No, I'm not intentionally ignoring my blog. I have been wanting to write something for a while now, but I either haven't had much to say or have had too much to say. I'm going to try to sum up what God has been teaching me in a few paragraphs tonight.
First of all, my last class was amazing, and it taught me so much about how to study the Bible. It really helped me to see how little I really know. God showed me that He is way bigger than I can even fathom. Trust me, I've tried to picture this... I end up confused with a headache! Some of what I learned... the Bible was written 2000... + years ago. (Duh, I know.) But there is a huge "river" that has to be crossed to "bridge" the gap between "their town" and "our town". We have to first understand who the author and audience were, what their culture was like, and why the author was writing before we can even begin to jump into applying Scripture to our lives today. Many have taken the time to cross this bridge for us and have put their discoveries in study Bibles and commentaries. This approach is completely different from anything I had ever been taught before. I assumed looking up a word in the concordance to find a random verse or opening my Bible to a random book and trying to find what God was trying to say to me through it were completely acceptable ways of "studying" God's Word. Yes, God's Word is "living and active" (Hebrews 4:12), but it is so much easier to understand what truths apply today by knowing what truths applied when God inspired the authors of His Word.
Another thing I've been learning is how to keep Jesus at the center of my life when things seem to be going just fine. It's easy to seek Him whole-heartedly when things are chaotic or when it seems nothing is going right. It's also easy to seek Him when I feel Him all around me throughout the day and on an on-going basis. When life is between these two, I get comfortable. This is when I tend to slack. I get lazy. Before I know it, I'm missing my intimate moments with Jesus like crazy. I think God wants us all to seek Him with all of our hearts at all times. We are supposed to delight in Him (Psalm 37:4). How am I delighting in Him when I'm not continually, every moment of every day, seeking Him? I know I will never get this down perfectly, but I know God's Helper (the Holy Spirit) will help me to continually grow in this area. Right now, I can say with full confidence that Jesus is my everything, and I love him so much I almost can't stand to hold it in this body. I wonder if we will be able to give and receive love exponentially more when we go home...? :)
Lastly, I've realized my prayers have been much more outwardly focused than inwardly. It is so easy for me to pray for others. There are a few people who I pray for specifically every single day. I can pray for my church, town, and country... no problem. I also have no difficulty in expressing my praise and thanks to God. I am always quick to ask for forgiveness and usually struggle with accepting it, but I feel I cannot move on in my prayer and ask for anything if there is sin in the way. I often fail to get to the deep things that I need to be looking to God to show me the next steps to. I fail to spend much time praying for my future. I want God to show me what my major will be, but I'm not seeking the answer nearly enough. I have a hefty list of requirements for my future husband, but I don't pray for God to send him my way. In all honesty, I just told God today that I don't believe that there is a man for me who can meet my demands, but I want to believe. These are just a couple of examples, but I am so thankful that this area has been brought to my attention. I need to be carving out extra time to spend in prayer for God's desires to be revealed to me.
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