At the request of a number of my friends, i'm starting this blog. I have to admit, i've blogged before and never really succeeded at it. I would do well with keeping up for a month or two and then slack off. So i'm starting this with a lot of fear and trepidation that that will happen again. I hope this time that i do better.
But thinking about my past failures, how often do we do that with other things too? I get all excited about something (like a new hobby, and new spiritual discipline, a resolution etc.) and i'll work hard at it for a while, and then it loses it's excitement and it's "shininess". I try to stick with it and find new ways to get the excitement back, but eventually i give up and move on to something new. I know i'm not the only one.
We inherently fail a lot at the consistency game in a lot of ways, but none half as bad as our spiritual walks. I admit it, i have my peaks and valleys, and those valleys can be pretty low sometimes. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, in fact the Bible specifically says that challenges are a good thing. But what if we looked at our relationships with Christ the same way that He looks at them? The Bible says that God starts new with us every day (Lamentations 3:23). It's like as we sleep our slate gets wiped clean, and we become shiny and new again. Granted, this particular verse is talking about His mercy towards us, but there are other verses that talk about our whole being starting fresh each morning. What if we did that towards God? What if every day was like the 1st day so it was still an adventure and still full of excitement? Maybe we wouldn't get so discouraged and give up during the hard times if, like the cliched saying goes, we took it one day at a time.
Thoughts to ponder... and definitely one that's on my mind today.
I'm the first... yay!
ReplyDeleteI hardly ever go on these blog things and just happened to stumble on you. Glad to see a fellow artist for Christ :)
When I read this, two things struck me that's very deer to my heart and that I feel people always take very surface level like.
It's actually sad that you can take something new and give up on it. I'm not saying you didn't put your all in it, but that giving up on anything prematurely prevents you to mature in that (James 1:3-4). Too many people just give up on tests of faith to find something new (to replace their failure). And when they find that new thing and fail at it, they move on to something new again, and the cycle continues... it's convenient. Personally I blame it on the culture we live in, which the enemy has twisted to break the heart of our Father.
The other thing was your thoughts on Lamentations 3:23. It's true that He renews us, or rather wants to. During this season of lint the word mercy is everywhere. And I love the encouragement to forgive that's in the air :) I had a very personal experience a few years back, where a family member wronged me in a way people only see in their nightmares. Not to disclose personal information, but to forgive was not in the cards. Finally the poison of un-forgiveness severed my walk with God and I could no longer hear His sweet whispers. I had to forgive to be forgiven (Matt 6:14-15). When I did, I was free! I could hear my God's precious voice again. What was even more striking, was that I could actually love this person again.
So I believe a person's slate gets wiped clean when they have wiped the slates of their enemies clean. Then our Father can renew us :)
Isn't the Lord wonderful!! :)
I love some of the other blogs you posted, keep on living for Christ Leaan.