{"id":356,"date":"2017-06-26T13:18:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T13:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glitterandgraceteens.com\/?p=356"},"modified":"2017-06-27T12:39:51","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T12:39:51","slug":"if-god-is-real-where-is-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/?p=356","title":{"rendered":"If God is real, where is He?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-357\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/forgive1.jpg?resize=337%2C223&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"223\"><\/p>\n<p>Just the other day a friend of mine said, \u201cif God is real then why does he keep testing my faith, taking me through dark battles, and making my life miserable?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My response is simple\u2026God is real. God is not a dictator, a ruler that forces you to do certain things in life. God is God and gives you choices, freedom, and direction in life. You get to choose what and who you follow or love.<\/p>\n<p>My husband loves me. (duh) but if he loved me just because I demanded or forced him to love me, then it would not be true love. No one makes him love me. He chooses to love me. Just as I choose to love him and we choose to love and follow Christ. No one forces love, love is a choice.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine it like this:<\/p>\n<p>When you were born God handed you a road map that directed you through life step by step, turn by turn. Looking at the map you can see a straight road leading directly to eternal life. You can see the sun, the happiness, the path that God has given you. It\u2019s pretty simple to follow, but you have to choose to stay on that path.<\/p>\n<p>You can see it all laid out in front of you.<\/p>\n<p>But then, life happens.<\/p>\n<p>Like most road trips, after driving hundreds of miles, you get bored. You look up and see a sign that says \u201cFUN THIS WAY\u201d maybe it\u2019s a sign for an amusement park or attraction or something that is tempting to follow, but whatever it is\u2026you take the turn. Instead of following God\u2019s roadmap for your life\u2026you decide to take a quick detour down a road of \u201cfun.\u201d In your mind, you think \u201cGod won\u2019t mind. It\u2019s just a quick detour. I won\u2019t be long\u2026I just want to have some fun on this trip!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So you turn&#8230;you turn away from God\u2019s plan\u2026<\/p>\n<p>After a few years of fun, you realize this road is going nowhere. You haven\u2019t found eternal life, you aren\u2019t happy, you feel like your life is pointless again. You have no purpose and your struggling just to make it through each day. So, you keep driving down the same road\u2026day after day, you are lost.<\/p>\n<p>Then you see another sign of happiness. You look to the left of the road and you see a group of friends that look like they are having a blast. So, you ask them to show you the way. The world directs you to turn. So, you take the turn and join your friends for a while.<\/p>\n<p>Years later, you\u2019re stuck at a crossroad again. You\u2019re bored, your life is pointless and you don\u2019t know why you are so unhappy all the time.<\/p>\n<p>Repeatedly, you take the wrong turn until one day you wake up and ask, \u201cif god is real\u2026where is He?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The truth is\u2026He\u2019s on the road you started at. He\u2019s still there! He never left your side. You decided to take the wrong turn and you left the path God had planned for you.<\/p>\n<p>To get back to God, to find happiness, YOU and only YOU have to decide to turn back to Him. One right turn is one step back to Him.<\/p>\n<p>Today you can decide to follow Him. Today you can find Christ. Today you can know that God is real!<\/p>\n<p>Take that first step, and follow Him.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cJesus *said to him, \u201cI am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.\u201d John 14:6<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I pray that God will direct your steps, send you back to Him, and answer your prayers in His will. It\u2019s easy to take a wrong turn and get lost in your own ways, but turn to Him and I promise you will find peace again.<\/p>\n<p>I know that God is real because even when I took the wrong turn, more than once, I found my way back to Him by simply turning around and turning back to Him.<\/p>\n<p>He never left my side, He never gave up on me, and He gave me peace that only He can provide.<\/p>\n<p>God is real.<\/p>\n<p>May God bless you and show you His Grace every day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just the other day a friend of mine said, \u201cif God is real then why does he keep testing my faith, taking me through dark battles, and making my life miserable?\u201d My response is simple\u2026God is real. God is not a dictator, a ruler that forces you to do certain things in life. God is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/?p=356\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">If God is real, where is He?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-devotions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empoweredjesusgirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}