"And Peter...."

Since we started this Sunday Studies class on being the best "me" we can be, I've been trying to start each week with the best attitude I can. I've developed a "Monday Morning Shower Prayer". It goes a little like this: 

"Father- It's Monday. Again. I'm not a huge fan of Monday. You know this. So, Lord, I'm gonna need some help, please. Work is getting more and more busy, life is filling up as fast as it can, my body is wearing down and so is my positive attitude. Lord, grant me peace this week. Fill my heart and spirit with Your love and mercy. Ignite my soul so that I cannot contain all You have to offer and that my attitude and life choices will spill out on my friends and co-workers. I wish to be Your vessel, Father; Your tool for whatever You may need. Keep your arm around my shoulder, Lord and Your hand over my mouth so that I may always set an example of You in everything I do. And please grant me patience, Lord. Cause, again, it's Monday...." I shared the idea of my "Monday Morning Shower Prayer" with the class last week and was immediately asked, "How'd that work for ya?" Thanks be to God I could say: "It worked great!" As soon as I made the decision to be a better person AND THEN TOOK IT TO GOD my days became easier and my positive thinking increased. This puts me in and keeps me in “The Flow of the Holy Spirit”.

Sometimes though, we think God wants nothing to do with even the best version of ourselves because of our mistakes; our sins. We often forget that God offers complete forgiveness and a clean slate. As soon as we take our sins to The Lord and repent, He is faithful to forgive. And forget. But sometimes we think our sins are too big or bad for Him to forgive.

 Mark writes in chapter 16 verse 6 through 7, " 'Don't be alarmed,' he said, 'You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they had laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter', 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' “Do you know what the most powerful part of that passage is? 

"And Peter".

You see before Jesus was crucified, His disciple Peter denied Him three times in order to save his own skin. He DENIED Jesus. Denied God's Son! Can you imagine coming back from that? Even Judas hung himself after betraying Jesus out of sheer guilt! But as soon as Jesus rose from the dead, I do not believe His first thought was anger towards Peter or Judas, I believe He truly wanted to see His friend, Peter, in spite of the grievances Peter had committed against Him. 

If God can forgive a man like Peter, surely He can forgive a woman like me. Peter of course did not deserve forgiveness nor do I, but Jesus offers it all the same. He did not die an agonizing death on the cross so that He could hold grudges against His people. He died so that we might be forgiven and know Him more. 

But here comes the tricky part. In order to be forgiven by The Master, you MUST forgive others who have harmed you. So many times this week I have heard someone say, "Yeah...but You don't know what they've done to me!" No, I don't. But God Does. Or, "I'm not going to do something for them if I can't get something out of it." (Man, I really hope God doesn't have that attitude on Judgment Day. I'd much rather hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter in." than "I'm not letting you in to my House unless I get something out of it.") Nowhere in the Bible does it say, "Repent your sins to me but go ahead and hold on to your anger against others. That's okay." Of course, forgiving isn't easy. But it is not a choice. And sometimes it has to be a daily choice. "Lord, help me forgive them again. I thought I had let go of my anger but it seems to have worked it's way back up." Many times we pray a prayer of forgiveness and have genuinely forgiven someone; but when our anger and bitterness come back we are too ashamed to take it back to God. (We cannot expect The Heavenly Father to grant us something we are not willing to give to someone else.)

John Ortberg writes in his book, The Me I Want To Be:

"Shel Silverstein once wrote the 'Prayer Of A Selfish Child': 'Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray The Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my toys to break. So none of the other kids can use 'em. Amen.' " He goes on to say, "Children come to their parents with all kinds of requests: wonderful, foolish, generous and selfish. What matters most to the parent, however, is that their child comes to them. They know they can guide their child's growth- as long as their child speaks openly with them."

God just wants us to talk to Him no matter the subject. "I must pray what is in me, not what I wish were in me." God made us human and is therefore aware of our flaws. He knows that forgiveness can be and sometimes must be a daily process. Humble yourselves before the Lord so that He can offer you the grace and mercy only He can bestow. He alone can forgive eternally. He alone can fill us up. He alone can satisfy. He did not die for you to remain shameful. He died to forgive you. And, oh how He wants to. 

Feed Your Mind and Rest Will Follow

The great thing about God is He does not need to be our only joy in life. God made us complex human beings with dreams, wants, desires and passions and He loves to watch us discover them. God created each and every one of us by a unique design with unique ideas so that we would each serve a unique purpose and position on earth. Every life is different, therefore, every Christian is different. There is no mold to be filled every time someone is saved. God wants us to serve Him and His people in the way He created us. He does not want us to live our lives with the mindset of "should". I should read more. I should talk more. I should teach a class. I should stay at this job, it pays more. I should follow my parent's wishes for my life. Should will not bring us joy. Should will not fill our hunger. Should will not stir our passions. "Should simply does not have the power to get you there."


Just as God does not need to be our only joy, He has provided many different options to find joy. Paul writes in Philippians 4 "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." The key word in this passage is whatever. WHATEVER. We shared last week in class in which we find our joy. There were many diferent responses, such as smelling the fresh air on a front porch, watching a kid "get it" for the first time, singing as loud as you possibly can in your car or watching a loved one smile. But a lot of times we don't realize that these joys "count" as time with God. These joys "count" as opening up your mind to the flow of the Holy Spirit. How many times have we read this passage from Philippians and never realized the importance or true meaning of the word "whatever"? I know I've done it a hundred times. But how refreshing is that?! WHATEVER we find pure, WHATEVER we find lovely, WHATEVER we find admiralbe....if we think on such things we can open our minds to the Flow.

So how do we think on such things? Most of our world, (enitrely and personally) is filled with anger, hate, negativity, gossip, lies and ill-doings. Because of this it tends to be easier to say "Think Great Thoughts" rather than actually think great thoughts. One of the easiest ways to habitually think great thoughts is to dive into Scripture. Eugene Peterson writes, "Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love." This does not mean we have to spend hours everyday reading the Bible. God is just as powerful using one verse to change a life as He is using an entire passage. Unfortunately, most Christians, most people really, find the Bible boring or mundane. So Ortberg gives us some pointers on how to read the Bible in way that keeps us interested and allows us to absorb more than we might have before. (Read Chapter 9 pages 106-113, very helpful hints!!!) (Audio Bibles are great aids too, especially if you learn by hearing)

Paul also writes in Colossians 3, "Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things." Sounds easy right? There is a way to do this! Whenever you find yourself thinking negatively you must reset your mind and create a new pattern. A positive pattern of thought. Did you know if you have been thinking evil things for a long period of time, your mind will eventually habitually go there without you even realizing it? Luckily, the flow of the Holy Spirit is always available. Ortberg suggests, if you're having trouble thinking great thoughts, try practicing them first. "If you practice love and hope and peace, you will soon think of love, and hope and peace."

God does not make mistakes. He made you and found you good. He has made you excellent and wants you to think in excellence. He longs to help you strive for excellence. And the wonderful thing is you can do this at any moment. He [the flow of the Holy Spirit] is always available to tap into. Feed your minds with excellence and you will be excellent.

The Counterfeit Me's

This week's assignment was to chart whena nd how often you were anything other than the best verison of yourself by using the following "Me's":

The Me I Pretend To Be:  "I try to convince people I'm important while secretly fearing I am not"

The Me I Think I Should Be: "I have a need to try to be someone I'm not, often motivated by comparison"

The Me Others Want Me To Be: "I don't feel free to be myself. I follow others' agendas"

The Me I'm Afraid God Wants: "I lack trust in God's love and plan; I equate spiritual maturity with trying hard to follow the Bible's rules"

The Me That Fails To Be: "I'm missing mental and emotional vitality; my soul is weary"

On Sunday I asked the class which "Me" they were most like. There were quite a few that answered, "Can I be all of them?" I loved that answer! Of course we can be all of the "Me's". As humans we are very complex and so it is incredibly hard to pin down just one general definition of ourselves. So this week we were supposed to keep track of which "Me" we were and when; What were the situations that caused us to be that "Me"? Here's what I found:

Most days I found myself acting as the me that isn't. "The me other's want" or "the me I pretend to be". It felt like I was faking all week. At work I was pushing farther than I should've; doing things above and beyoind my scope of capabilities, or with friends, finding myself doing things I did not have time or energy to do because I didn't want to let them down. And at least once a day I was "The Me that Fails to be".

One thing this excercise has taught me is that my emotions tend to control me. When I'm tired (which is more often than not) I run away. I look for an escape from reality, usually though TV or girl's night out instead of studying or working on personal tasks. When I'm stressed or upset I avoid big things that need to be done because my mind tells me they're too much for me to handle right now. So I become "The Me that Fails to be". I long for more in life and yet I run away, lacking vitality and drive. But then I remember that Spiritual Maturity is not measured the same for every person. Henri Nouwen wrote "Spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be." And the great thing about that is God is strongly involved and interested in helping us reach our INDIVIDUAL greatness. We are not alone in the journey. We can embrace it knowing He's leading us.
Confidence = enthusiasm = change!!!
God wants us to be nothing but ourselves, but not just ourselves, He wants us to be the BEST version of ourselves. The me we're meant to be! The me He had in mind when He created us.

So what do YOU find out about yourselves this week?

Redeemed Not Exchanged

"The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become. An acorn can grow into an oaktree, but it can not be a rose bush. You will always be and when you flourish [in God] you become more you. You become more that perosn God had in mind when He thought you up. You don't just become holier. You become you-ier. God doesn't want to change or exchange but redeem you and watch you flouish into His best version of you."

Excerpts from The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg