Our Life Group got to sit outside for our meeting this last week. It was so great. It was light for the first hour or so, hurrah for daylight savings time! We discussed self examination from MP's sermon of last week. Then we spent time in prayer. I love the freedom in this group.
When I came to the house, the front door was open. As I approached I could see that so was the back door, on opposite sides of the house with no walls or obstructions in between. This made the traditional breezeway of pre-air conditioned houses. As this is an old house I'm sure that was not accidental. It did allow for a nice breeze to flow through the house. The temperature was perfect and the humidity was low.
When it did get dark the sky was clear and you could see several stars.
For me self-examination comes as I come before God. It come as a collateral benefit of spending time in scripture and prayer, usually.
When we experience God's presence we know our inadequacy. I can think of a couple of examples. First Isaiah's call. "Oh Lord, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people with unclean lips." Moses at the burning bush experienced God' presence and took off his shoes and knelt.
My inadequacy is wisdom, truly. I know my need for God in general and sense his great love for me.
Examination shows up deeper into specifics. In order to allow God to examine us we must be able to listen, not simply talk to God. God is speaking. He is telling us specific ways I can improve. That way I know God is going to help me.
If I try to do it on my own, my attempts will be futile. I can remember before I became a Christian how I hated myself and tried to change myself. It was like whack-a-mole to suppress my bad habits. If I pushed it down successfully it would just come up in another place. At the time I described it as moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.
God has to be the external force to make change in my life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment