I'm back! It's been a WHILE since I've posted on this blog. There are several reasons...holidays, crazy life stuff, etc. Plus, we've been doing a Bible study called 40 Days in the Word, which has a workbook with a journal page for you to fill out each day. So, lately, I've been recording my spiritual journey there. Anyway...I'm back, and I plan to stay!
I love how God's Word really is "living and active" like people say. It always amazes me when I read something I've read scores of times and God whispers (or, sometimes, yells) something completely new that totally applies to my life at that exact moment. That happened tonight.
For our Bible study, I'm reading Philippians (for like the hundredth time in my life and the second time in this study). This week, we are supposed to take the key verse for the day and rewrite it to make it personal by adding our name and writing it as though God is speaking directly to us. Today's verse was Philippians 3:12b, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." I have read that verse so many times, and usually I apply it to my life as an encouragement to not give up but to keep serving the Lord because I am pressing on toward the prize...heaven. Tonight, however, God showed me something totally different.
First, I rewrote the verse to be a personal message to me from God. "Nicole, press on to take hold of that for which I took hold of you." The next assignment in the daily journal was to answer the question, "How does this apply to your life and what are you going to do about it?" I prayed for just a moment and immediately felt God whispering to my soul. I need to be more focussed on pressing on toward the goal, obtaining the prize, accomplishing the task for which God placed me on this earth than I am on just living and enjoying each day. I've been so overwhelmed by God's goodness and His blessings the last few months that I have just been soaking it all in. I've been loving life, enjoying spending time with my precious son, cherishing my amazing husband, and eagerly anticipating and preparing for the arrival of our sweet Baby Carson.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that God wants us to bask in His blessings and enjoy all that He has to offer! His Word says that He came to give us life and life more abundantly, and I don't believe that verse is just talking about heaven. However, as Christians, we must remember that our purpose in life, the reason we are on this earth is not just to enjoy what God has given us. If that were so, God could just beam us up to heaven as soon as we were saved; the blessings are much better there! We have a mission. We have tasks that God has assigned to us, goals that He wants us to accomplish while we are on this earth.
I know what some of these goals are, and I believe I am pressing on toward those every day - raising my son to know and love God, loving my husband and serving Him, ministering to my friends, serving in my church, etc. However, I fully believe that God has BIG things that He wants to do through all of us if we will let Him. My prayer is that I will daily seek Him so that I will know what He wants me to do and how to do it.
After completing my journal page, I read Philippians 2 (just because I had read Philippians 1 last night, and we are just supposed to read Philippians at our own pace this week). Of course, as He does, God amazed me again as He confirmed and validated everything He had just spoken to me through the following verses:
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!" Philippians 2:3-8
No comments:
Post a Comment