People who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks:
1. they are facing only one direction,
2. they can never turn back, and
3. they no longer have plans of their own.
–A. W. Tozer
Do you have all three of these characteristics?
Are you facing toward God?
Have you been transformed by Him such that you could never reject Him?
Have you given up all of your own plans so that you could embrace all of His?
In a discussion about prayer…
Poverty-stricken as the church is today in many things, she is the most stricken here, in the place of prayer.
We have:
many organizers, but few agonizers;
many players and payers, few prayers;
many singers, few clingers;
lots of pastors, few wrestlers;
many fears, few tears;
much fashion, little passion;
many interferers, few intercessors;
many writers, but few fighters.
Failing here, we fail everywhere.
–Leonard Ravenhill
Will you spend significant time in prayer at any point during this week? during this day?
Maybe you could even start right now by praying that God would increase your passion for prayer.
Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, “Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think.”
–A. W. Tozer
The word “meek” has developed a connotation of weakness in American society. We value boldness and pride and strength and independence much more than humility and meekness. But the values of God’s Word remind us that God’s priorities and kingdom qualities are very different than our world’s. Humility and meekness are not signs of weakness, but are signs of servanthood – and Jesus was the great Servant King and our greatest example of how to be a person of strength who willingly exhibits humility and meekness. One of our biggest problems with embracing these character traits is that we care too much what men think while caring little about what God things. May we follow the model of Jesus and cease to care what men think and begin caring greatly for what God thinks.
When church is reduced to that place on the corner where we go on Sundays, we reduce the church and kingdom to something smaller than God intended.
–Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer
May we who are believers realize that we don’t go to church, but rather we are to be the church 24/7/365.
Not just on Sunday.
Go join your church family and celebrate Jesus today.
And then leave there as the church on mission to your school, workplace, and community.
I believe these things:
I believe these things, and yet somehow I keep “forgetting” them.
…The reality of this material universe tends to overwhelm my faith in a spiritual universe that is permeating through it all. I look into the blank blue sky and see nothing.
By ascending, Jesus took the risk of being forgotten.
–Philip Yancey
It is so easy to get so sidetracked by all of the things of this life – our goals, our worries, our schedules, our wants, and our needs – that we forget our need for Jesus. Fight against allowing the physical, material aspects of life crowd out the spiritual disciplines you need to remain connected to and growing in Him.