So this post is a long time coming, I have talked about this with quite a few people but I realize I need to gather my thoughts and do this. So here goes!
Something that I feel really strongly about is being in control of your body, this covers physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Today I am going to talk about the last one, simply put Being Vulcan.
In our society (this is talking mostly about "christian" society but all society is included) there tends to be a lot of emphasize on our emotions. How we felt in a situation usually determines what we say and how we react to others. We basically let our emotions take charge and follow them blindly, the problem is two fold 1: we don't realize and refuse to realize when we are allowing our emotions to take control 2: we don't really want to change.
Reading through the book Meaning of Marriage they had a quote from Jane Eyre where basically a man who has a mentally ill wife falls "in love" with Jane and asks her to be his mistress:
"... while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. "Think of his misery; think of his danger --- look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair -- soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for YOU? or who will be injured by what you do?"
She recognizes the different facets of her soul crying out and realizes how she could be sucked in by them and she responds:
"Still indomitable was the reply: "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more the friendless, the more the unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad -- as I am now. Laws and principles are not made for the time where there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth -- so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane -- quite insane: with my veins running firse, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."
I did."
She understood that though she was having these thoughts they were from an insane mindset, one that was tilted by her emotions.
James 1:19
"This you know my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger"
James is saying here that we can control our anger and WE SHOULD.
Proverbs 16:32
"Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."
2 Peter 1:5-9
"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins."
1 John 2:16-17
Eph. 4:1-32
Gal 5:17
The list goes on and on Scripture COMMANDS us to put our thoughts and emotions before God and do what he has asked us to do not what our flesh desires.
Are we putting stock in how we feel or are we being obedient?
John 14:23
"Jesus replied, 'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'"
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Our view of Quiet Time
So in the past couple of weeks I have come to realize two things:
1. My view of the purpose of quiet times was wrong.
2. How I did my quiet times was also wrong.
So first off let's handle the view, I viewed my quiet time in the morning as my time to hear from God. I didn't actively think in my brain "Ok now is my one time to hear from God for the day" but that is how I acted. When after my quiet time I struggled with something later that day I would think "but I had a quiet time earlier why am I struggling?"
This idea was that I basically only read the Bible at one point in my day and that that was somehow sufficient. That I only NEEDED to read God's word once a day.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
If we understand who God is and what the bible is we will spend as much of our free time as possible hearing from God's word. When we have a moment and we don't really need to do anything else we will use that moment to hear from God. We will be listening to God 10-20 times a day meditating on his word and relaxing in his presence. We will be reading as we stop for lunch, go to the bathroom, step back from our work for a second, or walk out the door. We will be making excuses to read God's word or to meditate on what he has said.
So second of all the how, I viewed quiet time to = read the Bible and pray some. Is this really what it means to have a quiet time?
Luke 21:1-4
21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
God wants what we cannot spare not what we can. When we go to spend time with God he wants us in totality not partially. I had found myself reading and praying while thinking about other things not giving God restricted (restricted only to him) time of devotion. God wants our all when I say "well I didn't have time this morning" I am reminded of this Martin Luther quote "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." WOW he had a correct view of God and this world. Do we?
Spend some time each day completely focused on God without any distractions and really seek to be in the presence of God. This is my challenge to you and myself.
1. My view of the purpose of quiet times was wrong.
2. How I did my quiet times was also wrong.
So first off let's handle the view, I viewed my quiet time in the morning as my time to hear from God. I didn't actively think in my brain "Ok now is my one time to hear from God for the day" but that is how I acted. When after my quiet time I struggled with something later that day I would think "but I had a quiet time earlier why am I struggling?"
This idea was that I basically only read the Bible at one point in my day and that that was somehow sufficient. That I only NEEDED to read God's word once a day.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
If we understand who God is and what the bible is we will spend as much of our free time as possible hearing from God's word. When we have a moment and we don't really need to do anything else we will use that moment to hear from God. We will be listening to God 10-20 times a day meditating on his word and relaxing in his presence. We will be reading as we stop for lunch, go to the bathroom, step back from our work for a second, or walk out the door. We will be making excuses to read God's word or to meditate on what he has said.
So second of all the how, I viewed quiet time to = read the Bible and pray some. Is this really what it means to have a quiet time?
Luke 21:1-4
21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
God wants what we cannot spare not what we can. When we go to spend time with God he wants us in totality not partially. I had found myself reading and praying while thinking about other things not giving God restricted (restricted only to him) time of devotion. God wants our all when I say "well I didn't have time this morning" I am reminded of this Martin Luther quote "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." WOW he had a correct view of God and this world. Do we?
Spend some time each day completely focused on God without any distractions and really seek to be in the presence of God. This is my challenge to you and myself.
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