My Future is Secure

So I've realized I haven't posted on here in ages. My apologies! Want to know what's going on in the life of Jessica Williams right now? I shall tell you.

Remember when I posted about not knowing if I should stay at Auburn to pursue interior design or if I should pursue music?? WELL the Lord guided my steps to come to the decision to move from Auburn to Nashville and try to make a career in songwriting. And let me tell you, I've only been here for 2 weeks and I've already seen an abundance of confirmation that this is where He wants me to be!!! It's so wonderful here and I am loving every second!!!

I moved here at the end of June and one thing that I was so so nervous about was finding friends. I just KNEW I was going to be sitting around with wifi being my only friend.

This verse has been on my mind throughout pre-moving, to moving, to now I'm here. It has been the lock screen on my phone to constantly remind me. A verse everyone knows, but do we really believe it? I can say I do now!

I do have one friend from home that is here for the summer and the day after I moved here, he told me to go to Centennial park because they have a swing dancing night every Saturday! So I was like, yeah man I'll be there! I was on my way to the park and he told me it may take him a while to get there cause he was working. So I drove around Nashville, trying to get lost, for about an hour, until he finallyyyy called me and told me he was on his way. I almost didn't go, but after a little while I decided, ya know what? YOLO. Jus kiddin' but not really... I am SO STINKIN GLAD I made the decision to go that night because I can honestly say, making that decision changed my life for the better.

I walked up to the pavilion where everyone was dancing, tried not to look like a complete loser, and searched for my friend. I finally found him and talked to him for about a minute but then the girls and the guys had to split up cause the dance instructor was teaching new steps. Long story short, I didn't hang with my friend too much that night, but I met new people!

A girl came up to me and was like- "Are you Jessica Williams?" I was kind of taken back, but also flattered that she knew my name, and replied "yeah!!" And she went on to tell me that she watched my video about coming to Nashville! (you can watch it here if you haven't seen it) I instantly became friends with her and she shared with me that she goes to Auburn!! I obviously didn't know her from there, but we have a lot of mutual friends! She introduced me to some of her friends and I also had an instant friendship with them. They told me about a "life group" they have every Monday night that I should go to! So come that next Monday night, I went and saw the Lord. I saw the Lord written over EVERYTHING that night, and realized he was written over everything I had done the first few days I had been in Nashville as well as everything else in my life.

As I was sitting there that night listening to all these college kids talk and worship Jesus together, all I could think about was how amazing God is. Literally 4 days earlier I was so nervous about not finding friends, and here I was worshipping Jesus with the thing I was so anxious about, friends. My smiles that night were coming from the inside out and I felt closer to Jesus more than I have ever been.

I saw a quote yesterday that I don't know who said, but I firmly believe:

"My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure."

My past is truly redeemed because of what Jesus did on the cross for me, and you, and your friends and their friends, and their friends, and their enemies and the enemies' enemies and you get the picture.

My present makes sense! Everything is working together for good! God has a PERFECT plan. Trust me. Trust the Bible!!!

And my future is secure.

Seriously, say that out loud.

My future is secure.

It's SO HARD to trust in that. I know first hand! I have no idea what even tomorrow looks like for me. I've moved to Nashville all by myself because I am trusting the Lord that he knows what he is doing in my life. I've already seen that he knows what he is doing by all the people that I have met in my first 2 weeks here! It is seriously amazing.

No matter where you are in life, this is God's plan for you. And you may be like, I don't even know how this can be in God's plan for me. Let me tell ya, if you trust that God knows what he is doing, there's no need to worry about the future because your future is ALREADY SECURE!!! Can I get an amen?

So that is just a small snippet of what's been going on in my life. THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES for everyone that has been so supportive in my move. I have seriously been overwhelmed by all the love you all have shown me!!!

And do me a favor. Before you get in bed at night and your mind starts racing about different possibilities in your life, say to yourself (preferably out loud) "my future is secure." It's really comforting.

In Christ Alone,

Jessi



here are some pics from my first couple of weeks here!!!

So my parents met here. When my dad proposed to my mom, 

they came to this spot. It's called "the Love Circle." Best spot to see all of Nashville.

Here's the band that plays at "Dancing in Centennial Park" on Saturday 

nights during the summer.

It's so fun. I suggest everyone should go!!!

For the 4th of July, I went with some of my friends to a building downtown

called the Pinnacle. PERFECT seats let me tell ya.

Oh and I did get to play at The Bluebird Cafe after a week of being here!

A friend of mine, Tom Douglas, was playing a show and asked me to play

a song in the middle of his set! Here's a video of it!!

jesus will be our song

So I haven't posted on here in a while, my apologies! I've been super busy, like always. But I do want to take time out of my morning (my last free morning in a while because classes start back tomorrow) to share with all of you who read this scatterbrained blog of mine what I have learned about life since the last time I posted!

Life is hard, ya know? There is A LOT of suffering in this world. Accompanying our own frustrations and heartaches, there are also shootings left and right, people fighting about what's right and wrong, how to handle situations, and just CONFLICT. People get sooooo weighed down about things of this world. And I mean, it's 100% natural, this I do know. But one thing I have really come to try to live out is that THIS WORLD IS NOT OUR HOME. Like how depressing would that be if this is all we've got? Pretty depressing.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says:
"For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

The heartaches and frustrations are light and momentary in the whole scheme of eternity. We get so beat up about things that really don't matter in the long run that we forget about what really matters, and that's Jesus!!

I don't think I've ever explained the meaning behind the name of my blog "Until Then..." I came up with the name while listening to worship music and I came across the song "Jesus Will Be Our Song" by Ronnie Freeman. Some of the lyrics are as follows:

Do you ever feel like a stranger here?

Do you ever hope your pain will disappear?

Do you day dream about what it might be like

for night to be no more and the Lord to be our light?

Don't lose heart, don't forget:

This world is not our home

There's a better place where we belong

And one day soon we know He'll come

But until then

Jesus will be our song

Like a haunting melody played on a violin

There's an aching in my soul for a place I've never been

I'm finding like a child

It's getting harder to wait

I look up to the sky and think what if it's today?

Signs and headlines help remind me:

This world is not our home

There's a better place where we belong

And one day soon we know He'll come

But until then

Jesus will be our song

I couldn't find a link on youtube for you to hear the song, and I couldn't find the CD on iTunes for some reason. But I know the CD is sold in Christian book stores and places like that. The CD is called "Ronnie Freeman If This is What it Means." All of Ronnie Freeman's songs are great and well written! My favorite part of the song is the chorus: This world is not our home, there's a better place where we belong, and one day soon we know He'll come. But until then, Jesus will be our song. 

This world IS NOT our home. We were made for so much more than this! We are put on this world to share the good news about the gospel and for "Jesus to be our song"! So my blog is called "Until Then..." because this world isn't our home and I'm just sharing on my blog what is happening in my life until Jesus comes back and takes those who love and believe in him to live with him forever!!! How exciting?!?! 

So as I'm over here struggling on whether to pursue interior design or music, I need to remember that this world is not my home and this is only a light and momentary affliction! Whatever I end up doing, it needs to be for the glory of God because that's all that matters. 

I've learned a way to serve God is to serve people!! I just got back from being in Atlanta at a thing called Passion! It's a largeeeeeee (60,000 people) gathering of college age students in the Georgia Dome that are all there to worship the Living God!! It was great. There were many great speakers such as Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, Judah Smith, and John Piper. And awesome musicians like Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, Kari Jobe, Lacrae, Matt Redman, Brett Younker, and Christy Nockels. I probably left out a couple names, but it was a great 3 days of worship and learning about God. Here's a picture from one of the days:

One of the MANY things I learned from being there is that people where made to serve God and serve people. We focused on the End It Movement and we came to the awareness of the amount of people in the world today that are enslaved (27 million to be exact). Even spreading awareness for this cause to help end slavery helps a lot with the process!! So if you would, click on where it says "End It Movement" a couple sentences before this one and join the movement!! 

There is so much heartache in this world today and the End It Movement is there to help those being sold into slavery. Groups they are partnered with help take in those they have rescued and bring them to a knowledge of Christ!

This world is hurting. Those of us that know that this is not our home need to let Jesus be our song and help share to others the good news and bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ! That's what we were made to do.

Jesus is coming back!!!!!! What are you going to do until then??

In Christ Alone, 

Jessi