Mirrors, Silver, and Windows

 

So again I’m a day late but I’m here writing so that’s at least something. So I read from 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18 talks about mirrors, which also made me think of silver and windows.

Silver is a great illustration because it needs polishing because it tarnishes and becomes dull even blackish in color. Silver left alone will tarnish and needs to be polished regularly to maintain it's beautiful shine. I need to keep work on myself and not just be lazy and do what I want to do. It's not healthy and it's for sure not very pretty.

 And of course windows, windows are great!!! They allow light to shine through and brighten the room you’re in. But they don’t work so well when they’re covered in crap. We go through life accumulating crap on our window so much that we can’t get it all off on our own. When we accept Jesus’ sacrifice for He gives us a gift in the Holy Spirit. He becomes our new spirit and works to clean up our window. Little by little light comes in and the beauty can be seen looking in and looking out from the window. Our job is to not add more crap to the window with God’s help and to allow the Holy Spirit to clean the window so that God’s beauty can shine through. (And yes I know that it's a doorway but we can all pretend that it's a window because the picture is too pretty to pass up!!!)

Me and a Talking Donkey

I am late this week in posting. I am forever being challenged to CHOOSE to not indulge myself. Since starting 40 Days in the Word (40 DITW), I have not been consistently doing a quiet time. Oh I’ve been a lot better than I ever have in my life, but it’s still not a daily thing. I do well the first two days after my small group meets and then the weekend hits and I’m tired and I don’t want to make the effort to study God’s words. Though not always apparent, I do pay for it later some how. This week it was very apparent to me that I didn’t keep my focus on God over the holiday weekend. I know that when I’m not focused on God that I can spiral down in my mental health. One would think that it’d be a great motivator to do what needs to be done to stay mentally healthy but no the un-divine human side of me gets the better of me more times than I’d like. When I indulge myself too long it makes me feel like crap. As it is, it’s hard to be motivated to go to work let alone trying to go when I already feel crappy to a environment that doesn’t really make me feel any better about myself. Part of Pastor Ed’s sermon was about Balaam and his donkey (Numbers 22). What stood out to me was that God funneled Balaam to a point where he had to come face to face with what he was choosing to do. My self-indulgence and the subsequent crappy feelings is my funnel. I am thankful for a God who hears my prayers and helps me through my day even when I’ve gotten off the path and who funnels me back on the way I should be going.

Acting vs. Reacting

Ok so this is the first week of the 40 Days in the Word curriculum from Saddleback Church that my church is going through. It's teaching me how to study the Bible. I decided to share the thoughts that came from the second day's study.

ACTING, now this action not pretending to be something that one is not. Philippians 1:27a “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” is the verse for the second day that I studied. This is what I got out of my study. Many times I go about my day and I'm doing my own thing and not paying attention to the things around me and then when something "bumps" into me and disrupts me I react instead of acting. Most of the time my reacting isn’t “worthy of the gospel of Christ” that it should be. I realized I needed to be acting instead of reacting. Reacting gives me the impressing that you’re not in control; it’s an automatic response to something around you. To “conduct [yourself] in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” means that what comes out of me in my thoughts, actions, and words should be a reflection of the grace and mercy that I’ve received. I need to be controlled by Christ and not by my own self so that I can be assured that my “reaction” is worthy of the grace and mercy received.

God-
Help me not to be reacting but to be proactive when circumstances around me change. Help me to step aside and allow you to control my actions and words so that I can live my life in a way that is worthy of the grace and mercy you’ve bestowed upon me and to be able to point others to that same grace and mercy.

Learning to Let God Break the Chains of Slavery

I’m working through 1 Corinthians. I love reading the New Living Translation. It’s easy reading and written in a way that’s easy to understand. I have the New Believer’s Bible of this translation, which has little side notes on different topics. The one that had some good things for me to hear was on 1 Corinthians 6:12 “You may say, ‘I am allowed to do anything.’ But I reply, ‘Not everything is good for you.’ And even though ‘I am allowed to do anything,’ I must not become a slave to anything.” This is the part of the commentary that stuck out to me: “Yet, as a Christian, you should only want to be controlled by and under the power of Jesus Christ. We need to so treasure our relationship with God—and the ensuing freedom from sin it has brought—that we jealously guard that relationship, wanting no thing or person to get in its way.”

What’s being said here is that everything is a choice. I choose to allow things to come between God and me. Sometimes I am so week that it doesn’t seem like it’s a choice because I’m so controlled by my own sinful and selfish nature. I am so thankful that even though my selfish nature gets the best of me more times than it should, I can still run to Jesus and seek his help. I know that it’s only through God working in me and in my life that anything good that I do, anything good that I desire is because of Him. Philippians 2:13, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” I rely on God to get me through the work when I dread going and don’t want to be there. I know that this is where He has me and He’s to teach me to rely on Him for my strength.