FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
(View complete profile)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008,6:41 p.m.
INTERIA AND THE WORD
I've been fighting for time in the Word lately. Sometimes I'm fighting my own schedule and sometimes, sadly, I'm fighting my own inclination to do nothing. The scientific property of interia comes into play a lot with spiritual disciplines, I think. OK, not for real, but the concept works in my mind.
Inertia is the property of matter that says that an object will stay in its state of rest or motion unless acted upon by some outside force.
When I'm fired up about the Word, nothing can hold me back from it. I lose sleep if I read it at night, because I get so into it that my mind races and I need to read more. If I'm hooked on a certain book or study within the Word, I need to get back to it and continue reading wherever I was forced to leave off. Like the property of interia, once I'm moving, it takes something outside of me to stop me.
Unfortunately, also like interia, if I'm standing still in my time in the Word (i.e. doing almost nothing), my inclination is to remain that way. Oh, my desire is that I read more. I see the fruit of it in my life, my walk with the Lord, and my ability to lead others and teach. I want to sit down and read, but somehow absolutely anything can distract me from actually doing it.
Until I clue in and ask the Lord to help me - to revive in me again that passion for reading His Word and learning more about Him from the greatest revelation we have had of Him outside of Jesus in the flesh.
Since recently asking the Lord to help me, I've been reading and thinking about Psalm 119, which is all about delighting the law and words of the Lord. (Seems logical, eh?) Two things have really struck me so far:
When I fix my eyes on Him, my own situations, though not necessarily changing, take on a different priority and power.
When I considered meditating on His commands, I had to think about what commands I should meditate on. One scripture leaped to mind:
Love the Lord.
All in the Word. Nice.
Inertia is the property of matter that says that an object will stay in its state of rest or motion unless acted upon by some outside force.
When I'm fired up about the Word, nothing can hold me back from it. I lose sleep if I read it at night, because I get so into it that my mind races and I need to read more. If I'm hooked on a certain book or study within the Word, I need to get back to it and continue reading wherever I was forced to leave off. Like the property of interia, once I'm moving, it takes something outside of me to stop me.
Unfortunately, also like interia, if I'm standing still in my time in the Word (i.e. doing almost nothing), my inclination is to remain that way. Oh, my desire is that I read more. I see the fruit of it in my life, my walk with the Lord, and my ability to lead others and teach. I want to sit down and read, but somehow absolutely anything can distract me from actually doing it.
Until I clue in and ask the Lord to help me - to revive in me again that passion for reading His Word and learning more about Him from the greatest revelation we have had of Him outside of Jesus in the flesh.
Since recently asking the Lord to help me, I've been reading and thinking about Psalm 119, which is all about delighting the law and words of the Lord. (Seems logical, eh?) Two things have really struck me so far:
That I am to fix my eyes on God
That I am to meditate on His commands
When I fix my eyes on Him, my own situations, though not necessarily changing, take on a different priority and power.
When I considered meditating on His commands, I had to think about what commands I should meditate on. One scripture leaped to mind:
"And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
(Mark 12:28-31)
Love the Lord.
Love others.
All in the Word. Nice.
