Casting Crowns New Song!! "All You Ever Wanted" Live 9/12/13

What Mark Hall says at the beginning of this video is SO important... I hope that you all really listen to that part... If you are not in the word, if you are not seeking God and getting to know Him you will make up your own idea of who he is based on failed relationships or "bad" father figures in your life and that is NOT who God is... I have spent the past 20 years with the wrong image of God in my mind. I went through the motions of being baptized when I was young because it was just what you did. You get too close to that "age of accountability" and you better get dunked so that when you're done doing all the "bad stuff" you wanna do you can just say "oh yea, forgive me" and get into Heaven at the very end. I went through my teen years going to church and youth group and every activity they had every time the doors were open and I STILL didn't know who God was, I STILL wasn't in the word learning about Him. In my mind he was this big, judgmental, perfect being who sat up in Heaven shaking his head at what a disappointment I was and he didn't really care about little ole me, I was insignificant and eventually he would give up and walk out on me just like every other man in my life. When I was 17 and lost my baby sister and felt a pull to the ministry I got freaked out, I let Satan whisper in my ear, and I turned and RAN from God as fast as I could. I spent years blaming him for the loss of Chloe, and all the other loved ones I had buried so young. When my cousin died just before our 22 birthdays and my grandfather followed her just 5 months later I heaped that on top of God's "discretions against me". I sat judging HIM and blaming him and accusing him of every injustice and every bad thing that had ever happened to me. I accused him of doing all the same things these earthly men had done to me. In the past 6 months I have come to know who God really is, I have immersed myself in his word with a thirst and hunger to know him like no other feeling I have ever felt. I see now that he has sat patiently waiting on me to stop throwing my little 2 year old tantrum over not getting my way, over life not being "fair", over all the loses and broken hearts of my past  and come to Him to learn who and what he is and what he has to offer. Today I know him for the kind and loving God that he is and I have given him the only thing he ever asked from me... my heart. I have learned that he is NOT who I judged him to be. He is truly awesome and amazing and GOOD. When you read his word you find the bible is FULL to overflowing with PROMISES he has made to us... and guess what... HE. ALWAYS. KEEPS. HIS. WORD. In Philippians 4:6 we are told "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." And that's great, pray about everything and don't worry, right? But go a little further. Read verse 7...
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
There it is... a promise from God that we ALL need to let sink into our hearts... not our heads. When you take your troubles, your heartache, your trials, you deepest, darkest moments, to God he will give you Peace, which TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING. I have wasted so many years DEMANDING answers and understanding to WHY this or that "bad thing" happened to me. God does not owe us any thing, but through his love for us he will always work things for our good. When you turn to him he will give you peace, you don't NEED to understand every thing, HE understands every thing, all you need is to be still and know that he is in control. He's "got" this. Some day we will be in his presence and we will be able to look back on this life and see how all the pieces fit into place. We will be able to see past our individual hurt over certain things to see how it worked in the grand scheme of things and how it worked out for the greater good. That may not comfort any one when they are hurting and stuck in their own small part of things, and that's ok... it's even ok to feel that way and to hurt for your own loss and not really care how it works out for every thing else.... but one day it will all make sense... for now I just pray that those of you who are still as lost as I once was will find the Peace that he promises us. Let him wrap his arms around your soul and your aching heart today and let go of your need to understand and just rest in the peace that IT WILL BE OK.