The
most important thing in life is knowing God Himself.
Even if we gain the whole
world, nothing will profit us if we lose
our soul. The only way we may know God is
through faith in Christ,
renewal by the Holy Spirit, and reading the Word of God.
Seeking
satisfaction with God is better than seeking satisfaction through the
world.
Actually
the hungrier I get for God, the more satisfied I become! And yet, the
more that
I've realized that God is enough for me and am satisfied in
Him, the more I am discontent
to only have what I have now of Him.
All of my life I want to constantly hunger for Christ
and to become
more satisfied in Him.
Without
personal application, understanding the meaning of Scripture is
worthless.
This is true of all knowledge. In my own personal study of Scripture,
I often made
understanding the meaning of it my goal instead of
understanding what implications it had
for my life. God showed me my
sinful pride and the vanity of this pursuit. By God's grace,
I've
learned that the goal of Bible study should never be simply to
understand, but also
how to apply the knowledge in my daily life.
Correct
doctrine is important, but having correct doctrine without humility
and love is worthless.
Spiritual knowledge doesn't equal spiritual maturity. Spiritual
maturity is walking by the Spirit, and in love. Love is the
fulfillment of the law. It is so much more important to be an expert
at keeping the law of love than an expert at understanding spiritual
concepts. “If I ...know all the mysteries and all knowledge...but
do not have love I am nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:2
Memorizing
Scripture is very important. Memorizing
Scripture is important because it is our weapon against sin. David
said, “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin
against you.” Psalm 119:11When Jesus was tempted, He fought with
Scripture and said, “it is written...”Memorizing Scripture is
important because we can meditate on it when we have it memorized. It
is very useful for taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of
Christ. (1 Cor.10:5)Memorized Scripture is also a source of comfort
when I'm afraid or upset. Memorizing scripture is important because
we will always have it with us. I've found it very helpful when I'm
witnessing, when I have to make a quick decision, when I am without
my Bible, and even when I'm trying to understand other passages of
Scripture. I get many of my ideas for my writing from the Scriptures
that are in my heart. There are so many benefits to always having it
with you.
True
greatness isn't accomplished by skill, rank, or power but by being a
servant and
by humbling ourselves. “Whoever
would be great among you must be your servant.”
Matt. 20:26 Jesus
Himself said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” The truly great
man follows Jesus's
example and washes the feet of others.
The
most important priority is one's relationship with God, not one's
ministry to
others.
Ministry shouldn't be our focus. It is easy to become people-focused,
but as soon
as this happens, we are only doing humanitarian work. We
should be God-focused and our
ministry should flow from that.
We
must fight sin every day, because we are in a battle.
If we let our guard down, and
if we aren't intentional and persistent
with fighting sin, we will lose important battles. (See
Eph.
6:10-18)
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary,
the devil, prowls around
like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour. But resist him firm in your faith...” 1 Peter
5:8-9a.
It
is important to set aside personal prayer time and Scripture reading.
Scripture
says,
“Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from
the mouth
of God.” It is so important to read all of Scripture.
While everything we read in the Bible
will benefit us, it is
important to make sure we are reading all of Scripture and not
missing
anything. I've learned that it is helpful to periodically
read straight through Scripture, and
then take time to study
individual books. It is by reading all of Scripture that we
understand any of Scripture. Some passages are difficult to
understand without the rest of
Scripture. I've found that I pray more
throughout the day if I have already spent time in
secret prayer.
Jesus frequently went off by Himself to pray. We have a great need to
be in
prayer. Jesus was a man of prayer, and Christians should be
too. Often, I feel like I wish I
knew better words to say when I
pray, but God is pleased with our prayers when they are
spoken with
an attitude of childlike humility and a submissive heart that says,
“Not my
will, but yours be done.”An excellent book on prayer is,
“A Simple Way to Pray” by
Archie Parrish. It's a tiny book with
big print, and inside is Martin Luther's letter to his
barber who
wanted to know how to pray. I would highly recommend this book!
It's
important to be faithful in little things. The
little things are the hardest. We all want
to do great things that
make us feel important, but doing the small things well is one of the
most important challenges we'll ever have. I've learned God prepares
us for great things in
small ways. When we are faithful with little,
He entrusts us with much. Nothing done out
of worship for God is
insignificant. The best way to do great things is to yield yourself
to
the potter and be faithful where you are. He has to shape you
before you are ready for use,
and the greatest thing you can ever do
is fulfill God's plan for your life no matter how
many little things
it takes. After all, God's will for us is that we be conformed to the
image
of His Son (Rom. 8:29).
We
must guard against distractions.
One of Satan's oldest tactics is distraction. It's easy
to become
distracted, but our focus must be on Christ. Even good things can
become a
distraction. In fact, Satan loves to make us busy with good
things as long as we are
distracted from Christ. The solution to this
problem is not to rid ourselves of all our
distractions but to learn
how God would have us think and act in regards to whatever is
distracting us. We must learn to exercise self-control and to glorify
God in each area of
life. And we must “be of sober Spirit” and
“be on the alert” (1Peter 5: )
It's
important to honor authority. We
may not always agree with the authority figures in
our life, but we
must submit to them as to Christ because God put them in our lives
and
commands us to obey them. Our hearts are selfish and we want to
do things our own way.
From the time we were toddlers, we said, “I
can do it all by myself!” God is gracious and
He places authorities
in our lives to teach us to submit. Submission is a hard lesson to
learn. Ultimately, we must learn to submit to the Holy Spirit. It is
through submission to
the Holy Spirit that we are able to submit to
the other authorities in our lives. This is a
lesson I'll always be
learning. Christ will always be teaching me to say, “Not my will,
but
yours be done.” He obeyed His father perfectly and even
submitted himself to men!
Christ's submission amazes me! It is
paramount as a Christian to learn to submit our will
to our Father's
will. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is
the way to
death.”Proverbs 14:12
God
can be trusted. He
is always faithful to His promises and His Word. He never
changes!
Over and over again He has proved this in my personal life and in His
Word!
God
provides. When
I have a need I take it to Christ and He always provides what I need.
It isn't always what I want, but He is faithful to give me all that
He knows I need. I'm
learning to Pray (instead of worry) when I have
a need.
Relationships
are the most important investment I can make on earth. I've
learned
that relationships should always take priority over my plans
and goals. It is so easy to
forget this when I have a long list of
things I want to do. God is gracious to keep
reminding me of this.
The longer I live, the more I understand this truth. Sometimes I
have
to chose between finishing my list and loving the people I'm with.
I'd rather invest in
people than my plans.
Handling
conflict in a Christlike way is better than avoiding it, responding
in our
flesh, or trying to ignore it. Because relationships are
valuable, it is worth taking time
to study how to handle conflict.
Scripture gives us all that we need to know in order to
do this. One
of the things I've learned is that when I am upset at someone else, I
need to
spend time in prayer examining why I am upset. Sometimes I am
upset because of selfish
reasons and not because the other person has
sinned. Sometimes the other person has
sinned, but I can overlook it
whenever I remember all that God has forgiven me. If I
cannot
overlook it and I'm still offended, I try take time examining my own
part in the
conflict. I ask God to show me how the other person is
feeling and any sins that I need to
repent of. Then I ask God to help
me to be humble and truly listen, and I go seek
restoration. First, I
ask for forgiveness if I have sinned. (It's important not to make
excuses
when asking for forgiveness. Like Adam and Eve we often have
the desire to make
excuses, but God doesn't accept them, and we
aren't truly repenting if we are still making
excuses.) After, this I
tell the other person as graciously as possible how they have
offended me and what I would prefer them to do in the future. Then
it's time to listen and
ask questions to try to understand the other
person because they are usually frustrated too.
The goal when talking
about conflict cannot be to prove ourselves innocent or to retaliate.
It must be done in a loving way and we must be ready to forgive. We
must seek
restoration when we have conflicts and not leave them
unresolved. I am still learning to do
this. God's grace and Word is
sufficient to guide and help us in every conflict we will ever
face.
Handling conflict is definitely one of the most important skills I've
learned. An
excellent book with Biblical principals for handling
conflict is, “If you Bite and Devour”
by Alexander Strauch. He
explains in depth that when we are faced with conflict,
Christians
must act in the spirit with love and humility; control their tongue,
anger, and
criticism; and pursue reconciliation and peace. There are hundreds of helpful scriptures in
this book!
criticism; and pursue reconciliation and peace. There are hundreds of helpful scriptures in
this book!
It
truly is more blessed to give than to receive!
It's
important to be teachable and to seek counsel.
I've learned the hard way that pride
is destructive, and that I won't
learn what God wants me to learn, unless I am humble and
I listen to
others. Instead of resisting instruction, I should actually seek it!
Wisdom is
precious and should be sought above riches. It can only be
gained through humility.
Momentary
pleasure is a destructive and subtle idol. I've
learned this from experience.
Living for pleasure and seeking to live
a comfortable life is dangerous. If that is our
ultimate goal, we
won't be willing to obey God. He said, “If anyone would come after
me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Matt. 16:24 Following Christ
isn't comfortable. It's downright hard
and will cost you everything, but true joy is found in
following
Christ. We can easily be tricked, as Adam and Eve were, to trade
eternal joys
for momentary pleasures. Worldly pleasure is
counterfeit. Scripture teaches, “In [God's]
presence there is
fullness of joy; at [His] right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm
16:11. This is a very important thing to learn, and one of the
most important things God
has been teaching me. Satan still entices
people with momentary pleasures, but we can
resist him through
Christ's strength and he will flee from us.
It
is important to be thankful and enjoy God's gifts. I'm
learning to say, “This is the
day the Lord has made; I will rejoice
and be glad in it.” Sometimes I forget to give God
the praise He is
due for all the ways He has graciously blessed me. I don't want to be
like
the lepers who were healed but forgot to come back and thank
Jesus. I want to remember
to praise Him. Scripture commands us to do
this, and I'm learning to bless the Lord at all
times and ascribe to
Him the glory He's due. Psalm 34:1 Psalm 96:8
Salvation
is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for God's
glory
alone, and
Scripture
alone is to be our authority. These
are known as the five solas of
Scripture and are central doctrines in
my faith. These are the very heartbeat of the Bible
and
Christianity.
Christ
is returning and it's important to be ready! Scripture
teaches
He
will come like
a thief in the night. We should seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness.
Because He's coming back, it is
important to be saved and to be faithfully living for
Christ!
Dallas
