Happy New Year to you all and may His perfect will be established in your lives this year!
With Prayers, Sarah
It's a new year! And that means starting from the beginning in my Bible reading plan. Last year was probably my best year yet as far as territory covered. I finished the Bible early and managed to re-read Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Acts. It was really exciting but towards the end of the year, as much as I was enjoying the read, I found I was doing more of the "get my Bible read in the morning but not really meditating on it in the moment or even through out the day" thing. So, among other things, one of my New Year's Resolutions, if you will, was to get back to truly studying and meditating upon the Word. It's His love letter to me! What better way to get to know Him and fall more in love with Him than to really get to know His Word. So! All of that to say, yesterday I was reading the first chapter of Matthew. It's one of my favorite chapters. It gives the lineage of Christ and I love it. There are so many of my favorite people in that lineage. And people that you wouldn't expect. I still remember how awesome it was to me when I realized that Rahab the harlot (spelled Rachab here) was in the lineage of Christ. That said, she isn't the only "naughty" person in that line. There's also Thamar who played the role of an harlot when Judas didn't keep his promise to her and there's Solomon who was born of David and Bath-Sheba (and we all know what happened there). And I'm sure there are others but those are the most commonly known ones besides Rahab. Now, being human my first thought was, "See! These people did horrible stuff and were still greatly used of the Lord!" and my thoughts instantly went to that one little thing I have (we all have one or two) that I struggle with wanting. . . Something that isn't necessarily against the Lord's will but it definitely isn't His perfect will for my life. My thought was that I could have that and still be used of the Lord. Shame on me, I know. But then, my immediate next thought was on how much more the Lord can use me, us, if we surrender to His will before "messing it up". Yes, the Lord has used many a people who failed in large ways but then re-surrendered their life and mistakes to Him and His will. But how much greater and with how much less sorrow can the Lord use our lives if we will abstain from those mistakes. Surrender before. Not after the mistake is made. So as I give that one thing back to the Lord in the beginning of a new year, take a look and see what you need to surrender to Him. Don't learn from your mistakes. Learn from other's mistakes, and before you make your own.
Happy New Year to you all and may His perfect will be established in your lives this year! With Prayers, Sarah
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Ok, so to be more effective, I should have posted this blog earlier in the month while the year was still fresh. But, it's still the first month so....technically it's still new. Although, I don't know about your life, but mine has already settled in to the new year and I already have story after story to tell of the things that have happened, good and bad, this year. It's amazing how quickly a new year becomes old. Though there are still some new things in it. I'm in Genesis and Matthew, still very much the beginning of the year and I am reminded of the fact that I'm "starting at the beginning again" every time I read my Bible. It's exciting though. (By the way, I did finish my Bible through last year!)
It's funny how although I've become more used to writing these, I've gotten worse at choosing a particular topic as time as gone by. I always have so many differant ones boggling up my mind that it makes it so hard to choose. So I do alot of praying and see which one is specifically on my heart when it's time to sit down and write. Then there are times like this where I just ramble on and on. :-) Some of the many ones that were fighting for first place these last few days were things like, how I'm still learning how important prayer is and that I don't do close to the praying that I ought to. How weekly visitation is so important not only as something we are commanded to do by Christ for the growth of the church and to win souls, but also to my own personal relationship with Christ. How that verse "That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof..." (Matthew 12:36) really means that every word that comes out of my mouth is something I'll have to answer to God for and how there are so many little things I need to "erase" from my vocabulary. No, I'm not a sailor in my speech, but there are times when I'm not a Christian either. And while some might see this as an extreme, I truly believe that I need to watch what kind of things I joke about because I am representing Christ, even when I'm "just having fun". How amazing the differenece is between days where I make time for Bible and Christ and days where I "just don't get to it"... How I really need to work on the whole "bringing my body under subjection" thing ("But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection..." I Corinthians 9:27). And of course the list goes on and on...I can't remember all of the ones I was thinking of the other day. The Christian walk isn't a game. You aren't saved and "Done!", that's all you have to do. It's a day by day learning until the day you see Jesus face to face. It's always being willing to see that next thing you have to change because face it, we're fleshly humans and while our makeup is like Christ's, we have the mind of the world and that takes a lifetime to reverse. It's never allowing ourselves to "get comfortable" because that is the point that Satan has us in his sights. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Phillipians 3:14) "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (II Corinthians 4:16) "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:1-2) This process is never over, of presenting our bodies a living sacrifice and being transformed by the renewing of our minds. I don't mean to sound depressing and dismal. Just factual. This isn't really a debressing thought, but an exciting one! Life is an adventure with Christ! And each of these steps that we take, while hard to accomplish physically and of ourselves, when done with Christ, creates the sweetest relationship you'll ever know! That between yourself and your Lord who loves you and laid down His life for you. I think that we are getting lax in what we think is expected of us. If we don't drink, smoke, do drugs, or are involved in anything sexually we think we're set. But there is so, so, so much more to the Christian walk. "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." (Hebrews 7:19) "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8) With Prayers, Sarah |
AuthorHere you can read "Sarah's Thoughts". A blog by me! Just a little bit once a month, and here and there, about something the Lord is speaking to me about or focusing on a certain verse that I've found particularly interesting for some reason. You can also subscribe (below) to have them directly sent to your email. Just fill in your name and email and put "Newsletter" in the comment box. Also, please feel free to leave a comment on my blog to let me know what you think! I love hearing from you! Thanks! Sarah's Thoughts
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