In Pursuit of God: People, Places and Things Will Never Keep You Satisfied, Only Jesus

By Suzanne Orellana

My book is sharing about God, He is not a spectator of our lives but that he is involved in our individual lives daily. God sees us and he is for us, we are his creation and He loves us, and has a good plan for our lives. It is about faith in Jesus Christ Gods Son and we can now have access to Gods transforming presence in our lives when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Our lives purpose is to have a relationship with God our Creator and to establish an interactive connection with Him and live out his will for our lives. Believers are to bring heaven to earth; the kingdom of God is at hand. It is Gods will that we live an extraordinary life which calls for us to live as servants and grow spiritually mature. It is about putting God first in our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664173026

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Copyright © 2021 by Suzanne Orellana.

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Rev. date: 05/04/2021

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1   Here Is My Story

Chapter 2   My Journey with God on Human Relationships

Chapter 3   My Journey with God

Chapter 4   Seasons

Chapter 5   Salvation: What Does This Entail in Our Belief Systems?

Chapter 6   Lament: Godly Sorrow

Conclusion

Twenty-Eight Days Devotional

References

Sharing my story with you all makes me aware of my vulnerability because I am sharing my soul with you all; I am opening up and sharing with you my heart. I pray my story blesses you and that through reading my story you are encouraged to seek God and start your own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. May you be encouraged to know this truth, "that we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony Revelation 12:11. Hallelujah!

To my family, my Nino, Frank Martinez, who faithfully never stopped praying for my family and me all of our lives. Nino, we would not be here. I would not be here if it weren’t for your faithful, consistent prayers. To my siblings, Danny, Amy, Marina, and Rebecca, life with God makes life worth living. My message from God to you is that God sees you. Let this promise make you feel alive; let it give you hope, confidence, and security. My prayer for you is that you come to know and believe that Jesus is with you by the power of the Holy Spirit here on earth, and he is for each one of you. He wants to see you prosper in life. He died for you so that you can live eternally. There will be times of sorrow and suffering in our lives, and I pray God will fill you with his strength to endure. I have learned, in my walk with God, that everything I have received from God, I am to sow in other people’s lives and bless others and extend the same mercy which was given so freely to me. I am to sow seeds of seeing others, bringing peace where there is discord. When I am walking on the streets, I can make eye contact with a homeless person and say hi to them for this restores their humanity. To my nephew, Jacob, I am so proud of you. You are growing into a man after God’s own heart, and you are becoming a humble young man. You have changed so much. To Mom and Marlene, thank you for always being there for me and raising me right, for giving me a normal upbringing as best as you could. Your obedience led me to the truth—the only thing that matters in life is salvation in Jesus Christ. To my husband, Arsen, you are so special. I am grateful I am eternally yours. I grow in love with you more and more each passing day. Sophia, my special girl, you are Mommy’s sweet girl always. I pray you will be a woman after God’s own heart. I pray that you manifest the spirit of the living God all the days of your life.

INTRODUCTION

I want to open with a story; it is a story about starfishes. One day, a man walked along the beach and started to throw back into the ocean the starfishes that were left on the sand by the ocean’s current. A little while later, another man came up to him and asked, What are you doing? There are millions of starfishes all over these beaches, and you cannot possibly make a difference.

He replied, You are right. Maybe I won’t throw every single one back into the ocean, but I made a difference for that one.

As I reflected on this story, God showed me to think of these star fishes as humans. I work in a mental health clinic, and we see thousands of children over the years, some stay a few days, some a couple of weeks, some for months or years, and a colleague of mine negatively stated, What are we doing here with all these kids in our program? We are not making a difference because they do not care. They will never change.

The Lord spoke to me at that moment and said, Even if one life changes throughout the whole existence of this nonprofit organization, you have made a difference in this world because every life matters to me.

Hallelujah. There is a spiritual principle in this story: although one cannot solve all the problems in the world, but one can do something. So as I write about God, a chapter in this book is dedicated to my life, how I was once before a starfish that was spiritually dead, lying on the beach until someone came along