The Power of Christ In Me...
Well, it's been a while since I've really blogged anything other than hockey and music. I guess I haven't really had much time or motivation to sit down and type up anything of much significance.
Tonight I met with 3 friends of mine for our weekly small group/bible study. With the new year, we have decided to make a couple modifications to our previously chosen materials and also to set some new goals. Over the past 4 months we've gone through Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life, a couple bible studies off bible.org on marriage and just over half of Chuck Colson's book, Lies That Go Unchallenged In Popular Culture. I've definitely noticed a change in my life as a result of our study. We've also been doing scripture memory on a weekly basis and that has been such an awesome tool for us. I've found it allows me to really hide the Word of God in my heart for use in my daily life. I have found myself in situations where verses would pop into my head and I would think "hey, I should stop being selfish" (Phil 2:3-4), "I should stop complaining and arguing" (Phil 2:14) or "I should be praying on a more regular basis for the people in my life" (Phil 1:3-4).
After a bit of sharing, I realized how easy it is to slip into a "God routine" that becomes meaningless after a while. Go to church on Sunday morning, pray before a meal, read your bible, join a small group...even memorize scripture. Sadly, some weeks I would be trying to learn the verse for the sake of memorizing it. I'd cram it in close to the last minute and then I'd basically forget it afterwards; a sad resemblance of my study habits for school. Cram and forget.
This week as we reviewed the entire first chapter of Philippians, I could tell which sections I put more effort into and which ones I simply memorized for the week and didn't meditate on the words. The first 18 verses were pretty easy to recall but the last couple sections were tough because I remember I put a lot less work into them the first time around. I think I also need to be careful not to slip into a robotic religious trance.
Lately, I have definitely been struggling with the whole uncertainty of my future - mostly in the form of school and hopefully some form of work afterwards. I think I've finally managed to organize my priorities in the proper order but I'm having problems making sure I get to everything. I find myself at times almost going crazy over trying to figure out how to spend my time...how involved do I get with my church, how hard should I be studying, how often should I be making time to develop and build friendships and what constitutes a meaningful/purposeful activity? After dismissing (maybe inaccurately) that I might have some sort of borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder, I've come to realize it really has a lot to do with my lack of faith and trust in God. I mean really, if I just make sure that I'm following Christ, everything else will fall into place. I don't need to worry about if I have the time or strength to do all these things because if God wants me to do it, He'll fill in the gaps.
I almost never turn my cell phone off. Instead, I connect the charger to it when the battery is running low and charge it while it's still on. This way, I can still use my phone as an alarm clock (my alarm clock I've found isn't loud enough and also I can place my phone somewhere in my room that forces me to get out of bed to turn it off). Anyway, I turned it off and on the other day and I saw the opening message that I had saved when I first got my phone over a year ago. It said "Where is your God room?" I put it in because I had heard/read somewhere that we need to give Him the opportunity to empower us by setting goals and doing things that are seemingly above and beyond what we can manage ourselves. Only then can we humble ourselves and let God work in us in ways that would be impossible.
On the drive home tonight, I was listening to some Casting Crowns and the song In Me was playing off their latest album, Lifesong. The chorus really struck me. The one line " 'Cause I'll never get by living on my own ability" made me really think about my own life. One of my favorite songs is Surrender by Marcus James. It's like i'm trying to do everything on my own strength again and not trusting in the Lord. Maybe it's time for me to resurrender everything and let the power of Christ work in me...
Tonight I met with 3 friends of mine for our weekly small group/bible study. With the new year, we have decided to make a couple modifications to our previously chosen materials and also to set some new goals. Over the past 4 months we've gone through Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life, a couple bible studies off bible.org on marriage and just over half of Chuck Colson's book, Lies That Go Unchallenged In Popular Culture. I've definitely noticed a change in my life as a result of our study. We've also been doing scripture memory on a weekly basis and that has been such an awesome tool for us. I've found it allows me to really hide the Word of God in my heart for use in my daily life. I have found myself in situations where verses would pop into my head and I would think "hey, I should stop being selfish" (Phil 2:3-4), "I should stop complaining and arguing" (Phil 2:14) or "I should be praying on a more regular basis for the people in my life" (Phil 1:3-4).
After a bit of sharing, I realized how easy it is to slip into a "God routine" that becomes meaningless after a while. Go to church on Sunday morning, pray before a meal, read your bible, join a small group...even memorize scripture. Sadly, some weeks I would be trying to learn the verse for the sake of memorizing it. I'd cram it in close to the last minute and then I'd basically forget it afterwards; a sad resemblance of my study habits for school. Cram and forget.
This week as we reviewed the entire first chapter of Philippians, I could tell which sections I put more effort into and which ones I simply memorized for the week and didn't meditate on the words. The first 18 verses were pretty easy to recall but the last couple sections were tough because I remember I put a lot less work into them the first time around. I think I also need to be careful not to slip into a robotic religious trance.
Lately, I have definitely been struggling with the whole uncertainty of my future - mostly in the form of school and hopefully some form of work afterwards. I think I've finally managed to organize my priorities in the proper order but I'm having problems making sure I get to everything. I find myself at times almost going crazy over trying to figure out how to spend my time...how involved do I get with my church, how hard should I be studying, how often should I be making time to develop and build friendships and what constitutes a meaningful/purposeful activity? After dismissing (maybe inaccurately) that I might have some sort of borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder, I've come to realize it really has a lot to do with my lack of faith and trust in God. I mean really, if I just make sure that I'm following Christ, everything else will fall into place. I don't need to worry about if I have the time or strength to do all these things because if God wants me to do it, He'll fill in the gaps.
I almost never turn my cell phone off. Instead, I connect the charger to it when the battery is running low and charge it while it's still on. This way, I can still use my phone as an alarm clock (my alarm clock I've found isn't loud enough and also I can place my phone somewhere in my room that forces me to get out of bed to turn it off). Anyway, I turned it off and on the other day and I saw the opening message that I had saved when I first got my phone over a year ago. It said "Where is your God room?" I put it in because I had heard/read somewhere that we need to give Him the opportunity to empower us by setting goals and doing things that are seemingly above and beyond what we can manage ourselves. Only then can we humble ourselves and let God work in us in ways that would be impossible.
On the drive home tonight, I was listening to some Casting Crowns and the song In Me was playing off their latest album, Lifesong. The chorus really struck me. The one line " 'Cause I'll never get by living on my own ability" made me really think about my own life. One of my favorite songs is Surrender by Marcus James. It's like i'm trying to do everything on my own strength again and not trusting in the Lord. Maybe it's time for me to resurrender everything and let the power of Christ work in me...
Labels: Personal Reflection
posted by Matt at 10:18 PM
3 Comments:
That's a scary step, but oh so rewarding. Very cool, that's a decision that not many can make, and you should be proud of it.
Your in a great place right now. Gods smiling down on you and very proud of you too.
He is faithfull...
I know what you mean - especially how frightening the end of university can be!
This past weekend, I attended a Campus Crusade conference in Langley, and the president said something that really stuck with me:
"You know the saying 'Make Jesus your co-pilot'? That's got the whole thing backwards - you make Jesus your PILOT, and allow him to take you where He wants you to go"
Not an easy thing to do, but I think that's what spiritual maturity is all about :)
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