prayer.

As I was driving home from work tonight, I was thinking. I enjoy spending time just thinking, it helps me to sort things out. Anyway, I was thinking, in particular, about prayer. There are so many concepts and things I have yet to learn in my developing faith, and I look forward to learning a great deal throughout the course of my life. Prayer is something that has baffled me somewhat for quite awhile. If God is in complete control, and is unchanging, what's the point of praying and petitioning Him for things? It won't change His mind, so what's the use? I mean, I understand that we pray according to His will, and that our prayers help us to grow and to glorify Him, but still... As I dwelt on this concept, I had somewhat of an epiphany.

God uses our prayers in much the same way as He uses our evangelism.

We are commanded to pray; therefore, we pray. We are commanded to evangelize; therefore we evangelize. Prayer doesn't change God's will, just as evangelism doesn't change God's will. We don't know what the answer to our prayers will be, just as we don't know who will respond to the gospel call, but we pray in faith, knowing that God's will will be done, and that it is what's best. God has chosen to work through our prayers as a tool, much as He has elected to work through our evangelism. So our prayers do matter.

Isn't God awesome?

purity.

"One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal fire. ("He shall sit as a refiner"; the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.) In the red glow lay a common curved roof tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brick dust, and imbedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, "then the fire eats it," and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased; "it could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now." "How do you know when the gold is purified?" we asked him, and he answered, "When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure." -Amy Carmichael, 'Gold Cord'

Memento Mori

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." -Genesis 3:19

joy will come

"Sitting closer than my pain, He knew each tear before it came; soon He will perforate the fabric of the peaceful by and by..."

"You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?" -Psalm 56:8

"Joy will come!"

Quick Thoughts on Reality

The senses are mere tools through which to interpret what we know as reality - the present, physical world. But is the future any less real because we cannot presently perceive it? Why assume that a land exists that you have never set foot on? I don't think we realize the amount of faith and assumption we live by on a daily basis. It is ignorant, perhaps even arrogant, to assume that just because we have imperfect tools through which to process the spiritual world that it is any less real than that which we can touch. Do we peons really think that much of our own mental faculties? Things don't have to make sense to us to be the way they are.

Just a quick thought I had.

2011

Well, it's the new year, and I haven't made any resolutions. Probably for the best, they never last, anyway. I would like to set a few goals for myself, though, or at least be thinking about what's important as I go into the new year. I've been thinking a lot lately about my life, and whether or not I'm wasting it. If I died tomorrow, what would there be to say or remember about my life? "Janna worked and went to class. Nearly everything else she did was self-indulgent." I want my life to mean something, and there is no meaning outside of Christ. "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." How does one go about this? By faithful study and prayer, living a life of service to others and to the Lord, and allowing the gospel to permeate one's life (which can only be accomplished through continual study of the word). Don't get me wrong, there's a place for entertainment and enjoyment in life, but it's easy to make that the focal point when there is so much more.

Here are some goals I want to work on as we head into the new year:

1. Make time every day to study God's word and pray (continually).

2. When studying God's word, choose a verse from whatever passage is read to meditate on throughout the day.

3. Treat everyone I come into contact with with the love of Christ... true love, not a mushy feeling.

4. Look for opportunities to bless others, and make an impact on the world for Christ.

5. Put my all into everything I set out to do, and do it for the glory of God.

6. Spend more time reading.

7. Choose and learn an instrument (something I've wanted to do for quite awhile).

8. Make better use of my time...

9. Develop some sort of budget.


There are a few other things I want to strive for, but a lot of them could probably fall under the "make better use of my time" category. I guess the reason I posted this on here, is because maybe sharing some of my aspirations will help make me more accountable, and having them written out here will be a reminder to me. Hope you all have a wonderful new year!