My Chains Are Gone, I've Been Set FREE

Hey, hi, howdy, ahoy!

Haven't blogged in a hot minute. Oops.

Anyways, this is a feelsgoodman blog.

Bombshell! I prayed and my brothers in Christ, Tristan and Justin, witnessed it. I prayed for my salvation. And being saved gives you this joy, this peace, this happiness that you cannot experience ANYWHERE else.

Okay time for some backstory.

So for those of you who've known me for a longer portion of my life, you'd know that I did indeed get baptized in I believe 9th grade. At that time I would've thought that I was serious about it and was going to be intentional with my faith. But now that I look back on it, it seemed more of just something that my parents had encouraged and me being myself, I figured, "well if mom and dad want me to do it, I can do it".

I wasn't exactly intentional with my faith back then. I mean to be fair, I'm not really that intentional right now with my faith, but I'm currently taking the steps towards being more intentional with it.

I don't know how it overcame me, but it was something that just sparked a bit last semester, and has really begun to catch fire this semester.

So last semester, I decided, "well if I'm going to claim that Hebrews 12:1 as my life verse, I should at the least read through Hebrews". Side note: I didn't actually finish Hebrews just yet, but I will eventually. So I got through I think the first 7 or 8 chapters. Then for whatever reason, I returned back to my life before that, which was fill every minute of free time doing fun stuff, like watching YouTube videos or playing video games, or hanging out with friends. Not like there's something bad about all that, but it's just not the best use of my time when I could spend even just a moment or two more with the Lord.

Fast forward to Christmas break. I had this crush on this one girl who was so invested in her faith that it inspired me to be more invested in mine. So I started reading Romans after asking her how she got so invested in her faith. Of which I haven't finished that either. I'm so bad with actually just sitting down and reading the Word.

Fast forward yet again to this semester. It started off as every other semester I've done, and nothing was really different. I made new friends (typically I refer to them as the troll group since we all got together because we "trolled" LU Crushes lol). Somehow, I guess the Holy Spirit must've been on the move, and got me to ask for a Bible study to be started, and somehow, I wasn't the only one who wanted it to happen.

So now we got a weekly Bible study going, and the first 2 weeks have been great and there are ways I can instantly apply what I learned. We've been going through Proverbs, and week 1 touched on sexual immorality and temptation, and then week 2 was learning how to bounce back in the event we fall to our temptations again. It's bound to happen since we are human, and humans are sinful by nature.

Bring this all to last night, March 3rd, 2019. Somehow we were talking about death (I think because of a millennial meme about wanting to be older, then at 18 just wanting to die). I for some reason said that I wasn't sure if my spiritual life was strong enough that if I were to die that I would go to Heaven. You might be confused like "Geoff, you claim to be a Christian, but you're not sure if you'd go to Heaven? That's not how that works". I'd beg to differ. A lot of people at LU would claim they are Christian, but some of them just don't show it. And sometimes you wonder if any of them actively practice or are just claiming it like how I used to.

Anyways, from there I met up with Tristan and Justin, and then I prayed for God to kill me in a sense that make less of me and make more of Him through me, and to forgive me for my sins, and to make me more intentional in my faith. To also receive and learn more of Him so that I may be able to pour into others, and that my actions will glorify the Kingdom of God.

I didn't feel any different for a little while, but a couple hours later (right now), I all the sudden felt no worries in this world, and felt a peace I had never known. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit is on the move, and that I'm making the right steps towards the end goal of where I'm supposed to be. Getting closer to the design that God had intended for me ever since I took my first breath. Ever since my cells began to divide to create me (life begins in the womb).

Anyways, this peace feels amazing, this joy feels amazing, and now I want more of God, and I will begin to convince myself that holding control of things won't get me anywhere. I will force myself to give it up to God. As if He weren't already in control, but the idea is that I'm declaring that I am not in control.

It'll take work, but if it means I get to keep experiencing this epic peace and happiness and joy, then you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm going to pursue it. If for nothing else but the glory of God. For I am nothing without Him.