Simple Joshua 1:8 Goals

“Do not let this Book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful.”  Joshua 1:8

Over the years I have not always been consistent to give priority time to God in disciplined reading, prayer and meditation on the Bible.  Some recent questions from some other seminary wives have driven me back to God’s word for some goals/ideas/ways to grow in this discipline.  For whatever they are worth, here are some thoughts that were shared (and this is NOT all-inclusive. . .just some ideas!).

Simple Goals for Growing in Personal Time with God

  1. Avoid legalism (especially about format, time, location, etc) but be compelled by love to spend more time with God (1 John 4:19)

  2. Try something and do what works (1 Thess. 5:21)

  3. Look for idle/idol spent moments (things that waste time, or things that you would rather do than read your Bible or pray) and change how you spend them or don’t do those things until you have spent time with God (1 Thess. 5:14)

  4. Read, meditate, pray and apply (James 1:22-25 and Psalm 1) Allow God to CHANGE you by going that tiny step further by meditating and applying what you read.

  5. Ask God for hunger, thirst and a willing spirit (James 1:5, Mt. 5:6 and Psalm 51:12)

  6. Meditate on God’s love, character and works - this can make you long for more  (Ps. 103, 116, 111, Isaiah 55, if you need a place to start)

  7. Ask yourself if you have made a habit of starving yourself so badly by neglecting time with God that you don’t even know what you are missing anymore.  Reverse the pattern and make yourself hungry  by reintroducing spiritual food.

  8. Seek godly accountability (Proverbs 13:20, Eccl. 4:9-12)

The Grand Canyo

In May I traveled with my family to the Grand Canyon. It was awesome!  It is truly breath taking!  As you stand there at the rim and look at the magnificent colors and the absolute vastness of this “Natural Wonder,” you can not help but think of the Creator. 

This amazing canyon is there for all to see and to declare His greatness.  I was content to just stand and look and think.  (I don’t stand still very often!)  I was grateful that my thoughts were of our amazing God, and even more thrilled to hear my children declare His wonders.

In his book The Joy of Fearing God, Jerry Bridges explains that acknowledging God in creation is one way to increase our fear of the Lord.   Bridges gives Isaiah 40:12-31 as an example of an Old Testament passage that “especially emphasizes the greatness of God and is thus designed to stimulate our fear of Him.”  This passage contains a number of questions and figures of speech describing God’s immense greatness in creation and history.

The point that Isaiah makes is that even though creation (including the Grand Canyon) is great, nothing compares to the greatness of God.  As we think about the truth Scripture teaches about creation, we should grow in our fear and awe of Him.  

Enjoy creation this summer.  Even if you don’t go to the Grand Canyon, be amazed by blooming flowers, powerful rain storms, and cute lightning bugs!!

Cockroaches on My Porch: Humility Lessons from Louisville

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
-Proverbs 11:2

This week our family moved to a new city for my husband to attend seminary and are living in family on-campus housing.  What this means for us is close quarters, close neighbors and a new peer group: future pastor’s wives and future pastor’s children ALL AROUND US! 

As much as a I pray about it and speak scripture to my heart and mind, I struggle constantly with prideful thoughts of what OTHERS think of me, my children, especially as first impressions are made.  Of course, I’m concerned about the little earthly carnal things, and in a stroke of sovereign good humor, God ordained a mortifyingly humiliating experience (to bring low the pride, as in Isaiah 23:9.)

As I unpacked a box of photo albums in our apartment on the first day, a “Palmetto Bug” tried to come out (for those non-South-Carolinians, this is a two-inch cockroach that SC has given a nicer name!)  In panic, I pick up the box and RUN outside, slamming it down on our little porch!!  The box is closed, so the cockroaches don’t come crawling out.  As I set the box down, I look up and Jenny* and Whitney* my new neighbors were sitting in my yard only feet away from my porch, talking and watching their children play.  I have an inner dialog with myself, as I say “hi” to the neighbors and frantically try to think of a graceful way out of this.  

I can’t take the box back inside, and I can’t just tape it back up and throw it away - not with photo albums in it, maybe I could take it around the apartment unit and open it out back - no, one of the roaches might crawl out onto me. . .I can’t just wait around, hoping they would go back inside - they told me just a few hours ago that they practically live outside when the weather is nice like this! I had no other option, I had to accept this lesson and be HONEST with them and tell them what was going on.  No secrets in seminary housing, I guess.  I told the ladies what was happening so they wouldn’t freak out.  They were very calm, telling me how to get a hold of the exterminators on campus, then stayed in their lawn chairs as I opened the box and stomped on and sprayed the cockroaches that came out.

Humbling?  Yes, without a doubt!  Good for my heart?  Yes, yes, yes!  If I’d rather hide the box of cockroaches and not let another sinful human know they were in my house. . .how much more absurd it is that I try to justify and hide the cockroaches of sin (pride, for example) that come crawling out - before a perfect and holy God?

I guess it’s time I took my good friend’s reading recommendation: Humility, by Andrew Murray.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent