If you've been waiting with bated breath to hear whether or not I accomplished my goals for last week the answer is YES ---I did! I even practiced with my dip pens doing calligraphy. I wrote a page of "a's " and there was not one that I would say is good. This may take me longer than I thought. But it was nice to use my equipment and not to feel like I should be doing something that I'm not!
The files for medical bills? They were so easy to do that I wondered why I'd put it off for so long.
I finally found a passage that called out for me to memorize it. I'd considered many passages but none of them felt "right"...until I read Colossians 3:1-17. I encountered this in my reading plan in the Beyond Suffering Bible which I recently ordered. Today I pretty much nailed down verses 1-4 but still need fine tuning work. This part of my New Year Goals has fallen a bit behind mostly because I was foundering in my search for the next passage to learn. But now that I've found a passage that feels like it's calling to me, I am on my way again.
It also took me a while to settle on a Bible reading program. I didn't really want to read the whole Bible this year and last year I read the New Testament...so I wanted to find something that has some coherency to it...something that spans both Old and New Testaments and something that is not overwhelming in length but not too brief. I recently purchased the Beyond Suffering Bible that Joni Eareckson put together for people who suffer and in that Bible is a reading plan....it is divided according to a list of topics and each topic has about 5 separate passages to be read. I have found these readings to be a perfect fit for my desired elements.
I also bought Joni's newest devotional, A Spectacle of Glory, God's Light Shining Through Me Every Day. Joni's devotionals are thoughtful and have a depth you usually don't find in many "women's" devotional writers. Joni's circumstances have pounded her down deep into the depths of God...Trite answers or giddy "girlfriend" talk are not found in her writings. The other devotional I am reading is another round of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers...Oh, and I get an email segment of Diamonds in the Dust an earlier devotional by Joni as well.
It also took me a while to settle on a Bible reading program. I didn't really want to read the whole Bible this year and last year I read the New Testament...so I wanted to find something that has some coherency to it...something that spans both Old and New Testaments and something that is not overwhelming in length but not too brief. I recently purchased the Beyond Suffering Bible that Joni Eareckson put together for people who suffer and in that Bible is a reading plan....it is divided according to a list of topics and each topic has about 5 separate passages to be read. I have found these readings to be a perfect fit for my desired elements.
I also bought Joni's newest devotional, A Spectacle of Glory, God's Light Shining Through Me Every Day. Joni's devotionals are thoughtful and have a depth you usually don't find in many "women's" devotional writers. Joni's circumstances have pounded her down deep into the depths of God...Trite answers or giddy "girlfriend" talk are not found in her writings. The other devotional I am reading is another round of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers...Oh, and I get an email segment of Diamonds in the Dust an earlier devotional by Joni as well.
The one area I still struggle with is to put together a solid prayer time. I breathe prayer all day long....but I'm unsatisfied with this. I feel I need to work on LISTENING more to the heart of God. I want to have time to focus on His face and to have Him carve me into the woman He wants me to be. I need to sit with my prayer beads and use them to help me to focus.
So these are the disciplines I've been using to keep myself on track this year thus far. It is strange (or maybe not) that God had me wandering in a desert for a season before revealing the plan He wanted me to follow for this year's readings, memorization and now I need to be settled and connected in prayer.
Do you have a game plan in your Quiet Time? Or are you one of those people who open the Bible to a random page and read a bit and then put it away without it ever sinking soul deep? If you are, I would challenge you to choose a plan and stick to it. Choose a book of the Bible to read and read a chapter a day until you finish the book. OR go to www.biblegateway.com and choose one of their reading plans. God is not a random or haphazard God....and He doesn't want us to be haphazard in our times of communion with Him.
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