Weekly Thing
James 4:7-10
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Ephesians 5:1,2
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Hello everyone-
Sorry that this week’s email is a bit later than most; it’s kind of been a busy week. But, in a lot of ways I’m glad that I didn’t write till now since I learned quite a bit over the past two days.
In church, we have a new song that we sing called Every Breath by Ben Haake, and the chorus goes like this: “For every breath Lord, for all that I am, I want my life to bring you glory. For every moment, for all that I have, I want my life to bring you glory.” We sang this at worship night on Saturday, and also on Sunday morning. The bridge is simply a repetition of, “Forever. I surrender.” As I was thinking about that while singing and afterward when I’d gone home, I got to thinking about the new phase in my life in which I’m going into college ministry and how the past week had looked. … Admittedly, this past week wasn’t entirely focused on our Creator. In fact there were three days where I was so busy focusing on the things I “needed to do” to be able to do work for God in another city that God was almost completely out of the picture. I hadn’t read my Bible, and my prayers were skimped short. I was too busy.
So in singing those words, there came the sting of those three days. Yet it is what I want, to bring God glory with every breath and every moment… ah, but the bridge reminds me: I need to surrender first.
In our wacky world, it’s way too easy to get caught up in “doing things for God,” regardless of what it is. It’s easy to get caught up in being busy doing anything at all because being busy is bred into us from the get-go. What I’m about to say is not at all putting down the internet (since if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t even be writing this to you via email), but here’s a thought. Out there on the World Wide Web, there’s all kinds of things to keep you busy without even physically doing anything. MySpace, Xanga, Livejournal, Facebook, other forms of blogging, art websites, and so much more - all of these I’m guilty of messing around with for HOURS. Then of course there are things (even people) outside of ourselves that keep us milling about, demanding our attention, stomping their feet in a tantrum saying, “I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW.” … All the while, God is quietly sitting by waiting, saying calmly, “You need me right now.” Because the other things are louder, God totally gets washed out. You know what? Most of those other things can wait ten minutes.
Well. That’s how it’s happened with me and there’s a long history of it coming and going. Sometimes, just a bit every day, I need to remember that I need God. I need to surrender the day to the One who made it, sit at His feet, and give Him all of my attention. And this isn’t just in the busy-ness of trying to jump start a college ministry… This is through every activity I do; every activity YOU do. Every breath, every moment, is meant for His glory.
I pray that, through all the things that we are responsible for in our lives, we would all submit to God first and foremost in those things… That our days would be saturated with moments of surrendering to God. I pray that the Spirit would work in us a desire to glorify the Lord with all that we have and remind us that we need to sit and listen to His word always. I also ask that He would teach us as we read Scripture and teach us not to neglect Scripture because it is our daily bread that nourishes us. May we always be transformed more and more into the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Ephesians 5:1,2
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Hello everyone-
Sorry that this week’s email is a bit later than most; it’s kind of been a busy week. But, in a lot of ways I’m glad that I didn’t write till now since I learned quite a bit over the past two days.
In church, we have a new song that we sing called Every Breath by Ben Haake, and the chorus goes like this: “For every breath Lord, for all that I am, I want my life to bring you glory. For every moment, for all that I have, I want my life to bring you glory.” We sang this at worship night on Saturday, and also on Sunday morning. The bridge is simply a repetition of, “Forever. I surrender.” As I was thinking about that while singing and afterward when I’d gone home, I got to thinking about the new phase in my life in which I’m going into college ministry and how the past week had looked. … Admittedly, this past week wasn’t entirely focused on our Creator. In fact there were three days where I was so busy focusing on the things I “needed to do” to be able to do work for God in another city that God was almost completely out of the picture. I hadn’t read my Bible, and my prayers were skimped short. I was too busy.
So in singing those words, there came the sting of those three days. Yet it is what I want, to bring God glory with every breath and every moment… ah, but the bridge reminds me: I need to surrender first.
In our wacky world, it’s way too easy to get caught up in “doing things for God,” regardless of what it is. It’s easy to get caught up in being busy doing anything at all because being busy is bred into us from the get-go. What I’m about to say is not at all putting down the internet (since if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t even be writing this to you via email), but here’s a thought. Out there on the World Wide Web, there’s all kinds of things to keep you busy without even physically doing anything. MySpace, Xanga, Livejournal, Facebook, other forms of blogging, art websites, and so much more - all of these I’m guilty of messing around with for HOURS. Then of course there are things (even people) outside of ourselves that keep us milling about, demanding our attention, stomping their feet in a tantrum saying, “I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW.” … All the while, God is quietly sitting by waiting, saying calmly, “You need me right now.” Because the other things are louder, God totally gets washed out. You know what? Most of those other things can wait ten minutes.
Well. That’s how it’s happened with me and there’s a long history of it coming and going. Sometimes, just a bit every day, I need to remember that I need God. I need to surrender the day to the One who made it, sit at His feet, and give Him all of my attention. And this isn’t just in the busy-ness of trying to jump start a college ministry… This is through every activity I do; every activity YOU do. Every breath, every moment, is meant for His glory.
I pray that, through all the things that we are responsible for in our lives, we would all submit to God first and foremost in those things… That our days would be saturated with moments of surrendering to God. I pray that the Spirit would work in us a desire to glorify the Lord with all that we have and remind us that we need to sit and listen to His word always. I also ask that He would teach us as we read Scripture and teach us not to neglect Scripture because it is our daily bread that nourishes us. May we always be transformed more and more into the likeness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne