Four Weeks with God and Your Neighbor, #1

Birthdays have never bothered me. Getting older is normal and according to scripture, a reason to celebrate wisdom rooted in walking with Christ. But my sixtieth birthday caught my attention like no other. Since that moment I have been evaluating my own life calling and how to finish life well.

Over the next four weeks I am embarking on a spiritual journey that is part of my evaluation and I invite you to join me in my quest for exactly how to reflect grace and the character of God in every day life. This is an arduous pathway. There is no shortcut to the finish line. I am finding huge boulders that must be removed. Good intentions cover piles of trash that I must sift through in order to find the hidden treasure of how to go to bed each night, free of guilt over undone tasks and untended relationships.

Last week my husband, Chuck, challenged our congregation that it's time to get back to the basics of cultivating intimacy with Christ in a way that changes our every day lives. He asked how many of us had prepared for corporate worship vs. coming to church. Then he urged us to soak in Psalm 51 every day with the expectation that God would strip away our pride in our works and reveal what He desires as a heart sacrifice. He warned us that we might be in for a difficult journey as God's Word confronted sin and instructed us to follow up with time in Philippians, especially chapter 4, as a salve for the spiritual surgery of Psalm 51.

So the first leg of my journey is soaking in Psalm 51 in preparation for working through a little book by Jay Adams, Four Weeks with God and Your Neighbor (available through P & R Publishing).

Every day for a week I read, reread and read again Psalm 51. Because I'm familiar with this passage, I had to force myself to stay focused and open to personal application. I cross-referenced to Psalm 50 where I saw the same call to repentance of pretense, i.e. religious pride rooted in rules rather than relationship. I love that David saw repentance as a roadway to cultivating intimacy with His God and with others. He asks God to "un-sin" him (Psalm 51:2), to pour out His grace and restore the joy of intimacy with Him. THEN, after putting off sin and putting on the joy of reconciliation with His God, THEN, David will teach others about this amazing grace.

Will you join me in this journey? Start with Psalm 51 and follow up with Philippians 4. If you travel with me, we can help each other stay the course.

Leaving a comment is easy and your insights will help me to open my eyes to God's truth.

In His Grip,
Sharon