Letters to God

Tonight I went to an AMAZING Christian movie called “Letters to God.” Some of you may have heard of it, but if you haven’t, here’s the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBDK2LGn4p0

There are so many lessons that I learned (or was reminded of) through this movie! I know a few devotionals back, I mentioned that I was struggling a bit to keep my focus on God and remember His goodness and faithfulness…Well today, through a number of experiences (Bingo at the senior center, praying with a friend at Bible study, and this movie) I was reminded just how great our God truly is! :)

One thing I was reminded of was how our prayers are like letters to God. Even more so, the Bible is ultimately God’s love letter to us. How encouraging!? This definitely gives me a desire to read it more!! Who doesn’t like getting letters explaining how much someone cares about you and how much they value you?! :-D Since prayers are like letters to God, and some of us (including me) may struggle with prayer at times, I recommend writing down your prayers if you’re struggling to find the words. I definitely find it a lot easier to write things down than say them aloud…helps me think through what I want to say. :)

The song that I chose to include today (that is from the movie) brings up another lesson: Even the weak can be used by God! (Actually, it may be better to be weak so that we are humbled before the Lord and not too prideful in our strength to allow Him to work in our lives.) The main character, Tyler, is an 8 year old boy who has cancer yet, rather than blaming God for his circumstance, he uses it to draw closer to Him. This was so encouraging to me, because if I am going through a hard time, this may result in me feeling spiritually weak. Whereas, Tyler, who is fighting for his life, continues to write to God and share with Him the pain and trials He is going through. The main thing is that Tyler does not let his cancer get in the way of his faith and he allows the Lord to work in His life, and therefore, impacting many. I think we could take a lesson from Tyler in that, throughout the whole movie, he was the one person whose faith remained strong and he inspired so many others to turn to God in prayer (through letters).

The other lesson I took from this movie was a lesson of finding strength in the Lord. I’ve written a devotional on this before so I won’t say too much. But I do want to encourage us all to go back to God and find our courage and strength in Him alone. For me personally, I know I sometimes rely too much on my friends or family for assurance and encouragement, so this movie did a great job of convicting me to be filled with the Lord’s power. It’s crazy how we dismiss Him so often when we know He is the only One who can give us anything that’s worth Eternal value! I’m referring to the need for approval from others. So often we go to boyfriends/girlfriends or anyone else who will make us feel good about ourselves. But in reality, this is only temporary and the cycle will continue with us wanting more assurance. However, when we go to God in prayer and read His Word, we will find our worth in Him and see how much He values us. Knowing this Truth will give us more than the strength we need to face any obstacle!! :)

As you can probably tell, I absolutely loved this movie and it has some great insight into living a life for Christ and loving others! I highly recommend everyone checking it out!!

I pray that today we are reminded that we are like fine china to our Heavenly Father – we are treasured possessions! Let us find strength in knowing God created each and every one of us as He saw fit and not allow the enemy to feed us lies that cause us to believe anything different. And remember…

YOU ARE LOVED! :)

God bless!
<3 Shannon

“You Give Me Hope” – Between The Trees
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=103768007&searchid=509fa8c3-e3a6-4c3a-95ab-6889e7b6832c

Lastly, here is the movie’s website:
http://www.letterstogodthemovie.com/