Ought

Link: Core Values
Focus: Prayer (1/7)
Day: 09/95
Pathway summary: Being faith filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God..
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:

So now I'm in the midst of a prayer study. What does scripture say about prayer? What is prayer?

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Prep:

I am going to start with the archetypal "Lord's Prayer" - that is Matthew 6:5-12

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Execution:

I started off praying - and feeling like I was a day late. God helped me have peace about my pacing and focus on the subject.  I also kept falling asleep - which is a reminder that prayer (in particular prayer without a purpose save itself) has always been a weakness of mine.  Good reminder that this is a fight and an area to shore.

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Day 9 Conclusions / Thoughts

My manual review of the Lord's Prayer brought to mind the areas, for me, which I've noted for a while - no vain repetition, being noticed for prayer is not the point, intimacy matters, how most of the Lord's prayer isn't about us at all - but about giving God glory.  And how poorly I tend to model this last part in my own prayers.  It is typical of me to basically talk to God and ask Him for stuff - like I'm in prison most of the time but sometimes I get to phone a friend - and the only person I all is God - but the only thing I have to talk about is stuff I want.

I think that's what this week will be for me - being aware and mindful of how often my thoughts are about myself.  In fact, this is something I was recently lauding myself for how ... (sadly) ... much I thought about God. I mean seriously, how egocentric do you have to be to give yourself a humility pin?

I've been thinking about the nature of prayer today - how prayer is basically us talking to God. Sometimes it is petitioning; but, it doesn't have to be.  And the nature of the dialog is definitively indicative of how we perceive God. If we see Him as a favored uncle, then we'll share some sorts of things and not others. If we see Him as a best friend, we'll share nearly everything - if not everything. If we see Him as a functional spouse (the hardest, arguably, in some ways), we'd literally share everything - and perhaps make it hard (in the best possible way) to become married to a brick-and-mortar human.  Because no human can possibly measure up to God.  Um, except maybe where hugs are concerned.

So prayer is about our walk with God. It's about our own spiritual growth - and what we even recognize needing to be fixed. It's about another layer of intimacy and being open (and available to be hurt) in a domain in which many of us have no mindful discernment.  It's about how every single thing we do, every thought we think, every action we didn't take, and every gesture we convey are all forms of prayer. Which is how one "prays without ceasing" - because otherwise we'd never have the opportunity to stop to breathe.

If nothing else, prayer today has helped me realize how much more I need God.

* The post title is a reminder about how I ought to pray - and how I often do not

Restraint

Link: Core Values
Focus: Holy Scripture (5/7)
Day: 05/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Setup:

Continuing the Bible study on Love.  I am reminded that one of the most powerful aspects to Love is staying power, perseverance, and the priceless gift known as restraint.

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Prep:

Today's love-theme is restraint.  Or re-strained, to be tested again and again and not falter.

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Execution:

I started off with prayer; I am again mining 1 Corinthians 13:11 - it really is full of huge aspects of Love and provides answers to most of the questions I have personally experienced or seen/read about Love.

And, much like so many things, God is teaching me about this aspect of Love through His touch and things I'm already doing. This journal is an example, for me, of doing something in spite of obligations, weariness, or anything else - to continue pushing to see it through and existent.

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Day 5 Conclusions / Thoughts

Resilience, perseverance, patience - these aspects of Love are so fundamentally true and associated with the recognition of Love that we may sometimes identify how mature, or how much a Christian, a person is by how much they show Love to others when nobody is looking.

The word "restrain" puts me in the way of thinking of myself (and everyone else) as a cup of tea. The purpose of straining, straining again, and continuing to strain each of us is, like so many other things, intended to Give God the glory.  To strain tea, then again, and again, then again .... and suddenly you weren't paying attention to the lesson but you wind up leaving behind something precious and starting up again. But you are still encouraged by Christ to learn the lesson again.

Phonetically it reminds me of humility - the word "re - str - aint" can be rearranged to "re - aint - str" - which looks like "we ain't strong". Which is again, like God, to take stuff we know for granted and either teach us a new lesson with the existing materials or surprise us with opportunities to display how we've grown.  Life, then, is a complicated repeat of the same one, two, or dozen lessons that we each need to master. And, in the same way we cannot beat the odds by ourselves, we need another to even sit at the table.

Another interesting breakdown of the word is to break it on syllabification - between rest and rain. It is a reminder that "it can't rain all the time" and that being mindful of the need to rest and handle suffering/difficulty is a reminder that even God needed a chance to unwind / be away from the throngs that simply wanted to hear his voice, to touch his cloak.

Ultimately, restraint's purpose is not inconvenience - it's a reminder of our need for humility a huge hint as to how we can draw the attention of Love and not lose it.  Such an acting evidence of Love will change those involved - and draw others to Christ.

Focus

Link: Core Values
Focus: Holy Scripture (3/7)
Day: 03/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Setup:
Continuing the Bible study on Love. I am regularly seeing myself be sweeter. And I can directly see the impact on my household.
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Prep:
I sense that today's evaluation of Love is to focus on how Scriptural tenets appear in practice.

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Execution:
I started off with research and started to really delve in - when I realized I hadn't prayed.  After quickly praying, I continued and realized my focus was awry - instead of practical applications of Love, the study began to focus on how to ensure your focus is correct. In particular, I used about half of Matthew 6.

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Day 3 Conclusions / Thoughts

This Bible study has been interesting in that, unlike almost every other read-the-Bible-iteratively approach I've been actually excited and interested in what God would reveal.  And it was thus a beautiful time to be brought a little low. Because my focus was off, my focus on focus caused me to lose focus. Ahem.

So I prayed, asking God for forgiveness, and started anew.

I began with the idea that "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" was a great way to apply the tenets of love - a quick Bible search revealed that it only showed up in one place ... which happened to have applications, focus remediation, the Lord's Prayer, and several points about perseverance and rewards.  Leave it to God to take my focus failure and teach me something as well as nudging me in the direction which would actually answer my real question.  Ya'ay God.

Focus is terribly important because it is an easy way for Love to kind of leak out of our perception. In so much as motive and attitude provide solid footing for actions of Love, focus provides for the direction of our footfalls.  You still need a feedback system to ensure the attitude and motive stay aligned to God's intent - and focus offers leading-edge feedback.

So my call to action is to try putting these three into place all throughout the day - as regards to relations with my family, my co-workers, my clients, my neighbors, and any strangers I meet.  And I claim that any success I have in this regard will be due to God's work in me - whether over the course of my life up to this point or the changes He has wrought over the last three days,

I look forward to seeing what God has for me next!