Remember that post I made related to spiritual highs? Well recently, when I got baptized (in February) and when I went on the mission trip I was on another spiritual high.

But after those two things ended, I went back to my normal spiritual ‘mid’. Not that it’s a bad place, but after doing so well spiritually, it felt like I was in a low.

Well, things started getting better. Lately, things have been good. Like, really really good.

Want a list?

I am getting published, I got accepted into a college-alternative writing program, I got my drivers license, I made three new friends at youth group, I fixed a relationship that was falling apart, I’m going to preach at my youth group, I found a Bible college that I really love, I’m seeing friends I haven’t seen in three years in July, I’m moving back to the south, I’ve gotten great feedback on my writing and blog, I got hired at my dream job, and my family got a beautiful house we’ll be moving into in July.

These things have been filling me up: when I wake up and remember all these good things, I realize “DANG, life is going great!!”

But it only makes me happy for a few hours. And then something small, really small, like not being able to have a the kind of bread that I want for a sandwich, ruins it all and suddenly my life is all “Everything is going wrong and I hate my life.”

And then I realized this on Wednesday: these are all things of this earth that are making me happy. That’s not to say that going to Bible college or preaching at youth group aren’t good, godly things, but they are more like achievements.

These things are all earthly achievements that, surprise! Won’t last forever.

Despite how happy these things made me, they didn’t change the fact or the hurt coming from the not-so-good things in my life: like moving, my friend who is hurting, my relationships that are falling apart, the friends I’m leaving, my depression, my spiritual low (or mid), and a variety of other things.

All the good things, despite how many there were and how great they may seem, are not going to make you happy forever. They’re not going to solve every problem.

And this helped me realize: I’ve been putting so much time into these earthly pleasures…but have been putting very little time into my faith and God.

Instead, I tried to force it. You can do a bunch of Bible plans or devotionals, you can make a dozen notes on the Bible app, you can only listen to worship music, you can go to church, but if this is all forced, you’re gong to be left feeling the same way: stuck.

Which leads me to my next point: you can’t force faith.

Forcing your faith isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s not going to get you where you want to be. Here’s an embarrassing story to prove my point:

About two and a half years ago, when I was around fourteen, I would work out. And this is super embarrassing, but I wanted to be super ripped and have abs. (I’m regretting this already but maybe it shows how much I love and appreciate y’all.) Now, I would do like sixty pushups a day, thirty burpees, and a one-minute plank in the morning and evening. (To be clear: I would do thirty pushups in the morning and thirty in the evening–not all at once.)

Like I said, I wanted to have a super toned stomach.

And I don’t know a lot about working out (at least to get abs), but what I do know is that I was doing the wrong kind of workout to get said abs. I was doing something that would strengthen my arms–to be honest I did get kind of ripped. Just kidding–but I was doing the wrong workout because it isn’t what would specifically strengthen my stomach.

The same goes for our faith: we try to do all these ‘workouts’ for our faith but it’s not strengthening the thing we want to strengthen. It might make us smarter, but it’s not going to actually improve our faith, you won’t be believing in God for his goodness, you might believe because you want to or you think you have to.

As I was writing this post, it made me really think about this verse in the book of Matthew:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21 NIV

My earthly treasures are not going to fill up my spiritual battery. That’s what God does.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!
~Willow <3