Category: Uncategorized

Make it about Jesus

What books of the bible do you gravitate to? For me it’s the middle of the new testament. Books like Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians.

When discussing this with my husband this morning, he asked me why I gravitate to those books. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that it’s because I can make those scriptures more about me than Jesus. The book of Ephesians for example starts out with Paul telling us about our identity in Christ. He then goes on to teach us what to do with who we are in Christ. Ephesians 1:4 says, “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” That is encouraging and reassuring scripture. It’s also very easy to make it about us, and not Christ.

I am guilty of choosing the easy stuff in scripture. But we need the hard stuff too; maybe even more.

I’m challenging myself to study scripture that is hard. Maybe that means dissecting a chapter from Isaiah, or Revelation. What ever that might mean for you, let’s work on finding Christ in scripture and getting to know more about Him so we can be more like Him.

Let’s make it less about us, and more about Who’s we are.

Thankfuls

My daughter spent 2 years living at a residential treatment center. Her testimony is worthy of a post by itself; so I’ll just say she needed some guidance beyond what we could give her at home.

The girls at this treatment center are surrounded by the word of God. They are counseled daily on giving God control. One of the concepts that was used with my daughter was writing “thankfuls”. She would be required to keep a journal and each day she would sit down for 15 minutes and list things she was thankful for. When my daughter told me about this, I was intrigued. So I tried it. Wow, does it change your perspective! It’s such a simple thing. But being thankful really helps keep our minds and hearts focused on how blessed we are.

What if we took time every day to write down 5 things we are thankful for? The catch is that you can’t repeat anything. Would you run out of things to be thankful for? I think it would be hard, but I bet there are far more things to be thankful for than things we wish would go away.

There’s a book by Ann Voskamp titled “A Thousand Gifts”. In it, Ann guides us to write down 1000 little things we are thankful for. You can learn more about it here: http://www.annvoskamp.com.

I have learned to find joy in so many little things. As I sit here writing, I can easily touch 5 things I am thankful for: my sweet furbaby Bella, the fleece blanket covering my legs, my bible, the ottoman that allows me to elevate my sore feet, and the pizza rolls I’m having for dinner, (don’t judge me).

What about you? Have you done your thankfuls today?

Share some random things in the comments that your thankful for!

Disciplines vs Distractions

In my devotions this past week, we have been looking at spiritual disciplines. Let me just say it’s been eye opening and a bit convicting! Bible intake is the most important spiritual discipline because it enhances all the other ones. And bible intake is the one spiritual discipline that I struggle with the most. I get distracted so easily.

One of the questions during my reflection time was, “Does reading the word of God feel more like a duty or a delight?” If I’m being honest, I have to say it feels like a duty. Why? We have THE WORD OF GOD at our fingertips, and we (I) feel like it is a duty rather than an honor to study it?

Psalm 19:7-11 says the word of God is perfect, right, pure, clean, true, sweeter than honey. Yet not only do we not turn to it’s words, we look elsewhere for answers.

Let me segway for just a moment. What are your idols? Have you ever really looked at what you gravitate to for comfort and satisfaction? I have thought about this and studied this a bit. I have found that there are 3 major idols in my life: laziness, approval, and shopping. Now those are not specifically named in the scriptures, but all three are things that I have willingly replaced God with. At first, I didn’t give it a second thought. If I wanted to sleep in on Sunday morning, I justified it by saying “I can worship at home”. But if I wanted to go shopping on Sunday morning, you can bet I’ll be up and out the door without hesitation. Approval – that’s a tough one. Within the first chapter of the bible, Genesis 1:27, it says God made us in HIS own image. So our identity is anchored in Him. Yet we (I) still seek validation and approval from people. That’s just silly.

The things that we idolize in the world, are the things that distract us from practicing spiritual disciplines. Once we get a rope around those, (which is a constant daily battle), practicing spiritual disciplines can become more habitual.

What can you do today that will help you move toward more routine practice in spiritual disciplines?