Its all in the attitude

Pray without ceasing. Have you ever thought about the implications and impracticalities of this scripture? (1 Thessalonians 5:17) I mean lets be honest - does God really expect us to pray every second of the day? how does that affect our lives ? Can it actually be done?

There is actually more to that scripture than is often looked into - 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 -18 says "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus." (NLT)

God is not asking us to spend every moment of our day on our knees in prayer, but He encourages us to have a prayerful attitude. This attitude affects our reactions to the stuff, good and bad, that occurs in our lives. It determines whether we will be atmosphere takers or atmosphere makers. A prayerful attitude recognises and acknowledges our need for God, our dependence on Him, and takes the focus off ourselves. It means that even in the crap times , in the darkness when we think no one cares, we can have an assurance that God is there, He cares and we can turn our focus to Him.

Over the past few months I have had an illness that had the potential to take over every part of mine and my family's lives. Everything turned to crap (am I allowed to say crap on the blog? Oops crap I did it again!) and I felt I was in a downward spiral there was no escape from.. Now I don't share this to gain your sympathy or to shock, but out of this experience ( and I still have a long way to go) I have learned a very important God perspective that keeps me going.

John 10:10 "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life in abundance." This is a scripture I have heard countless times but whenever I have considered abundant life I have looked at it from a vantage point of Gods provision - paying my bills, meeting my physical needs etc.. What I didn't consider was (and God gave me revelation of this) abundant life is more than this.

Abundance of life includes the experiences we go through and the lessons we learn. This changed me in my situation completely. I know that God is with me in my situation, and while He did not cause it, He is allowing me to go through it because the lessons I learn and the reward I gain on the other side are far greater than if I did not walk this journey.

Even though my situation sucks, knowing God is there and walking with me makes the pain easier to endure, and dare I say it, I am even thankful. Not that I am sick, but thankful that God has a plan greater than I can currently see, thankful that God is bigger than my situation and thankful for this experience because its enriching and strengthening me- as a person, as a wife and mother and as a woman walking a journey with Christ.

By developing a prayerful attitude ( and believe me I'm a work in progress!) when things get tough I can turn to God and take the focus off myself. This a conscious decision, a choice I have to make continually, and some days the choice is far easier than others and sometimes I don't succeed at all. But thats the amazing thing about Grace - God still reaches out His hand to pick us up and set us on our feet time after time, day after day. (and thats a whole new post on its own)

Be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances - I might not succeed in this all the time, but I am going to make a go at it. I want to encourage you - embrace God no matter what your circumstances are and be enriched and amazed by what you learn and the experiences you gain.

Letting Go of Our Sins

Some days, I just feel so unholy. (I know, great first entry on the Resonate blog. :P I am sure I will soon hear from Ray if this is not theologically sound!)

And I feel far away from God. I am a Christian who has experienced enough of God to know that life without God would be meaningless for me. Yet, at times I just feel totally unworthy and that makes me pull away from Him. Read on if you can identify with this, because at times like that, I cling on to the things that I know deep down, and that helps me through. I hope it helps you too.

It is a vicious cycle - in moments of weakness I sin (judge others, gossip, act self-centred, lose patience, rage, you name it...), then I feel guilty about it and avoid God (as if He didn't already read my mind as I thought all those terrible things!), then I miss out on my quiet time with Him, then it's all a bit awkward from then on, and I gradually just drift farther and farther away from Him. And without Him, you see, I am weak. And moments of weakness become the norm.

Times like that, I think... God, if You have really forgiven me, why aren't You talking to me? Why won't You just tell me that everything's okay?

Usually, after moping for a while, I pause for long enough to hear His answer: You already know that I have forgiven you. You just haven't soaked it all up yet. You are losing sight of what you know to be true because of the guilt that you feel. I'm telling you that everything is okay - you just aren't listening. It is you that won't spare me the time of day to listen to what I have to say to you. Get over it!

Which reminds me of a story I heard in my old church in Auckland... (If you've heard a slightly different version of this elsewhere, it's because this is my version, recreated from the bits that I remember.)

There was a bunch of sinners registering for kind of an... absolution conference, where they would pay their dues for all the things they had done wrong. At the registration booth, they were given one of those stick-on name tags where they had to write not only their names, but also why they were there. After that, they went round the room introducing themselves.

"I'm John, I'm a murderer." John bowed his head in shame.

"I'm Lucy, I'm a thief." Lucy looked glad she was after John.

"Sally... an adultress." Sally could barely say the words.

And so this went on. Eventually a man without a name tag stood up and said, "My name is Jesus, I have not sinned."

"What do you mean you haven't sinned?" asked the organisers in a rage, "What is your name and what have you done? Where is your name tag? You need to register and you need to say what you've done wrong."

Jesus walked around the room and took the name tags off all the sinners there. He stuck them on His chest, one by one. And He said, "My name is Jesus, I have not sinned. Here are my name tags. My name is John. My name is Lucy. My name is Sally..."

Fundamentally, we sin and fall short of His glory. So try not to sin. But when we do, we need to get up, get right and move on. We need to see that it isn't enough just handing over our name tags to Him - we also have to stop calling ourselves names.

Sin separates us from God because He is holy. That is the whole reason for the Cross! But a sin committed, and left on its own to grow into a festering wound of guilt, really has the potential to damage our relationship with Him. Once we repent, that's it - we really have to let God deal with it - we really have to let God.