I listened to Jerry Bridges' sermon on Four Essentials to Finishing Well this morning on my way back to work for the New Year - it was excellent.
The four essentials in short are:
1. Daily time of focused personal communion with God
2. Daily appropriation of the gospel
3. Daily commit yourself to God as a living sacrifice
4. A firm belief in the sovereignty and love of God
What strike me most at this point of time is the first one. I am not a person who finds schedules and timetables at all friendly - I have sort of conceded to a flexible time of as and when I do it. And true enough, like what Bridges pointed out, there will be a high chance of drifting as a result, which is exactly what happened to me over the recent year-end break - I just rotted away at home. It was only when I got back into my obligations of the usual daily routine that I got back into a more focussed time with God. This would mean that I need to do away with that view I have on flexibility when it comes to my personal communion with God and be more disciplined to keep a time. But I do not think I can change right away. I would still shy away from a fixed routine given a choice but I must work at it to at least keep a conscious time everyday to spend time reading Scripture with God and listening to him speak to me.
pearlie
Photo from DesiringGod.org
Our Pastors did an Advent series on Sabbath and I very much enjoyed the rest from routine last week. I usually love to get back to the routine, but this time it feels different.
ReplyDeleteCome over to my blog after 5pm your time to see the Pearlie Gate! :)
Hi Julia!
ReplyDeleteInteresting ... tell me more about this Advent series. I thought Advent has passed?
Oh!! I can't wait till 5!!! You like to torture me :) :)