Saying Goodbye

So tonight, unfortunately, was my last night with my youth group since I'll be heading back to college on Sunday. For me it's very hard to be leaving because I really have nothing to look forward to at Eastern except for my classes. I don't really have any friends there and since I'm really shy when I'm around people I don't know, I sometimes find it difficult to find friends. It also doesn't help that I have yet to find a good Bible Study group or church or anything. Here I have some pretty amazing friends, old and new. I have an awesome church that I absolutely love. I have my family all close by so I can go see them basically any time I want. So, needless to say, I'm going to very seriously miss home.

But, as in all things, God is faithful. This has been a very, very hard year so far and through it all, God has been there and has helped strengthen me. I have learned to trust Him in all things. I have been reminded that God has a plan and that, no matter how painful things get, no matter what happens, God does not make mistakes and there is something to be learned in everything. He has taught me patience in dealing with others. There have been times, especially when I was at school, when I have struggled with depression. Yet through it all, God has lifted me from the darkness and back into His glorious light, healing my heart and giving me strength.

Let me elaborate a bit on what God has taught me so far this year. He has taught me trust Him. Whenever it felt like the end of the world, He reminded me that He was there and that I needed only to trust Him, to cast all my cares on Him. He enveloped me with His love again and again, reminding me whenever I needed it. So many times I tried to get by on my own strength and found that I was too weak, that I had not the strength to keep going on my own. It was during those times, when in my weakness I cried out to God, sometimes out loud, sometimes through tears, that He carried me. And when again I failed to trust Him immediately, but was then reminded of my weakness yet again, He carried me again. My Lord has not yet failed to carry me through those trying times when I felt I could not go on.

And through this time, God has reminded that He has plan, and not just any plan, a perfect plan. When I thought that I had made the biggest mistake of my life by ending a relationship, He comforted me, reminded me that He has a plan. He brought me back to my favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Through those days and nights of uncertainty and pain I clung to that promise. And though there are still days when I struggle, when I doubt, they come less often and it is easier to throw the burden off, to simply give it Jesus. He showed me that His plan has no mistakes, that this trial was meant as a lesson for me to learn from and learn from it I did.

He also taught me patience, something that I have struggled with for many a year. Yet when I worked with people of all ages in my job for several months, I found that patience was something that I sorely needed. And God, in His loving grace, gently guided me, taught me how to be patient. He gave me the strength I needed to be patient. And on those days that I struggled, He was there to help me overcome and rise above that struggle. Not once did He leave me during that time of learning.
So, now, as I say goodbye to all that I love for a time, I must once again trust God that He will provide what I need, trust that He has a plan, that He will give me strength when I need it. Though I have said it before, I will say it again. My Lord and Savior has never failed to carry me, to strengthen me in my greatest times of need. And even those times of little need, still He is there. So this coming Sunday, when I bid farewell, I will have nothing to fear, for my God with guide and direct my paths, He will be there to comfort, He will be there to strengthen, He will be there to gently remind, He will be there for me to lean on, and He will be there to carry me, at all times.

My God is a God of love. He is a God who does not leave me or forsake me and in my time of need, He is there to save me, to lead me. In the good times and the bad times He has been there. In my trials He has always been there to help me and to strengthen me. He does not grow tired of reminding me, but is always there to remind. He has taken all my sins away and I now strive to honor Him, to make Him my greatest treasure and pleasure in life. I pray that I may be told on that glorious day that I have been a good and faithful servant.