Every Wednesday morning, the staff pastors in the office meet with our Senior Pastor for MAG time. (MAG means "Mentoring and Accountability Group".) We are going through the book by Rev Edmund Chan titled Mentoring Paradigms. One very useful insight on page 54 (Paradigm 8, Three Arenas of Mentoring: The Devotional, Domestic and Development Life) are these words:
Quiet Time does not automatically become easier as one grows older. On fact, it becomes harder. Why? Because one can browse through God's Word quickly and pick up a thought or two without much meditation and intimacy with God.
One can have the routine and the mere discipline without the encounter and the wonder. One can read the Word of God and miss the God of the Word. One can go on serving the Lord without devotion. Christian life and ministry can be faked all too easily. But God calls us to be authentic.
Guilty as charged! It is a good milestone check right now for those of us who have been faithfully journalling for the last 5 or 6 months. It CAN easily become a routine and we miss the spirit of what we are trying to achieve and that is knowing the God of the Word. We are achievers by nature and can be driven by the need to succeed. It is good to ask ourselves, are we knowing the God of the Word better. Are are loving and serving Him more? Are we a more spirit-filled person? Can our closest family members and friends see the fruit of the Spirit more and more in our lives? Do others see more of Christ in us? Does God take pleasure over our lives?
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Dear Pr Chris,
ReplyDeleteI am guilty! I have to agree we can end up journaling for the sake of journaling and not spending real quality time with the Lord.
Have to do some self check then!
Blessing
TVS
Pr Chris,
ReplyDeleteI am just wondering, though we may faithfully journal, but how do we keep the fire in journaling going on. Like you mentioned, it has now become platonic and more like a routine to me.....
Regards
TVS
I think it is the same like all Christian disciplines: church and CG attendance, prayer, tithing,Holy Communion, bible study,marriage time with spouse, ministry, etc.
ReplyDeleteAll these can turn ritualistic and mundane. Like all important habits, there are long term consequences which in the immediate may not be apparent.
I think the key is regular awareness of the issue and not let the mundane be the mundane but to be open to occasional "highs" that keep us going. Very much like marriage. I don't claim to be on cloud nine everyday. Far from it. But what keeps my wife and I going? It's the awareness of the vows on marriage and choosing to do so every day, and keeping the occasional spark and fire in the relationship. But the routine of staying married happens everyday, choosing to love each other more by the language of love of your partner.
I am married for 21 years. Many mundane days in between but I am very happily married to my wife of 21 years as there are many occasional highs, including the births of our 3 sons!
It's the same with our relationship with the Lord. That's why He likens the marriage to the relationship between Christ and the Church!
Dear Pr Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I was doing a self check and realised that another way is to look through our previous journals and how God had spoken to us and what wonders and miracles He had done for us.
Like you mentioned, checking back our marriage vows (including with God).
Thanks!
TVS