I find it hard to focus on God when your mind wanders elsewhere and you get caught up in the daily fantasy of a better life. I find it interesting that I all too often will dream of something better and distant and don't know how to get there, but then I snap out of it and realize that if I have my sights set on God and His plan for me, then the future doesn't seem so distant and those dreams are a little bit more like reality. I think God gave us the ability to dream so that we could have something to strive for. I believe God wants that for us. But more than anything, God wants us to rely on Him.
The reason I bring this us is because I found myself dreaming about the future today. I was worrying about where I was going to go after camp and what school I was going to attend, if I could get into law school, where I was going to live, how I was going to survive financially, how things will turn out with this girl, what happens after I graduate. All these things flooded my mind and consumed my thought. I was feeling pretty distraught with worry. But then I snapped back to reality. I was not in the future yet. I was running. Running a long ways. I was running my first 10k and the whole time all I could think about was what was going to happen. I pulled out my headphones and prayed to God to take the worry and the rest of my day was filled with thoughts of the here and now. Live today for today.
So for day 43, I accomplished the following:
No drinking
No smoking
P90x diet and exercise
No lying
No dating
And my first 10k run!
Changes:
My energy levels are off the charts. I am happy that I am living every day for the treasures of that day. I have loose plans for the future and I will pray and move forward but if God has other plans for me then so be it. God will guide me. This is a change that I am still getting used to. It is trusting in God when it seems hard to believe in God. I feel a little like the Israelites in that I still have trouble trusting the unseen. Faith, it is a tough lesson to learn.
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Day 25:
If you read the old testament, God seems to be in constant communication with the Israelites and this is in my mind what prayer is but it is barely referred to as prayer. It is more or less called communication. A dialogue. This is sort of a foreign concept to most of us now a days I think because the word prayer referes to this communication but it also refers to so much more.
Now, I know how frustrating it can be to say, "Your will be done" because in all honesty, I can't look back at my life and remember a time when I wanted Gods will to truly be done unless in happened to be what I wanted for my life. That is the nature of selfish humans.
Having said all that, I believe that the word regret used by God in reference to Saul is not the word the author would have chosen if he knew what its meaning was now. I don't believe God actually regretted making Saul King. I think He was sorry about the choices Saul made. And if you think about it, if Saul hadn't made the choices he did, we wouldn't be having this conversation so maybe God allowed it for this exact moment! Do you ever think God raised up a king or allowed a story to be put into the Bible just to that your life could be changed and therefore you cold change lives? Maybe that is why God allowed this word to be put here. (I am referring to the writing in day 22.)
This comes back to my thoughts on the Bible not being perfect. It was written by humans and I don't think they always used the right words and the translations through the years have given new meanings to old words and so on and so forth. Just because I believe the Bible had errors does not take away from the power of the book. In fact, I think it enhances the majesty and mystery. It begs us to ask questions like these and work through the answers together.
God doesn't make mistakes. And Saul was no exception and neither am I. I am willing to bet that God looks back at me and is sorry for the mistakes I have made. But God doesn't make junk and he doesn't make mistakes. I am here for a reason and so are you.
So for day 25, I accomplished the following:
No Drinking
No Smoking
P90X Diet and Exercise
No Lying
No Dating
Allotted Bible reading
Changes:
I am feeling much more energetic than I used to. If you notice, I said in earlier blogs that if you do something 22 times in a row without breaking the chain, you have developed a habit. Well, I am on day 25 and I have not drank or smoked or dated. I am making habits of not doing things but it is the habits of doing things that I am still working on. I have worked out every day for 25 days except two days. I was sick one, and depressed the other. I will not stop until this exercise becomes such a habit that I won't even have to think about it.
Now, I know how frustrating it can be to say, "Your will be done" because in all honesty, I can't look back at my life and remember a time when I wanted Gods will to truly be done unless in happened to be what I wanted for my life. That is the nature of selfish humans.
Having said all that, I believe that the word regret used by God in reference to Saul is not the word the author would have chosen if he knew what its meaning was now. I don't believe God actually regretted making Saul King. I think He was sorry about the choices Saul made. And if you think about it, if Saul hadn't made the choices he did, we wouldn't be having this conversation so maybe God allowed it for this exact moment! Do you ever think God raised up a king or allowed a story to be put into the Bible just to that your life could be changed and therefore you cold change lives? Maybe that is why God allowed this word to be put here. (I am referring to the writing in day 22.)
This comes back to my thoughts on the Bible not being perfect. It was written by humans and I don't think they always used the right words and the translations through the years have given new meanings to old words and so on and so forth. Just because I believe the Bible had errors does not take away from the power of the book. In fact, I think it enhances the majesty and mystery. It begs us to ask questions like these and work through the answers together.
God doesn't make mistakes. And Saul was no exception and neither am I. I am willing to bet that God looks back at me and is sorry for the mistakes I have made. But God doesn't make junk and he doesn't make mistakes. I am here for a reason and so are you.
So for day 25, I accomplished the following:
No Drinking
No Smoking
P90X Diet and Exercise
No Lying
No Dating
Allotted Bible reading
Changes:
I am feeling much more energetic than I used to. If you notice, I said in earlier blogs that if you do something 22 times in a row without breaking the chain, you have developed a habit. Well, I am on day 25 and I have not drank or smoked or dated. I am making habits of not doing things but it is the habits of doing things that I am still working on. I have worked out every day for 25 days except two days. I was sick one, and depressed the other. I will not stop until this exercise becomes such a habit that I won't even have to think about it.
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