Love in the Making 2019

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Proverbs 365 Ministries

Melody Mason

My Single Joy

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us again together here for the second seminar, and I just pray that you'll speak through me and give encouragement to those that are here today, and just open our hearts to you, Father, to a deeper walk with you.

Thank you, Father, in your precious name.

My single joy, discovering a life more abundant in Jesus.

So, when we think about our walk with God, I shared in the first session about being in a very wilderness experience mentality.

And you know, I knew that God called me for something deeper, but I didn't really understand what.

And I very much had settled, just you know, a superficial walk with God.

It wasn't a bad walk, but it was superficial.

And he's calling us to life and life more abundant.

But you know what brought me to the point of desperation and really like needing more was going through this dark experience in my life where I literally came through and my whole faith was questioned and God's goodness was questioned and why is this not working as I thought, and all of that.

Coming out of that experience, I began desperately crying and praying, like, Lord, I need a deeper walk with you, and I was sincere.

Like, earlier I was praying, but it was more superficial.

But now, I showed some of this in the first message, I would take my Bible mornings and I would just be reading the Scripture.

Lord, you said you can do this with my heart, and you can do this.

And I would sometimes, you know, he'd wake me up strange hours in the morning, you know, this is something you might say, like, I want to have more time with God, but I can't get up in the morning.

And you know that the enemy puts a lethargic blanket over us in the morning.

I think about, you know, 4 or 05:00 or 06:00 in the morning, he's like, okay, I don't want you to be clear-headed, I don't want you to get up, you know, you just get up when you need to go to school, you just get up when you need to whatever.

And so we're just like, oh, I know I've slept all night, well maybe I haven't, maybe I was up, you know, till midnight doing such and such or whatever.

But I just can't wake up to have my time with God." And that's what he does because he knows how vital it is that we get in God's Word and we spend time in prayer.

He knows that if he can break that connection with us, we're not gonna have that relationship with him that we need.

So I was battling these things myself, and I'm just like, Lord, I am determined, I want more.

And sometimes, you know, I'm fighting this sleepiness, so I would get up out of my bed, I'm not even going to stay in my bed, and I would walk around my room holding my Bible, and just because I, you know, I'm not going to fall back asleep in bed.

And so I'd be holding up my Bible, Lord, help me, help me, claiming these verses, where he gives us victory and he helps us.

And I think I wrestled, I'm specifically talking about the sleep issue.

Maybe like a week, every morning I was up doing this.

And then like on the fifth day, I woke up, I was completely clear-headed, no lethargy over me, and it was just like, Like this whole drug had been lifted.

Like I was taking a drug before and now it was all gone.

And I knew this is a spiritual battle that we are under.

And because I saw such a change and difference in my own life, now I speak of course very forcefully on it.

Because I'm like, if you're struggling with lethargy, pray and pray until you see breakthrough, until God delivers you from that.

If we challenge God, if we put His word to the test, He will answer.

And you say, Lord, I want to have more time with you.

Say, Lord, wake me up when you want me to get up in the morning.

How desperate are you to have a deeper walk with God?

How desperate are you to have more of Him?

You know, that earnestness, I believe, is a big part of His ability to work.

When he sees us just pray these lethargic prayers like dear Lord help me to have a deeper walk with you help me to do good on my grades today keep me safe thank you Lord thank you for this meal have a good day Lord amen you know earnest sincere prayer How desperate are you when you want something?

Of course, we want a husband, we want a life partner.

We're more desperate for those prayers, right?

But do we recognize that the thing that we really need to be most desperate for is our walk with Him, our relationship with Him.

Because until we have that relationship with Him, even if you did have the greatest life partner out there, the greatest man comes into your life, He's not going to be good enough for you.

He might be a good person, but he's not going to be good enough for you because you are looking to him for that fulfillment instead of to Jesus.

And so God has taken me through this journey because I my whole the first whole part of my life was built over the fact that I was going to marry that childhood sweetheart of mine, high school sweetheart.

We were going to go off and we were going to work for God, of course we were going to do good things, but my whole life was built around him and this dream.

And so when those romantic things, When those dreams were shattered in my life, I felt like I had nothing left to stand on because what was my life built on?

And when he walked away, so did all of my foundation.

So God had to take me through this painful process over a number of years, 8 years for that first relationship, 8 years for the second, and then almost 2 years for the last person that I almost married.

And God had to take me through these experiences, specifically the first 1.

The first 1 was the most influential because that's what I literally lost my faith in.

But then God brought me through that and then I feel like it's kind of like when he's tested you on something and you've learned your test, He's going to test you again.

I mean I don't believe, and don't take this the wrong way, I don't believe God is cruel, I don't believe like He's intentionally trying to hurt us, I don't believe that at all.

Remember, he says, all things work together for good.

But, He does have to prove, do you really have faith?

If you profess to have faith, He's going to test that faith.

You know, there's no testimony without a test.

And so, he had to walk me through this, and so I go through this another 8 years with somebody different, and I was just like, Are you serious?

I've been praying and waiting for this guy for 8 years and it's not working out either?

But that time my relationship was founded on God and His Word and not on a person.

I cried my tears, but then I moved on, relieved to finally know the answer.

And that was that he had a better plan for me.

So I have no resentment, absolutely no resentment about what has happened in my past, about the previous unproductive relationships and friendships that I've had.

I know that God has kept me for a purpose as we've already talked about and that I'm where I'm supposed to be today.

Of course I still dream and hope and pray in my heart that he has a plan, a man for me, and I felt like years ago that he told me that he did at the right time that that would happen.

But I'm determined to wait on him and trust him in the middle of the story even when I don't see the end of the story.

But how in earnest are we to have that walk with God and to seek after him?

You know, we're told in God's Word, if you seek me, you'll find me when you search for me with all your heart.

There's a story I like to share about a young man that wanted a deeper walk with God, and so he was talking with his pastor, and he said, what should I do?

How should I, you know, have a deeper walk with God?

And the pastor says, well, come and let me baptize you and I'll show you.

And the man says, well, I've already been baptized.

And I said, well, it's not about the actual ceremony, but I want to show you.

So He comes to the baptistry and gets in, and the pastor says, I'm gonna show you.

You asked a question, I'm gonna show you.

So he puts him under the water as if he's gonna baptize him, but he does not bring him back up.

He's holding him under the water, and of course the man of the water's thinking, what's he doing holding me into the water?

And then a few seconds go by and then he begins to worry.

How long is he gonna keep me under the water?

And he starts to thrash a little bit and then he's like, is he trying to drown me?

And then he really starts to thrash and the pastor brings him back up and he's sputtering and coughing and everything with the water and he's like, what were you trying to do?

And the pastor says, you asked, how do I have a personal revival in my walk with God?

When you desire that as much as you desire that next breath of air, you will have it.

My Single Joy

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