How do you respond

Haven't wrote in here for a long time but I have had a constant statement caught in my head for the past two weeks. It was something my good friend told me about, "how do you respond." This can be taking a lot of different ways but for what is going on in my life I took it like this. Life is filled with actions and response, situations and responses, struggles and responses, tasks and responses, circumstances and responses; its filled with stuff in our lives and responses. The key word in all of this statements is responses. How you respond in things that God places in our life is so important. SO how do you respond?

God's Will is going to be done, whether we like it or not. How do you respond? God is going to call us to to do hard things, how do you respond? God is going to give us blessings and joys, how do you respond? God is going to let trials happen to you, how do you respond? I could go on and on, the point is our response makes us who we are and it also in ways shows who we really are. one of my favorite quotes is from one tree hill, "Because it's only when you're tested that you truly discover who you are. And it's only when you're tested that you discover who you can be. The person that you want to be does exist, somewhere in the other side...of hard work and faith, and belief and beyond the HEARTACHE and fear of what life had." I know that One tree hill doesn't have all the answer but i think they have a point with this quote. God uses stuff all the time to shape us, frame us and sculpt us to who he intends us to be little by little. How do you respond?

There are going to be times where God is going to call you to do something hard, something where you are going to trust him and rely on him. Are you going to fold under the pressure, let fear over come you or trust him. There will be times i fall but thats ok because there is a benefit to trust him. 1Peter 1:8-9. states, You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. At the end of the day we trust him and thats all we do, well heck look at that, we have salvation and joy. Thats not too bad if you ask me. So again how do you respond?

The beauty of all of this is God is constant, and he will never let you down. He assures us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 saying, All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He'll never let you be pushed past your limit; He'll always be there to help you come through it. If there is one thing that God is, it is constant so we know we can always rely on him. How do you respond?

In James 1 :2-4 it states, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Now looking at my hard times, trails and struggles in this light it makes me response all the important. Again, how do you respond?

So after look at all this, how i respond is more important than i could have ever known. Also if i know one thing its this, I know that God has nothing but greatness laid in front of me. So why i would i ever choose to respond any other way then a way that would make me better for Jesus or make this world better for Jesus? The thing I need to remember is, my relationship with Jesus isn't for my benefit, it never was. So yet another reason why my response is so important. Our lives are so beneficial for God and his Kingdom, this is easily forgotten in our everyday but yet so important. How do you respond, i guess if i could choose to remember one thing with every respond it would be this, if Jesus isnt the reason what is the purpose? SO one last time, How do you respond?