Align Yourself with Christ

I never walk up to people who are smoking. In fact, I avoid them at all costs. I have asthma and secondhand smoke makes me cough and sputter and my lungs contract and I'm miserable for days. But one day, while we were talking to people in a parking lot, I had this feeling that I NEEDED to talk to these two people. 

At first, I told God "No, I can't."

Then the feeling got stronger, so I told Him that He needed to help me to not cough or have an asthma attack during the conversation. Putting full trust in Him, I walked up to the person smoking and said "Hi, how are you tonight?"

No response just turned away. ...Great! Awesome! No problem! I kept talking.

"I'm Sister Palmer and this is Sister Gowans, and we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?"

A pause...a long one.

Then, for some reason, she turned around and wiped away what might have been a tear. "I'm so sorry. I just walked out of that store, and I was so mad, and I knew I would disrespect you if I did not calm down first. I saw you were ladies of the Lord and I just really did not want to offend you."

"Okay, have a nice...wait what?!" I didn't say that, but I was thinking it! Instead, I said (and I'm positive this was the Lord's doing because I don't know how I could have possibly done it without Him) "We are going around offering special prayers on homes and families from the Savior. Would you like one?"

WHAT. AM. I. DOING??? I'm being a literal vessel of God.

We said the special prayer with her and her mother and then talked about what they were feeling. Peace. Comfort. "It's like Christ is really here right now." YES! Because He is! He's always there for you! And then she said this:

"We know Christ is always there with us, but sometimes, we don't live the way we need to to recognize Him. My mom and I were just talking about how we need to find the right church. We need to find Christ again."

WHO HOO! Someone who sincerely loves Christ, and is a wonderful person, and is just... honestly amazing and truly inspiring.

"As representatives of Jesus Christ, we go around and teach people how to align their lives on His pathway. Would you like us to come to your house sometime this week and teach you more about how to walk in His footsteps?"

Brothers and sisters, God is real. He loves each and every one of us, and that is why there are people out using a HUGE chunk of their time to bring you His word. We do it because He asks us. We cannot do this without Him, and we cannot do this without help.

Member of the Church of Jesus Christ or not, we all need to align ourselves with Christ. And when we have done that, we need to re-align our lives with Christ. We are human. We are imperfect. And the only way to become perfect is to follow the example of the only person who ever walked this wicked Earth and stayed perfect. We must reach out to others, trust in the Lord, and act upon the feelings of the spirit. If you do not feel the spirit, then you are not close enough to Christ to do so. Get closer. Then you can hear His whisper in your ear, and you
can become so much greater.

I promise you that as you find Christ, your life will be so much better, and you will begin to recognize the miracles in your life. This is not an empty promise. I strive to draw closer to Christ every single day, because I know that what I did the day before brought me closer to Him yesterday, but it is not enough to bring me closer to Him today. I know that if I had not made the effort to pray and study and be like Christ, I would have never found those two ladies. They have families. They needed comfort and help. They needed a miracle from God. And because I prepared myself, I was blessed by God to experience that miracle with them.

This church is God's church. It is the only one led by and organized by God. And it truly blesses all.

In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.