knowing God

Don’t Over Analyze Yourself

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A good reminder for me as I seek to transition healthily into my sabbatical…
It’s all about my focus…

“Know yourself” is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn’t mean to analyze ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will. At certain critical times in our lives it might be helpful to explore in some detail the events that led us to our crises, but we make a mistake when we think that we can ever completely understand ourselves and explain the full meaning of our lives to others.

Solitude, silence, and prayer are often the best ways to self-knowledge. Not because they offer solutions for the complexity of our lives but because they bring us in touch with our sacred center, where God dwells. That sacred center may not be analyzed. It is the place of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise.

– Henri Nouwen, from “Bread for the Journey”

A good thought…
Solitude, silence, and prayer…
Don’t over analyze yourself, but rather…
Abide with Him…
Adoration, thanksgiving, and praise…!!

“Less of me, more of you Jesus!”

Yes, there’s great benefit for receiving counseling in helping us learn life skills, healthy thinking patterns, etc… and even more so when it is Spirit-led, but when our focus is solely on ourselves and never on the Source of our Life, we lose our footing, our firm foundation, our sacred center…

James 4:8a NIV
“Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

Have You Drifted?

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“I’ve yet to meet a follower of Christ who deliberately set out to ignore God, but many have drifted away because they allowed everything else – the kids, the job, the demands, the stress, the struggle – to get in the way of the precious relationship he offers.” – Randy Frazee

What is getting in the way for you? What takes priority in your life before God? Put God first, life goes best. The Creator and your loving Heavenly Father longs to do life with you- so much so, he became a man and defeated sin and death – that huge chasm that lay between you and God. Invite Him daily, talk to Him daily, read His Word daily, take His hand. Let Him show you the way through in parenting, your job, your life demands, and your stress. He offers you His supernatural wisdom, unfailing love, and perfect peace.

Hearing Voices

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Continually I seek to hear the right voice and for the discernment in recognizing His voice. It comes by familiarizing myself with the Shepherd’s voice through focused time in His Word and in prayer… It is daily seeking to hear…

The Still, Small Voice of Love

“Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove that you are a good person.” Another voice says, “You’d better be ashamed of yourself.” There also is a voice that says, “Nobody really cares about you,” and one that says, “Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.” But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, “You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.” That’s the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That’s what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us “my Beloved.”

– Henri J. M. Nouwen