I woke up today with a serious case of the infamous "preacher's hangover" - that feeling on Monday morning like a freight train ran me over, and then backed up over me again just to make sure the job was finished. I was yawning as I drove to the gym this morning, yawning as I walked through the doors, and even yawning while I was on the bike. The good part about the preacher's hangover, however, is that it comes after I have a really full weekend of giving out of myself in an attempt to lead people to a deeper relationship with God, so instead of a day filled with regrets, I have a day filled with thoughts about the good things that happened!
This Sunday kicked off a new series for us at New Life, called "Dashboard", based on the idea that there are certain gauges that we need to check in our lives that will let us know if we're making progress towards becoming the men and women God wants us to be. To start the series I thought it was really important that we check the gauge to measure our spiritual lives, because I believe that if we can prioritize that area, it will lead to good things happening in all the other areas of our lives.
The text for the week was found in Colossians 1:9-14, which is a section of a prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for the church he's writing his letter to. As I read the passage in my own preparation I strongly felt that this was a prayer for me to pray along with Paul for our church, and that it was a passage that really did a great job of laying out a picture of a healthy spiritual life.
That picture looks pretty impressive to me. It looks like people who are growing in their understanding of God's wisdom, and in their understanding of their purpose in God's plan in the world - his plan to redeem men and women, rescuing them from the kingdom of darkness and transferring them into the kingdom of his Son Jesus. It looks like people who commit to living a life that is worthy of the sacrifice that Jesus made for them to forgive their sins, so less and less do we give ourselves to the things that move us away from God's purpose and more and more do we give ourselves to what brings God pleasure and joy in our lives.
It looks like people who, in every good work, endeavor to be fruitful in God's Kingdom, choosing to make sure that all their spiritual activity produces personal change, but also change in the lives of people around them. And finally, it looks like people who are being strengthened with God's power on the inside of their lives so that on the outside of their lives they can display great endurance, patience and even joyful thanksgiving to God in every possible situation - the good and the bad.
When I first read the passage, I thought to myself, "Why wouldn't I want this for me and for my church?" I can't think of any reason. So I'll remind myself and you - this is my prayer for you in 2012:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Comments