Tag Archives: Priorities

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Seasons Of Dryness, Springs Of Refreshing

Watching God At Work When I Rest In Him

There are seasons of life where I have found that God is more at work doing the little things than he is showing me the big things. Have you ever experienced that?

Seasons Of Dryness, Springs Of Refreshing

A year ago, I would probably have said that I was in a spiritual valley. I don’t know if I could identify anything that was wrong, but it just felt like I was in a dry season of my spiritual life, and I didn’t even know why. But as it turns out, now that I can look back at the last several months, maybe it wasn’t such a dry time after all.

For the past several years, I can honestly say that I have never felt more consistent in my spiritual journey. My spiritual disciplines have been growing steadily. I have been learning more and more about God’s Word, consistently becoming aware of new things as I read. My prayer life has never been more more solid. And yet, I felt dry… drained.

But one of the habits I strive to as consistent as possible is the discipline of journaling. And a week or two ago, I took some time to look over and read some of my entries for the last year or so. And frankly, what I read surprised me. I saw two very consistent themes in those pages. The first was that I have frequently felt overwhelmed and tired, to the point where I needed to take a rest. The second was that when I took the time to rest, the next thing in my journal was God pointing something out to me in his Word.

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Reminded Of God’s Love

When God Uses a Big Dog And A Bigger Man

Every now and then I need to be reminded that God loves me. And sometimes, that reminder needs to be a pretty severe kick in the head. Fortunately, God loves us enough to do just that.

Reminded Of God's Love

A few weeks ago, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with some things going on in my life. I decided to go for a drive to clear my head. I ended up down by a river somewhere south of where I live. I couldn’t tell you what river it was, I have no idea even where I ended up. In fact, I tried to find it again a few days ago and couldn’t. But it was beautiful. And it was just what I needed.

I didn’t plan on stopping but the scenery was beautiful, and the river bank was wide and clear, and looked like it would be a good place for a walk. So I stopped driving and started walking. I hadn’t made it too far when a big, mean looking dog came barreling out of the woods and joined me. He looked like a cross between a German Shepherd, a T-rex, and a grizzly bear. That’s how big he was.

His appearance kind of startled me, but he was a friendly pup, and he joined me as I walked along. It wasn’t long before I found the people he was with. I’m just walking along, and this guy, who owned a big, super-friendly but mean looking dog, who looked to be part grizzly bear himself, was sitting there with his feet in the water with a couple of other people.

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Reading The Bible In 2018

Developing A Daily Habit Of Bible Reading

One of the most critical disciples that you can develop for your spiritual growth is the discipline of daily Bible reading. This isn’t the only habit that will facilitate spiritual growth, but it is one of the most foundational. And it’s not as difficult as most people imagine.

Reading the Bible in 2018

As a minister, I spent a lot of years reading the Bible as I was studying for lessons or messages, and assuming that was enough to fill me personally as well. It wasn’t. But I wasn’t mature enough to realize it at the time. And then, I joined in with a couple of other guys to read the Bible daily, and complete it within a year. A whole new level of spiritual growth opened up to me during that year.

I was blown away! I had no idea that I was missing out on some significant growth by not spending time daily with God’s Word, just for my own personal relationship with him. That year opened up my eyes to the realization that I needed to make sure this habit was a non-negotiable part of my life. And while it took some time to get it rooted that deeply, it was well worth every bit of the effort.

Those first years after that realization hit, I managed to read daily most of the time, but not really consistently. So I decided to develop a plan. The Bible Reading Plans that I offer to subscribers here is the culmination of that plan. I created a booklet that contains three different plans to successfully read the entire Bible in a year’s time. Why three? Because I wanted to share this with the teens in my youth ministry, and I knew that not all of them would want to read the Bible the same way I would, or that someone else would. So I incorporated three different plans.

One was simply straightforward, from Genesis to Revelation, throughout the year. The second was a mix, some Old Testament, some New, some of the Gospels, and some from Psalms. The third was more coordinated. It placed passages together that needed to be understood together, or at specific times of the year. For example, when you read of David’s sin with Bathsheba, you would also read Psalm 51 that week, because that is David’s repentance of that sin. Or you would read the Resurrection passages around Easter. And for several years, I renewed this booklet, dating it for that specific year.

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One Word 365 – 2018 Edition

Forget The New Year’s Resolutions - Just Choose One Word

I decided a long time ago to forego making New Year’s Resolutions. I was never any good at keeping them, and the harder I tried, the worse it got. I finally made one resolution that I have managed to not break: to not make any more resolutions!

One Word 365: Unhurried

What I have done instead is select a word that I intend to focus my life around for the next twelve months, one word to live by for the year. This practice has had the effect of helping me to keep my focus on a specific area I need to grow in, and it helps me become more who I believe that God wants me to be.

Over the years, I have selected several different words, such as the word “passion” in 2011. As I look back over the years, it seems as if many of them have a common underlying theme, such as my choice of “commit” in 2012, or “intentional” in 2013, or even the words “wait” and “prudence” in 2015 and 2016. And last year, my word to live by was “present.” It seems as if God is teaching me through these years to slow down and allow myself to be led by him, to be intentional, to wait on his leading, and not be so eager to do things my own way.

It seems that my learning in this area is not yet complete.

For the past couple of months, as I have reviewed my Life Plan, striving to be a complete man in every area of my life, I felt like God was leading me to choose another similar word to live by in 2018. As I reviewed every area of my life, one word seemed to crop up over and over.

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Maintaining Balance In My Life

Making Changes To Be A Better Me

Things have been pretty quiet around here for the past few weeks. I have been stepping back from several things in my life to reevaluate them and see just how I need to proceed with them, how God wants me to proceed with them. I am now beginning to implement some changes, in order to regain, and maintain, balance in my life.

Maintaining Balance

I have always been one who works a lot, often more than I should. As I spent a week in Colorado with several other ministers in October, I was challenged with the thought that my lifestyle is too hurried, and that I need to slow down, and maybe let a few things go.

Through most of the month of November, I stepped back from a lot of personal projects, from my hobbies, from many of the extraneous things in my life in order to gain a bird’s eye view. I spent most of that month praying about what I have been called to do, and how best to go about it.

In my life, I prioritize things in this order: first is my relationship with God. This involves my study of God’s Word for my personal relationship with him. This includes journaling, reading, praying, solitude, fasting, and all those spiritual disciplines that help me to seek him as much as I possibly can.

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Identifying And Establishing Healthy Priorities

One of the most important things I have learned over the years is to identify and establish healthy priorities. As critical as this is, it is surprising how few people actually do this, especially those who are in positions of leadership. Determining what these priorities are is an absolute must for each of us.

Priorities

While I was in Bible college, I learned a basic principle for priorities: My top priority is my relationship with God. That is followed by my relationship with my wife. My third priority is my relationships with my children, and finally, my ministry and work.

That gives a good basic overview, and is very solid advice. But it still remains somewhat general in nature. In each of these areas, how do I determine what I should be focusing on? How do I set my priorities in each area? How do I establish what that looks like?

I think there are a few questions that we can ask ourselves that can help determine where our focus should be. These are simple questions, but are worth taking some time to consider.