly started naming off all sorts of lessons it could be, "Keep your eyes on your own path," "Don't worry about how easy someone else might have it," "Trust in God, not in people," etc, etc!

While none of these "lessons" seemed to particularly stand out to me, one thing that really did was just how much I found myself praying for safety, as it was extremely dangerous out there. I realized that I was more eager to go to Him when there was a problem as opposed to just seeking Him for Him, and I started to feel a bit convicted because of it. Of course we should to go to Him when we need help, but it needs to be that we're always going to Him, whether we're having a tough time or doing brilliantly! He just wants to spend time with us! And He wants us to want to spend time with Him!!! And yeah, I do have quiet times with Jesus, but they are sometimes lacking in sufficient praying and listening. And what's a relationship without communication and conversation?

You know, relationship is the reason why God sent Jesus to die on the cross. When we sinned, a perfect relationship was broken. So He sent His only Son, Jesus, down to earth as a man, to die on the cross and be the bridge from God to man, so that God could once again be in a friendship with us! That's pretty awesome, isn't it?! When you think about it, how amazing is it that THE God of the universe who could do and make anything still wants to be our Daddy and Friend, even after we rejected Him!!! And He wants that SOOO badly that He allowed His precious Son to go through the most horrendous death so that we could once again have a chance to know Him! How phenomenal is that, guys!?! THAT is how important we are to Him, how much He loves us, and how much He longs to spend time with us. And that's what prayer is, just talking with and listening to Him! Prayer (along with reading His Word) is THE most important part of our friendship with Jesus. Imagine a friendship where you never talk with that person, never listen to that person, or you just go to them when you're having problems. That wouldn't be a very deep or healthy friendship at all, would it!?!

I once heard someone say that you can be as close to God as you want to be. That means that it's up to US! Why? Because He's already doing His part, He's there waiting for us! Always!! One scripture I love is 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Keep on praying." (NLT) It's so simple, but so true! So let's "keep on" talking to and listening to Jesus, in the bad and the good! He wants to be a part of it all!!!