Well, here's the start of the summer. Camp is starting as we welcome the permanent staff to work, then all the volunteer staff later this week. Dean, the camp director, has encouraged us to focus on God this summer, then on the other stuff.
Well, Dean, I'm slightly ahead of you. I want to focus on God a lot this summer. I feel like I've slightly lost focus on hime. During college, I leaned on Chapel times to focus on God, and for my devotions. But, since I'm at camp, I can't really do that any more. Now, I have to do the work on my own.
Also while at college I fell out of personally studying God's Word. I figured, "I have Chapel, and I like to sleep, so I don't really need to spend time on my own in the Bible." Of course, I never thought it in those words, but that was my attitude.
No longer.
I want to make this relationship personal. I don't want to always rely on what other people tell me what God's letter to me says. I want to know what it says, and make it personal to me. I want to know what truths God put in there that He wants me to know, His words I can apply to my life. I bet knowing those truths might have helped me in some of my struggles last year. But hindsight is 20/20.
Something I really want to know is the aspects of God. I don't want to simply focus on His names or peices of his character, such as His strength and His love. I want to know His promises, and His power. I want to dwell on descriptions of God, things like the implied Description God gave of his power and creativity in making horses in Job 39:19. (Of course I found out about this verse by watching a horse movie, Secretariat.)
I love to hear descriptions of God. I love it. Don't tell me God is omnipotent, or omni present. Those words I hear all day long in the Church and they fly in one ear and out the other. I love hearing that God hears the widow's cry of grief in South Carolina, and knows the hunger pains of a child in South Africa--at the same time. That is descriptive. It tells me details, forces me to form pictures in my mind that I can relate with. Things that really show me who God is. God did that a lot when he answered Job. He said things like "Do you know where the storehouses of snow are kept?" and "Do you clothe the horse with his mane and give him his strength?" (Both Nathan-paraphrases, not actually verses.)
Hearing those makes me sit in awe of God. And it gives me reassurance. Reassurance that I desperately need.
I have this annoying tendancy to worry, to the point that my mother likens me to an Irish Grandmother. It doesn't help that I'm good at stressing myself out with worry. But hearing God say "Look at what I can do, and often actually do," that gives me peace. Not a lot, because after a little while my fears and worries soon do their best to crowd out the assurance, but it does give me peace. And it gives me a promise and weapon to use agianst the fears. It tells me about who He is.
So that is my focus for the summer. I want to focus on who my Savior is. Now, I just need to find a place to start.
Holy is the Lord, and my heart shall praise his holy Name.
Well, Dean, I'm slightly ahead of you. I want to focus on God a lot this summer. I feel like I've slightly lost focus on hime. During college, I leaned on Chapel times to focus on God, and for my devotions. But, since I'm at camp, I can't really do that any more. Now, I have to do the work on my own.
Also while at college I fell out of personally studying God's Word. I figured, "I have Chapel, and I like to sleep, so I don't really need to spend time on my own in the Bible." Of course, I never thought it in those words, but that was my attitude.
No longer.
I want to make this relationship personal. I don't want to always rely on what other people tell me what God's letter to me says. I want to know what it says, and make it personal to me. I want to know what truths God put in there that He wants me to know, His words I can apply to my life. I bet knowing those truths might have helped me in some of my struggles last year. But hindsight is 20/20.
Something I really want to know is the aspects of God. I don't want to simply focus on His names or peices of his character, such as His strength and His love. I want to know His promises, and His power. I want to dwell on descriptions of God, things like the implied Description God gave of his power and creativity in making horses in Job 39:19. (Of course I found out about this verse by watching a horse movie, Secretariat.)
I love to hear descriptions of God. I love it. Don't tell me God is omnipotent, or omni present. Those words I hear all day long in the Church and they fly in one ear and out the other. I love hearing that God hears the widow's cry of grief in South Carolina, and knows the hunger pains of a child in South Africa--at the same time. That is descriptive. It tells me details, forces me to form pictures in my mind that I can relate with. Things that really show me who God is. God did that a lot when he answered Job. He said things like "Do you know where the storehouses of snow are kept?" and "Do you clothe the horse with his mane and give him his strength?" (Both Nathan-paraphrases, not actually verses.)
Hearing those makes me sit in awe of God. And it gives me reassurance. Reassurance that I desperately need.
I have this annoying tendancy to worry, to the point that my mother likens me to an Irish Grandmother. It doesn't help that I'm good at stressing myself out with worry. But hearing God say "Look at what I can do, and often actually do," that gives me peace. Not a lot, because after a little while my fears and worries soon do their best to crowd out the assurance, but it does give me peace. And it gives me a promise and weapon to use agianst the fears. It tells me about who He is.
So that is my focus for the summer. I want to focus on who my Savior is. Now, I just need to find a place to start.
Holy is the Lord, and my heart shall praise his holy Name.
No comments:
Post a Comment