A Thankful Attitude

Purity of Mind: Day 28 - A Thankful Attitude

Psalm 138:1-3
Thank you! Everything in me says "Thank you!" Angels listen as I sing my thanks.  I kneel in worship facing your holy temple and say it again:  "Thank you!"  Thank you for your love, thank you for your faithfulness; most holy is your name, most holy is your Word.  the moment i called out, you stepped in; you made my life large with strength.

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It's under my feet

Purity of Mind: Day 17 - Sweet Surrender

Psalm 146:3-5
Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.  When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.  But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 

I am not really sure what I wanted this blog to look like, I don't think its quite there yet, so bare with me.  I think its hard to talk/reflect on what I have read with the blogging community if you aren't reading the book at the same time.  I guess, I also don't want to just regurgitate what I just read coz whats the point in that... so I am not really sure what the plan is, I just thought I would let you know my predicament. 

Anyway, after a my last blog when I was super pumped and hungry, not much has changed, I am still hungry but I haven't really done anything about it...enter new blog (a week later) which suggests that that some of the biggest spiritual warfare weapons facing us today are 'distraction, discouragement and discontent' and I think that this week I have let the devil walk all over me with the first D.  Seriously, that's all it took, this week I have been distracted but lots of little things, but all of them have meant that I haven't been putting God first.  I think I need to wake up a little to the fact that distraction isn't just something that happens, but that it can be actively used against me in my efforts to get closer to the king...So right here and right now I am putting a stop to it.  Distraction is under my feet, and it won't stop me from doing my devotions anymore...

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Hungry

Purity of Mind: Day 16 - Mind Motivation

Psalm 26:2-3
Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me.  Test my motivations and my heart.  For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth.

I think for the last little while I have been in a bit of a spiritual rut.  I have still been going through the motions and learning a few things here and there, but I certainly haven't been moving mountains, so to speak.  At the moment though, I am hungry.  I don't know if its just because its the beginning of the year and the things that has been propping me up previously haven't been on for a while so I have started to notice or whether its because I am actually hungry...but I like it.  I want more, I want to spend more time in God's presence and I want to do more for him in my day to day stuff.  I haven't quite worked out what that will look like yet, but all I know is I am hungry!  I want to know God more intimately, I want to know his plans, his ways, his majesty... I want it all. 

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Spiritual Weight Issues

Purity of Mind: Day 12 – What do you crave?

Psalm 119:20
My soul is starved and hungry, ravenous! - insatiable for your nourishing commands.

Eating the right things, both physically and spiritually has always been a little tough for me…its just something that I have always struggled with. I really shouldn’t struggle with either, I mean I am a dietitian, so you would hope that I would know what is good for me and what is not when it comes to food, but still I have a problem with my weight. Spiritually I have been blessed with Christian parents and a good spiritual home that is the Salvation Army, yet I still fill my mind with crap and get by with just enough good stuff to tied me over.

I think were I get caught is with the things that I like that I know aren’t good for me, for example, chocolate or ice cream, or gutter jokes, or gossip. Even though I know they aren’t good, especially not in large amounts because part of me enjoys it I do it. I wish so much that I did crave what was good for me all the time, but I am just not there yet, but God reminded me this morning that self-control is a fruit of his spirit, so the closer I get to him, the more of this fruit I will bear, and hopefully I will learn to seek the good food first.

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Mighty to Save

Purity of Mind: Day 10 - Called to worship

Psalm 66:1-4
Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth! Sing about the glory of his name! Tell the world how glorious he is. Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! Your enemies cringe before your mighty power. Everything on earth will worship you; they will sing your praises, shouting your name in glorious songs."

I find it so easy to get complacent with God, thinking that I have got it as good as it gets, that Jesus loves me sure, but he is more likely to use someone else.  I am often guilty of putting God in a box that fits my world and my view of my self... So when God bursts out of that box, it nearly always takes me by surprise.

Today I found out that a miricle had taken place at my work, someone I had prayed for got the organ they were so desperatly waiting for and it shocked me. It's not that I didn't think God could do it, I just didn't really expect him to. I guess I had limited miricles to someone elses box, despite the fact that I serve the most incredible God. I get sonfristrated with my small and stuborn mind, I mean I have even called this blog "immeasurably more" because the word promises immeasurably more than we would think or imagine, yet here I am still blown away by his hand.

So today I just want to stop and shout his praises, because there is none like him! Nothing compares to him. Nothing is greater, nothing is bigger, nothing is more powerful. There is no one with more grace, no one with more mercy, no one that can love me more than the great I am, the king of all kings, the saviour of all, my God!

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Just keep praying...

Purity of Mind: Day 6 - Praying through pain

Psalm 90:10
Seventy years are given to us! Some even eighty.  But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.

This is something that I really struggle with...not because I don't pray, but more that I can't just leave it with God.  The thing is I am kind of a control freak, I like to know whats happening and when and exactly how it is going to go, just so that nothing takes me by surprise.  At the moment I am going through some tough stuff, nothing that will kill me, just things that are out of my control, and there certainly is pain and I don't really like it much.  And even though I have prayed about it, and I know that God knows my heart, I still struggle to take comfort in the fact that he has it under control and that I don't need to fear because whatever happens God will still be there.  I don't really know the answer to this, I guess its something that I am still learning, but I guess until then I just keep praying and try to trust...

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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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