What’s On

I love the old quotation that goes something like this:
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
I have been thinking a lot of late of the development of our characters. From a Christian perspective the development of positive faith-building habits is what feeds into our attitudes and actions. I would like to suggest the following acrostic around the word ‘know’.
Paul prays for the Ephesians, that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (1:17). KNOW Him better.
So here are some foundational spiritual practices that I think are needed today if we are to build our characters in such a way that we will know Him better. Can you and I embrace them?
K = Know the Scriptures. Daily reading. Some memorising. Study them where possible. Ask questions of scripture. Dig and digest. Our schedule of daily Bible readings is a great place to start.
N = Nurture prayer. Prayer is pouring our hearts out to God – praise, adoration, lament, mourning, confession, intercession. It is listening, meditating, reflecting, focusing, discerning His Spirit and guidance.
O = Observe a Sabbath. One of the gods of this age is busyness. We don’t know how to stop, to rest or re-create. We feel guilty if we do nothing – I do anyway. Good news – practice saying ‘no’ to some of the demands upon you, for the sake of a greater ‘yes’ – observing the spirit of the Sabbath that was made for our benefit and health, that we may work better the rest of the week!
W = Worship – large and small. We need the larger corporate gatherings and smaller ones where we can know and be known. Worship directed to God is our highest calling, not a matter of personal preference (people may have preferences as to style; it is the actual practice of worship I am talking about here).
I have a sneaking suspicion that if those practices were consistently built into our lives then our characters would be richly fed. They say you discover who you really are when a crisis of some kind happens. Such practices will help us prepare for such a time, and prepare us to fulfil God’s purpose for our lives.
May we KNOW HIM BETTER together!