“How do I consistently spend time with God?”
One of the biggest questions I receive from girls is this: “How do I consistently spend time with God?” This is why I created my resource called, The Lipstick Gospel Devotional. Rather than me explaining what it is all about, instead, I wanted to share one of my favorite excerpts from the Devotional! You ready?
Here's Day #2 from The Lipstick Gospel Devotional: We Have to Stop Talking about God like He's Boring.
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“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” – Habakkuk 1:5
God Isn't Boring
A couple of years ago, I had a girls night at my house with a few of my closest friends. It’s one of my favorite things to do. The pizza arrived just after my friends did. We opened the boxes and popped open a bottle of wine. Then, we each found a place to perch on the kitchen counter — hopping down every so often to grab another slice. I don't know why conversations are so much better when they happen on kitchen counters, but I’ve always found that they are.
We talked about all kinds of things that night — our relationships, our friendships and, after awhile, our faith. That’s when a friend said something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since. She said, “People need to stop talking about God like He’s boring.” I couldn’t agree more.
My Camp Experience
Christianity wasn’t a part of my life growing up — it was just never something I was interested in.
That only got worse somewhere around middle school when I joined up with a youth group to go to camp. On our first night there, my friends and I were curled up together on the top bunk long after lights out. We were giggling, and talking about nail polish, or something of equally grave importance when, all of a sudden, one of the other youth group girls walked in. She was the goodie-goodie of the youth group, the tattle-tale type so, up until that moment, I’d kept my distance.
She walked in, surveyed the room, and then, seeing that our light was still on, she shook her head in disapproval. Then in the most motherly tone I’ve ever heard, she said, “It’s time to go to bed girls.”
Girls? I’m sorry, what?!
Then, having noticed our stunned expressions, and the fact that we weren’t immediately hustling into our jammies, she said words I will never forget. Out of her 12-year-old mouth came the words, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise.”
Can I just remind you again that we were 12?
Now, I get that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, or an entire belief system based off of one goodie-goodie in our youth group but, in that moment, I did.
I didn’t really know any Christians — I had no idea what faith looked like in real life. So I figured this must be it! Christianity must be all about following the rules and being tattled on when you don’t. It must be early to bed, and early to rise and, to be honest, that sounded terrible! It sounded like such a vanilla way to live! It sounded boring which made me think that God might be the very same way.
It sounded like signing up for a life with God meant signing yourself up for a lifetime of Friday night Bible studies, boring shoes, turtlenecks and absolutely zero fun. And that’s not the life I wanted to live at all. I wanted a life full of best friends, and weekends at the beach, a life that sparkled and popped, a life that was full of life! And I was pretty sure God didn’t know much about that, so I kept my distance for a long time.
But, just because I was keeping my distance from God didn’t mean He was keeping His distance from me. He spent a long time pursuing me, loving me, and showing me what life could look like if I let Him have a say. So finally, I decided to give Him a chance.
The more I got to know Him, the more I found out that I’d been wrong about God. He isn’t boring at all. In fact, He’s the total opposite! And that’s why I love the phrase my friend said that day. “People have to stop talking about God like He’s boring,” because, all too often, I think that we do.
God is a God of Champagne and Best Friends
We talk about God like He’s a hall monitor with a clipboard — keeping us in line. “No running!” “Keep your voices down!” “Do that one more time, and you’ll have detention!” But that isn’t who God is!
God absolutely has ideas for how to best live our lives, and of course, that includes things He says not to do, but I just don’t think that's the whole story. When we talk about God like this, we forget about all the other things He is: How powerful God is, how deeply good He is, how loving He is — He's also so much fun!
God is a God of champagne, and best friends, and laughing so hard you cry (or pee your pants). He’s trips to the mountains, and your toes in the sand, and love beyond anything you even knew your heart could hold. He's healing, and redemption, and the best friend you could ever have. And that’s what I started to see the more I got to know Him.
I thought that God would restrict my life, keep it small, keep it tucked away, but the opposite has been true.
The Greatest Storyteller of All Time
Since getting to know God, I’ve gone on a safari in Tanzania, sipped cappuccinos in Rome, ridden elephants in Nepal, and skinny-dipped in Malaysia. I’ve fallen in love, and made amazing friends, and pursued my dreams, and started feeling beautiful in my own skin. Best of all, I’ve gotten to wake up every single day knowing that I’m on an adventure with the greatest storyteller of all time. I’ve gotten to know that, as I continue to give Him my love and my trust and, as I keep saying yes, my life will continue to be a story that’s better than anything I could have ever asked for or imagined — so amazing, I wouldn’t believe it even if I were told.
And you know what? This is true for you too. God has big plans for you, a beautiful life. They may look exactly like the ones He’s had for me, or nothing like the ones He’s had for me. And either will be amazing.
We serve an incredible, gigantic, mighty, adventurous God. And He’s issuing you an invitation right now, today, to get to know Him better, to walk through life with Him, and to trust Him with your future. When we start walking with God and letting Him guide the way, there are such good things ahead, better than anything we could come up with on our own. All we have to do is say yes.
My friend was right. People have to stop talking about God like He’s boring because nothing could be further from the truth.
***If you are looking to growing your faith these days, I would love to share my devotional with you! You can order a copy here: The Lipstick Gospel Devotional.
Also, if you want to learn more about my adventures and travels, head to my post on all things World Race!
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