Celebrate Recovery: Principle 7 Prayer

"Dear God, help me to set aside the hassles and racket of the world, so I can focus my mind and listen just to you for the next few minutes. Help me to get to know you better. Help me to better understand your plan and purpose for my life. Father, help me to live this day within the boundaries of today, seeking your will and living this one day as you would have me live it."

WOW! I was reading my Celebrate Recover bible this evening before bed and this is the prayer I came across while looking over the lesson for this upcoming week. I really, really needed that. This is a prayer I need to repeat everyday. I can so easily get caught up in the day and start to project my thoughts into the future. I need to remember that each day is important and deserves the attention it deserves. Each day is a day the Lord created for us and we should rejoice and be glad in it...just like the song says!

This prayer just really spoke to me tonight because this is what I have been struggling with.

I am so thankful for this program Celebrate Recovery. It is definitely helping me grow and strengthening my relationship with Jesus Christ.

The 31 Year Old Toddler

That's pretty much what I feel like right now. A big baby.

Lately I have been talking to God about the direction I should take with my life. I really feel like I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing with my life. So I have been asking God questions and pursuing different avenues I could go down. All of which I am getting told to sit still and wait. I am right where I am supposed to be at this moment in time. I know this means God is working on his big plan and I should just sit still and wait my turn.

But I don't want too :(

And that's why I feel like a big baby. I feel like I am a toddler and God is just trying to get me to sit still while I keep running around and getting distracted with other things. (and I have a small glimpse on how God feels because I experience that daily with my kids.)

So that's pretty much where I am at. I am going to do His will because I know that is what is best. I usually just screw things up if I do it my way. But that doesn't mean I have to like it right now.

But I know it will all work out perfectly in the end if I just listen and do what I am told.

Conditional Christian

This is a topic that has been buzzing around in my mind for the past week. I am not quite sure where the term came from or why it even popped into my head.

According to Webster's Dictionary:

Conditional means "Containing or depending on a condition or conditions; made with limitations; not absolute; made or granted on certain terms. A conditional promise is one which is to be performed, when something else stipulated is done or has taken place."

Christian means "A real disciple of Christ; one who believes in the truth of the Christian religion, and studies to follow the example, and obey the precepts, of Christ; a believer in Christ who is characterized by real piety."

Just looking at these definitions it seems like these 2 words should not even go together. To truly be a Christian there should be no conditions or limitations to your faith and love for God. He did not put conditions on us when He sent his only son to die for our sins.

But I know as humans we have a tendency to put conditions on just about anything, including our beliefs.

I would have to say I am guilty of this too. I find myself not always have faith things will turn out and worrying about situations that are not under my control. That's just like saying I trust God but not really over this one situation (for whatever reason). Worry is actually a form of not trusting God. So basically this is just like putting conditions on my relationship with God.

I also find myself not giving Him glory and praise as much as I should. In a way that's kind of like taking credit for the good things and situations in my life; giving all the glory to myself or other things. Not acknowledging something is ignoring it.

These are just examples and I really could go on.

In Celebrate Recovery and in AA there are steps to take to help work through the issues and situations in your life. Steps that help you overcome obstacles. The first step is admitting there is a problem and that my life is unmanageable.

So I guess God planted this term in my mind and heart to get me started on a new journey. I see how I have been putting conditions on my Christian faith and even though my life is not unmanageable as of yet, without putting Christ at the center of my life and under every circumstance, I recognize how my life would be complete chaos and totally unmanageable.

A man, a flood and God

There was a very heavy rain storm in this small town and the town began to flood due to the amount of rain. There was a man inside his home that was certain that God would come a save him. The town began to evacuate because the rain was not letting up and the waters were getting deeper. The mans next door neighbor offered a ride to the man but his response was simply, "I have faith in God and He will save me."

Some time past and the waters became deeper so the man had to move up to the second floor of his house. Another boat came by and the passengers shouted to the man to come aboard the boat to get to safety. The man simply replied, "I have faith in God and He will save me."

Some more time past and the waters began to get so deep that the man had no choice but to move up to the roof of the house. A third boat came by and offered the man help and begged him to please get in the boat so they could take him to safety. The man simply replied, "I have faith in God and He will save me."

Sadly the man drowned in the flood.

When the man got to heaven he immediately demanded to see God. When he was taken to God he said to Him, "I had faith in You all my life. I never doubted You. And when I needed you the most, You weren't there. Why didn't You save me from the flood?"

God said, "Didn't you see the 3 boats I sent for you?!"

This story crosses my mind from time to time and I have always found it interesting. I think some of us get so consumed with life and even though we want help, we don't ask for it or even take it when it's offered. Some of us get caught in waiting on God to show up and help that we forget He works through people. We fail to see He is in all of us and He wants to help us every step of the way. He truly wants what is best for us.

We may not always agree on what is best for us. Someone told me once that Gods will and our will are actually the same but we struggle over which path is better to take. We all want to choose our own path and have control over our lives, usually because we think our path will be easier. But Gods will is always better and the path He leads us down might be more uncomfortable and difficult but will have a much better reward.

God said we should seek Him first. I know it's real easy to put ourselves first and to focus our view on our own little worlds. I think if we could just look past ourselves just a little bit, step outside of our comfort zones and what we are used to, we would see things beyond our imagination. We would see and begin to know what we are truly capable of doing and being. We could even start to come to an understanding with each and we could all know peace.

Unconditional Love

I have been reminded recently that there are some people in this life you can't always count on. There are some people that put conditions on what should be unconditional love. A fact that is very sad and heart breaking.

But something I need to keep in mind is that people are human. And humans can only love to the best of their ability.

He is the only One who can truly love unconditionally and He is the only One that knows exactly what that means. I think this is one of the reasons we are supposed to seek Him above all others.

We may not always get the affirmation or edification we are seeking from family or other loved ones. But God's message to us is that we truly matter to Him. He loved us so much that he sent His only Son to die for us. He laid down His life for ours. No other love can compare to that.

This is something I know I need to remember. That when I feel like I am not really cared for or even all that loved. I, in fact, have been given the greatest gift and love of all!

Lessons Learned

So I have been having going through some small trials these past few weeks and I have been trying to figure out what God is really trying to teach me. At first I thought it was tolerance, which just made me a little made. Then I thought maybe He's trying to show me how to handle criticism better (which in a way goes along with tolerance.) At first I thought 'ok let's do that'. But then something else came up and it just made me even more upset and a little angry.

Then on sunday morning I heard my pastor give a message on being prejudice.

Of course my initial reaction was "well I don't have to worry about that cause I am not prejudice to anyone." Luckily my denial quickly melted away and I realized what God had been trying to show me over the past week. Yes He was showing me tolerance and gave me opportunities to take criticism better but the actual catalyst of these events that took place had to do with being prejudice and insecurities and how all these tie together.

It took me being the victim (for lack of a better word) to realize I also have prejudice thoughts toward people. It also took John's sermon on sunday to realize how truly unfair I was by focusing on a whole group of people instead of just the few encounters I have had in the best.

So, there may have been a little reverse psychology in my teachings recently...I don't know. All I do know is the way He presented it to me helped. I always knew God didn't play favorites and that he loves me just as much as he loves everyone else, regardless of our differences. But I need to remember that more and more when I start having thoughts or feelings towards other people. I need remember how I felt this past week when it was projected onto me.

I am truly thankful He does not give up on us. He is patient in his teachings and knows exactly what we need to learn and when it's time to have that lesson. His timing is so much better than mine. And even though sometimes I resist and might even throw a small temper tantrum (yes that happened this week) I know that He is faithful and will not throw anything at me that I am not ready to handle.

Birthdays

So tomorrow I turn yet another year old. I have been thinking about all the years past and how much I have accomplished....and yet still the things I want to accomplish.
I am actually pretty content where my life is right now. Yes I still want to keep moving forward and there are things I wish I had. But that's just what they are....they are things. And by having them or not having them will not dramatically change my life for the better or worse.
I am truly happy and peacefully at this moment in time. And I am so excited about the work God is doing in my life and I look forward to another 31 years (and more) on this earth.