The Voices

Purity of Mind: Day 3 - Faithful Followers

Colossians 3:1-2

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

I think that one of the reasons I am a little bit random is because I am a follower, which can be a good or a bad thing.  Depending on what is cool at the time, or what is fashionable, or popular thats were I will normally be drawn.  And although I tend to hang on to things, all of my interests are really because someone else has put them in front of me.   

I think that even though I am only like 3 days into this devotions thing, one of the things that I am really learning is that I need to work out who I am really listening to and why?  If I am actually going to be the person I was created to be and have this immeasurably more, I really need to stop settling for what is comfortable and easy, which is really just second best.

God, help me to step out and listen carefully... 

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A Working Progress

Purity of Mind: Day 2 - Who Determines Your Worth?

Matthew 10:29-30 (The Message)
"What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.

My self confidence is something that I have always struggled with, the way I look, the things I am into, the people I hang out with...everything, and I think one of the things that I have realised as I have started to grow up is how much I control the impact these feelings have on my everyday life. Sure I can compare myself to everyone, but I am always going to find someone better, or cooler or smarter or whatever. But even though I know its a stupid waste of time I continue to do it.

So many times I have found my self crying, wondering why I can't just be happy and almost every time the person I have been crying on has told me that I need to get my sense of worth from God. Like purity though this is something that I have really struggled with, not because I don't know that God loves me and that I am precious child of his, but more because I can't understand why he would want me to be. I know it sounds kinda morbid and depressive, but its true...God's grace and love is something that I find incredibly hard to fathom. I know that I am getting better at living in God's truth about who he has created in me, but its something that I think I will see be working on for a really really long time.

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Purity is a Dirty Word

Purity of Mind: Day 1 - In Tune with God's Purpose

Psalm 36: 5-6 (The Message)
God's love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic.  
Yet in his largeness nothing gets lots;
Not a man, not a mouse slips through the cracks.

Purity is an interesting thing, its something that I have always thought of in terms of 'actions' and I am sure I am not the only one.  When I think of being pure, the first thing that comes to mind is a little thing called sex and how you don't do it till you say i do.  But even before I started reading this book I have been learning more and more about purity and what it actually is.  

Purity is fully tied in with Holiness, another term that scares me a little, because even though I know it is a good thing it means fully letting go of me and my flesh and letting God do what he wants.  Sometimes I think I am super short sighted coz I would rather be comfy and only stretched as far as I want, then to give in and 'live life to the full'.  Anyway in the book it offers a definition of purity in terms of music...it suggest that purity is 'free from harshness or roughness and being in tune'...that is in tune with God's purpose for my life.  

Recently I have finished uni and started full time work in the area of my training, and while I like my job, despite the fact that it has caused some pretty big changes in my life.  The thing is though I am not super passionate about it, I like dietetics and I find it interesting, but it doesn't make me tick like I think that it should.  A couple of Sunday's ago I was challenged by another good friend to stop looking at my plans for my life and start looking at God's plans for my life and this really hit home.  I am the kind of person that likes to be in control, holding the reigns and I am also a planner.  I have a big long list of things that I want to happen in my life and while these things are all good, I have started to wonder if they are great.  Are they the 'immeasurably more' that I want?  The answer is probably not, sure maybe some of them are in God's plan too, but if I am picking and choosing, its not going to be the best it can be.  

The thing is though, I know all this information, but I need to act on it and thats where it gets hard.  I know that this is were faith and trust come in, but for a control freak like me how do I just let go?  I know that over my whole life and especially in the last couple of years God has been maturing me, but I don't feel ready.  Sometimes I wonder if I will ever feel ready, or if this is something that I just have to do?  And if I just have to do it...where do I start?  Perhaps as I commit to this devotions thing, I will get the courage...and perhaps a push? Who knows...   

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A Fresh Start

So I am not really sure what these blogs will look like...if they will be any good, or even how long they will last.  But what I do know is that I need to do something, so here it is my fresh start. 

I figure for now I will just share some of my thoughts...thankfully, one of my amazing friends at Box Hill gave me a gift of a new devotional book on Sunday, so I think that I will start with that and perhaps work through it out loud...

Hopefully, you will also find this helpful, but even if you don't thats ok...its not really here for you anyway, its here for me...coz if i can write about useless stuff...I can write about God...so here we go...lets jump into it my new book and perhaps the first of many is 'Pure' by Rebecca St.James...

coz I want immeasurably more... 

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