New Beginnings. . .Old Ways

Over the past couple of days I have been thinking and thinking about how short my spiritual life has been, and yet how much the Lord has shown me and grown me already. I cannot believe it has only and yet already been almost two months! I have been reading through Ephesians, and in the later chapters of the book, Paul talks about the old man and the new man. We are commanded by Paul, in several of his epistles, to "put off the old man," and "put on the new man." This subject has always been a rather difficult one for me to grasp, and it continues to puzzle me. I know what it means to put something off, and I also know what it means to put something on. The key, I believe, is what Paul writes in between these two actions: "by the renewing of your minds." In order to put off anything and put on anything, there has to be a change of mind. We must renew our minds! I must renew MY mind! This is such a huge process for me, one in which I am still struggling to wrap my mind around, but I am continuing every day to learn more and more about what it means to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Growth hurts, but turns out to be so worth it in the end. Growing and becoming more like Christ brings the most satisfying reward in this entire world: a more sanctified person. I cannot wait until the day when we will eventually be glorified and be just like our great God!

My Amazing God, Found in Psalm 4

I was reading in Psalm 4 this morning, and this chapter, along with so many other psalms is completely filled with truths about our amazing God! This is one reason why I love to read the book of Psalms! Whenever I am struggling with my view of God, I go to the psalms. They are a great resource of encouragement.

Okay. Back to Psalm 4.

He hears my prayers. 

This is the first attribute of God that this psalm points out. God hears my prayers. He will always be there to answer when I call out to Him. Because of this, I should never feel like I cannot come to Him with anything. I should always feel open before Him and willing to come to Him no matter what the struggle, circumstance, or request.

He is trustworthy.

Wow. This attribute of God really hit me hard. If God is worthy of my trust, why don't I trust Him? He has proven Himself over and over again, and there is nothing that He has done that would say anything to the contrary. He IS worthy of my trust, and I can and should trust Him! I fall so short of this! Whenever a circumstance comes into my life that I don't like, I am quick to get upset rather than trusting my Almighty, Sovereign God who has a plan for my life that is absolutely perfect. I really need to grow in this area, and I am praying that the Lord will show me more areas where I fall short of trusting Him.

He is the true joy-giver.

This is another attribute of my Heavenly Father that I so fall short of believing. Because my Heavenly Father is the one true joy-giver, I should run to Him and look to Him to satisfy me and to give me true joy. But so often I run to other people and other things to satisfy me and to bring me joy. I am always trying to satisfy myself with empty things that I know will never satisfy me. In the past two or three days, I have found that God's Word truly does satisfy more than anything else in this entire world. I cannot believe that I have searched all these years in so many different places for something that was sitting right in front of my nose: God. For 18 or 19 years or so, I had searched and searched for something to satisfy me, but in all the wrong places. Not until the end of my second year of college at a Bible college did I finally realize the huge mistake that I had been making and give myself up in surrender to Him.

These are just a few of the several attributes of God that are found in this psalm. In the past several days, I have been so overwhelmed as I look at the psalms and see so many amazing attributes of my great God! I am  so thankful that I have a God who loves me and who is so amazing!

"Love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my ALL."

"Set Your Minds. . ."

"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth" (Col. 3:2). "Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:5). These verses have been running through my mind the past couple of days.

What does it mean to "set your mind" on something? I believe that this means that my mind is so consumed with something that there is no room for anything else. So that means that for my mind to be "set" on things that are above, my mind must be consumed with "things that are above" (ie: God and His Word). Oh, how I fall short of this! I always consume my mind with things that don't matter: present circumstances, what other people think of me, how I am going to get the things done that I need to get done, etc. What I SHOULD be filling my mind (and consequently my heart) on are the things that DO matter: God's Word and who HE is.

So what is the difference between the days when I am (rarely) focused on my Savior and His Word, and those days (almost all of them) that I am focused on myself and on what is going on around me? I think that the difference is how I start off my day and the steps I take during the day. I have found that those rare days when I am focused on God's Word and on pleasing Him, are the days that I have started my day with MEANINGFUL time in His Word (not just reading because someone might ask me), and have gone through the day consistently reminding myself of what God's Word says. I have found that I MUST take every free moment that my mind has, and use those moments to rehearse God's Word in my memory so that I am focusing my mind on "things that are [. . .] true [. . .]" (Phil. 4:8)

Lord, help me to focus my mind on You and Your Word. I cannot possibly do that on my own. I need Your help desperately! Help me to love You so much that everything else is overshadowed in comparison!