Monday, November 20, 2006

In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day

I started reading my Pastor’s book yesterday. I think I was avoiding it for awhile because I knew that when I read it I would have to face the lions in my life and start chasing them instead of running away. I think I was waiting and hoping that God would just fix me without me having to do anything. But it doesn’t work that way, I have to be first willing to be fixed and then willing to look at my life and realize what it is that needs fixed and then take before my Father and ask Him to help me fix as only He can. I don’t know why it takes me so long to figure things out like this. I mean maybe it helps to have that constant reminder of the wreck and pathetic mess of a human being I become when I try to do it myself. All I can say is, and I know I’ve said it before, but I AM SO GLAD THAT MY FATHER NEVER LETS ME OUT OF HIS HAND!!!!

Some good points that I came across while reading the first 3 chapters.
1. God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. But the right place often seems like the wrong place, and the right time often seems like the wrong time.
2. Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives. We want everything in our favor. But maybe God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Maybe faith is trusting God no matter how impossible the odds are. Maybe our impossible situations are opportunities to experience a new dimension of God’s glory.
3. A.W. Tozer “A low vie of God…is the cause of a hundred lesser evils.” But a person with a high view of God “is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems.”
4. Maybe it’s time to stop placing four-dimensional limits on God.
Maybe it’s time to stop putting God in a box the size of your cerebral cortex. Maybe it’s time to stop creating God in your image and let Him create you in His.
5. The more we grow, the bigger God should get. And the bigger God gets, the smaller our lions will become.
6. How you think of God will determine who you become.
7. Half of spiritual grow is learning what we don’t know. The other half is unlearning what we do know.
8. It is the failure to unlearn irrational fears and misconceptions that keeps us from becoming who God wants us to be.
9. When we read Scripture, our brains are rewired in alignment with the Word, and we develop the mind of Christ.

2 comments:

Shrig said...

Hey Darlin'.

Odd comment coming from me, so I apologize for the shock. First, make sure your sitting down...Sitting down? Okay. Take a deep breath...

My mother use to tell me that (and its a cliche, but here goes)

"God helps those who help themselves."

Good, now that's out of the way. I think that's what the book is trying to tell you (and what you've said in so many words as well. But we all have to face the muslc (or the lions, tigers and bears) in our lives at one point or another. And its perhaps good to get that out of the way now while were still young and able to do something about it, rather then when we're older and its a bit too late.

Anyway, hope things are going well. We saw the new James Bond movie last night and it was really cool. I think youd like it Its back to basics but quite modern at the same time.

that's long enough. I should go. Take care and I love you dude. :)

Laters!

Heather

Elizabeth said...

hey joyanna!
this was very encouraging for me to read. i definitely let unreasonable fears grip me and paralize me from being what God wants. this sounds like a very good book...i've heard a few of those quotes before :)