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    Dating God: A True Story of How I Dated God
    Dating God: A True Story of How I Dated God
    Dating God: A True Story of How I Dated God
    Ebook119 pages2 hours

    Dating God: A True Story of How I Dated God

    By Jocelynn M. Burton

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    About this ebook

    Have you found yourself in a place of waiting? Are you wondering what you are waiting for? Well thats where I found myself just a few years ago. God showed me not only what I was waiting for, but Who I was waiting for too.

    This book is for all of you who are confused, frustrated, broken and tired. Id like to give you some hope. And show you a new way of thinking. What started as a fun guide for a friend became so much more. Its a story of God from another perspective. Its how God showed Himself to me, in a way I could understand. And now Im on a mission to help others understand God in their own language. Some people are book learners, others need visuals. God understood me and knew what I needed to understand Him, and Im going to tell you how He did that.

    After a promise made to God, He handed me a spiritual compass and all He said was to go where it leads. Inside youll find where it has taken me so far.

    Dont let a broken relationship, bad family experience, horrible work environment, or anything else you can think of keep you from getting to know God better. Let God use your life to teach you about His love. Dont believe its possible? Well, inside this book Ill prove that wrong. So go ahead, try to prove otherwise, I DARE you. ;)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateJun 5, 2012
    ISBN9781449744632
    Dating God: A True Story of How I Dated God
    Author

    Jocelynn M. Burton

    Jocelynn Burton is a certified hospice and palliative nursing assistant. She’s worked for Beacon Hospice for the past seven years and is the mother of Ethan. She currently resides in Barrington, New Hampshire, where she began her experience with Dating God. She has been an active member of Restoration Church for over fourteen years, and mentors many young ladies learning to have a stronger and closer relationship with Jesus.

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      Book preview

      Dating God - Jocelynn M. Burton

      Copyright © 2012 by Jocelynn M. Burton.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      ISBN: 978-1-4497-4462-5 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4497-4463-2 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012905909

      WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      1-(866) 928-1240

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      WestBow Press rev. date: 05/31/12

      Contents

      introduction

      1 dude, let Him ask you out!!!

      2 seriously, shut up.

      3 it’s a battle! be prepared!

      4 home sweet home

      5 freedom through surrender

      6 our story is History

      7 thorns and curtains and Jesus, oh my!

      8 reflections of the Jesus kind ;)

      9 footprints of a Father

      10 clean your room already!

      11 Hope & Faith

      12 Greater than all things

      13 the Power of Love

      afterword

      thanks

      about the author

      Notes

      This book is for you, Ashley D. You helped me face and get through one of the hardest trials in my life and I am forever grateful. You are my Jesus twin, and the reason I stay strong. I love you sister. And without you this book would never have come to be.

      So thank you. Thank you for helping me get back on my feet and move forward into what God was calling me to be. Don’t forget to hold on. Hold on to the promises God gives, because He ALWAYS comes through.

      THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO WAIT.

      introduction

      Have you ever had that feeling that there’s something more out there? Like there’s more to life than what we see? Well, I know that feeling my friend, and in my experience that is God pursuing you. The bible has many stories of God reaching out to His creation, and has put the desire inside of us all to reach back to Him. I found out in the course of writing this book that if I really looked back and thought about it, God had been pursuing me all my young life just waiting for the day that I would turn and see Him. I have many examples of how God has pursued me, but let’s first focus on the one that pushed me to change.

      It was mid-February and I had literally just broken up with my first long-term boyfriend at the beginning of the month. I moved back in with my parents having nowhere else to go. Obviously my pain was still very fresh and I was extremely sensitive about my recent loss of the relationship. Every Wednesday night at my home church we had a bible study group that I had been avoiding for a while. One not so special night I needed to get out of the house, so I decided to go. I’m willing to bet God knew I was going to be at this particular class, and saw fit to time this class to be the one that my pastor was giving about dealing with Disappointment and failure. Sweet, right? Ugh. Not really. I couldn’t believe the words on the study guide that was handed to me. Almost at once I could feel my heart begin to go crazy and my eyes fill with tears! How was it that the day I decide to come back was the one that my Pastor would shove all my recent disappointments and failures (literally) in my face? It was not very funny. In fact I thought it was pretty mean. But I know now that it was God trying to tell me that He saw my pain, and wanted to help me. Most of that night was spent using every last bit of self-control to not leave or break down in front of a room full of people. That study group lesson opened up a deep wound that I really didn’t want to deal with at that point. I just wanted all the pain to be gone without having to deal with it. But instead, I felt it all over again, and I felt so broken that I was afraid if I let go of my emotions I would fall apart in front of everyone and I didn’t like that one bit. After leaving I remember crying the whole drive home. It was only by the grace of God that I didn’t get into an accident, and made it home safely. Needless to say, that was a hard night. But that was also my billboard, my knock over the head where God was saying to me:

      Hey it’s Me, and I’d like your attention please.

      That night I literally felt like I had hit rock bottom, but you know what? A good friend of mine once told me that it took hitting rock bottom to see just what Rock you are standing on. And you know what? He was right. (Thanks Paul!)

      It was the season of Lent and every year so far I had given something up to grow spiritually, so I figured what the heck? I decided to give up dating, which was no real loss; I was pretty ticked at the male race at this particular time. So I was going to put all my focus on God, and not pay attention to guys. It seemed simple enough but I felt a part of me cringe because I could hear a voice inside of me saying that if I did this that’s when the guy of my dreams was going to come along and I’m going to miss him. But I could hear Jesus’ voice loud and clear over that one saying, If you really want this you’re going to have to trust Me.

      The first thing I did was make a promise to God, I even wrote it down so I could sort of see it as a contract, that I wasn’t going to date anyone for 40 days. I was just going to focus on reading my bible, and spend time praying. My main objective was to get to know God; to learn about Him. I wanted to seek Him out on purpose. I also wanted to heal from my broken heart, and learn how to trust Him.

      Not dating during the forty days of Lent was easy since I was too depressed to even talk to guys. So when Easter Sunday came I found myself unsatisfied with the results. I wanted answers at this point but just ended up with more questions. How annoying, right?? I then realized that I had stumbled onto something much greater then I had intended. This thing was going to take more time and more sacrifice if I wanted those answers. I had to take this more seriously. And that’s when I made a choice to forget dating for a little while longer so I could dig a little deeper. I had been chasing after a life that fell apart, and I wanted to know why it went wrong.

      That’s when God spoke to me. He told me to stop dating other guys, and date Him. I know how crazy that sounds, trust me. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. Ponder this with me: When you want to grow in a relationship with someone do you go by what everyone else says about them, or do you want to experience it yourself? Seriously, imagine you’re dating someone, but you only talk to them through others, and the others do all the talking to them! Does that make sense? Don’t you think that you should talk to your own boyfriend or girlfriend? And they should talk to you! That’s how you build a relationship, duh.

      So it became pretty obvious that I needed to go straight to God if I wanted to build a relationship with Him. If there’s a red flag going up, saying, Hold up, go straight to God? Is this girl serious? Well, yes I am. The reason I could go straight to God (if you aren’t already aware) is because of Jesus Christ. Now don’t go painting me to be crazy because I believe in Jesus. I wouldn’t blame you if you were a little weirded out. But seriously He is the only reason I could do what I did. I even have a scripture to back me up!

      ~Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6NLT~

      It was easy at first, my pride started to get the best of me a little bit too, but months in when the feelings of loneliness started to come I suddenly found myself humbled and with a new respect for those waiting on God.

      As I began this journey I did not understand the amount of commitment, determination, and strength that being pure and dating only God was going to need, but I found out real quick. I should tell you that I was not perfect at it. There were times that I did not faithfully read my bible. **GASP** But I did

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