Friday, October 31, 2008

Growing ....

Wisdom/ Understanding through..........
Prayer, Meditation, Recall, Sharing, Practice/Testing, Fellowship

For me this week has been a wonderful week in the word and each day I find I'm looking forward with anticipation to what Father wants to show me and teach me from His Word.
It has been neat to see how the Lord is drawing Dwayne and I together and teaching us some of the same things. I won't share it all with you today but will share some of what Father has been teaching me.

Ps. 119: 169-176 - Understanding through Prayer
"Let my cry before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your Word."
Ps. 119:169
The action of prayer is really coming to a place in your faith where you realize you need more than just yourself. It's realizing your need for the Mind of Christ. So prayer is vital to us growing in our faith and knowing Christ. I realized I had been praying for others but not for myself- I knew others need to hear from Christ but my pride was keeping me from asking Him to speak to me! Like in the passage our prayer should be to give us understanding according to His word. I hadn't been doing that at all. What a Humbling day!

Ps. 119:145-152 - Understanding through Meditation
"My eyes anticipate the night watches that I may meditate on Your Word."
Ps. 119: 148

Again, the Lord was drawing Dwayne and I together as we began to look at these passages together. For about 2 weeks now Dwayne and I hadn't been sleeping through the night. We would wake up without fail every single morning between 1am and 3am. At first we thought it was spiritual warfare. But after praying through the house and still not sleeping we realized it wasn't that at all. We weren't sure what the issue was until we read this passage.

God was inviting us to meditate on His Word in ways we hadn't before. We also realized as we read the devotional for the day that meditation of God's word is vital to knowing HIM!
The key is to Mediate on His word so that it becomes implanted in our hearts so that we can defeat the enemy when we become tempted. ( We all know this truth) I had allowed a discipline in my life to slip and wasn't as diligent as I once was and it showed in my response to Dwayne and the trash!(another story) It was a great little lesson of how I need to be meditating on His word - both Day and Night!

Wisdom or Understanding comes when Knowledge and Experience are coupled together. I not only need to know God's word but I must allow it to work in me which will produce fruit; that is experience. Which in return becomes a testimony which the Lord can use to draw people to Himself.

Ps. 119:9-16 - Understanding through Recall
"Your Word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You."
Ps. 119:11

To memorize the word of God means it is a readily available "tool" that will guide us into His will. I had never thought of it like that and it causes me to think about what that really means - that will guide us into His Will. I know the victory that comes from recalling the word in times of trouble, fear, temptation, comfort..... It produces fruit that pleases our heavenly Father.

I think I've probably shared more than you wanted - I'll finish this tomorrow.

I hope this has been a little reminder for you as it has been for us to never think more highly of ourselves than we ought. We seem to keep learning some lessons over and over but going deeper and deeper each time we learn them.

I love that!


New Places and New Adventures

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