Tuesday, April 13, 2010

1 timothy 2 (have conversations)


I love how this first starts out, how Paul first starts out. "The first think I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know." There are so many times in our lives, our "we've been christians for as long as we can remember" lives that prayer is just regular. We pray before meals, we pray before church or sermons, we pray before bed, and depending on what is going on in our life, maybe sometimes for the struggles. And i know i have good and bad days when it comes to praying. But whenever i hear verses about praying it always brings me back to the verse that says we should pray continuously. That thought for me is unusual. Because as i said above, since praying is so regular, we should try to make a conscious effort to do it more than the regular. But the only way the praying continuously has ever made sense to me, is just having conversations with Him regularly, about everything. I strive to be able to do that without even thinking about it. But wouldn't that just make it regular? I don't know. Basically, my conclusion, i need to talk to Him about everything and anything. That's actually been on my mind a lot lately. There's so many times that (mostly when praying out loud) i get caught up in how good i sound, or how scholarly i sound. But i've decided something. What does it matter if i sound eloquent or if i sound frazzled? God knows exactly what i'm thinking anyways, and the prayer is directed to Him not the people listening! My new goal for praying: pray like He's right next to me (which He is), pray like He's a friend and He's gonna answer right back, pray conversationally.

I wish i could say this about my life: "This and only this has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth."

"Not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God." I feel like Christians are normally categorized in two ways. One, boring people who follow all of the rules and never have fun. Two, people screaming on the streets at people telling them to accept Jesus or you're going to hell, or condemning all sinners. This sucks. Guys, let's change this stereotype! We can't get caught up in other people's sins or other people in general for that matter, we need to glorify God with everything we have. Praise Him with everything we have. It's like in 1 Timothy, it all comes down to love.

Man-oh-man, is this verse good for us girls. I love the message translation of it too. "...humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it." I can't say that i don't care what guys think of me, but i so wish i could. I wish i could be so devoted to God that the only opinion i cared about was His. It's also crazy the contrast between God's eyes and the world's eyes. He finds our beauty in actions; the world finds it in our make-up and boobs. I like God's eyes much better. Yet i still (sadly) normally care more about the world's eyes (or at least the people that surround me).

love,
heather

1 comment:

  1. your last paragraph was perfectly phrased. i like your insight. i also like the message translation. i think i'm going to use both now.

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