It's my birfday yo!

It's been a while I realize since I posted but that has no correlation to what God is doing! Let me just start off by saying this... I love the rain and it is totally raining on my birthday as I sit in my favorite coffee shop and read my word.  Best birthday gift ever honestly.  But! I wanted to share something about what my dad said to me over winter break..... He told me, "It is a gift to know God," and that has really stuck with me.  I don't want to go into much detail with that but I want you to just read that and think about it.... it is a gift to know God.

Reflecting on my 23 years of life, I have realized and am so humbled that God thought of me when he created the earth, universe and everyone and thing in it.  Wow.... and people say that God isn't personal?
hmm...

I am really scatter brained right now but I wanted to share what I am reading in Daniel which really hit me hard and made me realize more and more that I want this as a man of God.
Daniel 6:4-10 "Then the other administrators and high officers began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling government affairs, but they couldn't find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy. So they concluded, "our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion." So the administrators and high officers went to the king and said, "Long live King Darius! We are all in agreement - we administrators, officials, high officers, advisers and governors - that the king should make a law that will be strictly enforced. Give orders that for the next thirty days any person who prays to anyone, divine or human - except to you, your majesty - will be thrown into the den of lions. And now, your majesty, issue and sign this law so it cannot be changed, an official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked." So King Darius signed the law. But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God."


I would encourage you to read more but I want to stop there for now and just go on with my point.  How awesome is that? Daniel was a man that just wanted to be the Lord's man.  He had seen what God can do to the highest of rulers and he had seen much of God and heard from him.  I want to be just like Daniel, when I hear that one day it is illegal to worship God....go behind closed doors and do as I always do, kneel before God.  But I can tell you I am far from that courage and boldness.  The reason why I bring this up is I just want to make sure this isn't just a heart check for me.  Since God is unchanging, all that He is doesn't change.  So why would we change our worship and devotion to Him?

I want to wrap it up with this passage in Daniel in the middle of chapter 9 verse 22 toward the end Gabriel a messenger of God comes to Daniel and he gives him a message...."And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God." WE ARE PRECIOUS TO GOD!!!! Ya you know, the one who made everything... the one who keeps everything that lives ALIVE.... That is how precious...

So to wrap all this up, we are precious to God, so the next time you have a minute, STOP and thank God for making you precious, it says that His thoughts for you are outnumbered and He never stops those thoughts....