Mikki's Posts

"We are leaky vessels" -Pastor Steve, CCG What am I filling myself with?  It's a question I ask myself whenever I fall flat on my face after not trusting God in something. Having grown up in church and coming from two strongly devoted Christian families, there are areas of life where I would expect myself to have mastered. (If not mastered, at least more disciplined.) There have been times in my life where I have had consistent daily devotion time. Sat down, read my Bible, talked to God in-depth and sought His filling presence. These times have lasted days, weeks and even months at a time. I cannot recall whole years where I was committed. I have seen the difference in life, especially as an adult. I see the blessing, the joy and the strength I have when I allow God to fill me. To be honest, I don't know how serious I was about a day to day relationship with Christ when I was younger. I struggled with a lot of sin growing up and looking back, I'm surprise...

I haven't post in a while. After I got all excited about getting back to posting I got too busy to blog. Sounds like a good excuse but it's not. And now my computer is a little, shall we say, malfunctioning. It's an older laptop, from 2005. Ancient in computer terms. And it won't boot. The good news is up until the week I'd been doing my Light Therapy consistently and regularly. This week I let other priorities get in the way and I slacked off. Not so tomorrow morning. I'm getting up early and spending some time with God before I drive back to Indy to help my friend move. Plus I need to finish my BSF homework too. My heart has been breaking as we go through the last few chapters of John. There's so much I didn't know historically about the Jewish legal system in Jesus' time. I feel so blessed to have the Old and New Testaments to be able to see the complete story of God's plan for humanity. To see all the OT prophecy fulfillment ...

So I know that you're reading this and are just dying to know how my devotions are going. Well, it's going well. I was over ambitious even in my "small" plan. This was actually a big plan.... 1) Read the scripture that goes with the Daily Bread entry 2) Read the Daily Bread entry 3) Read the Chapter of Proverbs that corresponds to the day's date 4) Write in S.O.A.P. journal about one of the Bible readings of the day 5) Write down prayers The part of the plan that has gone really well is this: eating within an hour of waking up and doing my daily quiet time before I get to play with my blackberry. The first thing I look at is my Daily Bread email. Then I grab the bible I keep next to my bed and read the scripture that goes with the devotion. I've actually been getting up at 0430 on my work days. That gives me time for devotions, getting ready and out the door to get to work a little before 0600. (I work a 10 hour shift from 6am to 4pm). I've been e...

God is pretty good about sending us messages. We just have to listen. Case in point--the devotion I journalled about today was concerning Matthew 20:1-16. It's often found with the heading 'The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard'. The story Jesus tells is about a vineyard owner who goes out and hires workers early in the morning to work in his fields that day for a denarius. As the day passes, the owner goes out again at the third, sixth and ninth hours of they day, offering work and telling the other workers he would pay them whatever was right. The owner even goes out at the eleventh hour and finds still some workers left to hire. The end of the workday comes and the owner tells his foreman to call the workers so they can be paid their wages. He starts with those hired last and pays them a denarius for their labor. Those who were hired at the first of the day saw this and assumed they would be getting more. When they get a denarius, they grumble about th...

Apparently discipline doesn't happen overnight. Well, I knew that but once you make a plan and start working it, it gets a little frustrating when you trip up at first. It takes something like 21 days to form a habit so I'm going to keep plugging away. Devotions have been small but have been happening. The journalling plans have not happened every day but like I said I'm going to keep going. The neat thing has been my prayer life. It's starting to come back quickly. At the least the how part. Again working on the when and making it a part of my day. But it's feeling more natural already which I think is pretty cool. And how like God is that? In Jeremiah God speaks through the prophet and says, For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when...

I have learned much this last week.  I had a great response to my informal survey on devotion and prayer time among my Christian friends.  (See the previous three posts for those details.) So now that I have all this information at my disposal, what am I going to do with it you might ask?  Well I'll tell you.  I have developed a plan for me to start out with. My new devotion plan involves eating within an hour of waking up and doing my daily quiet time before I get to play with my blackberry.  This takes into account my work days when I'll be at work doing my devotion before getting started.  I've started to make a habit of getting to work early anyway so now I can do my devotions in that time.  For days I'm off, there's no computer, TV or blackberry before devotions and some prayer time. The one exception is for now I'm getting the Daily Bread email until the little booklet comes.  I'm allowed to look that up on my blackberry.  But onc...

In no particular order another six friends throw their two cents in about daily time spent in the Word and prayer. The first of a pair of BFFs (seriously they are like two peas in a pod) said that she liked to read just before bed. Something that has helped her focus on God was referring to scripture when she wrote. Did I mention she’s a fellow writer? She also spoke of her desire to start memorizing scripture again. The second BFF responded said that when she was younger she kept a Bible beside her bed and read a chapter a night. Now, she does a morning routine, reading her Bible and doing morning meditation at the breakfast table. She raised an interesting point—she does not mandate a time limit. Her focus has been on concentration. Three minutes of undivided attention to the Word can often be enough, rather than sitting there for a prescribed time when her mind might wander. I like her thoughts on prayer: “anytime and often”. I can hear her voice in my head saying b...

I am very blessed to have been part of several Bible studies over the years. Currently I’m kind of in three again. I didn’t really plan on that, but so far it’s been crappy. Mostly because I’ve been depressed. Now I’m thinking God allowed me to get involved with all three groups again because there are people in each group that I need to connect to. I only hope that even in my current state I can return the blessing and be used by God in the Bible studies. Both former and current Bible study leaders said their devotions are in the morning. The first is before breakfast, for 20-30 minutes of study. The second is first thing every morning. She also adds that she views “quiet time as non-negotiable.” She likens her time with God in the morning as part of schedule, as much as showering or flossing teeth. She added that it was important to follow through with the commitment, often regardless of feelings. Another facilitator reminded me to not only 1) Make a plan but 2) Make a...

Recently I enlisted a bit of help from family and friends. I am struggling with doing devotions every day, reading my Bible, and dedicating myself to a time of prayer. I have been very selfish with my time and ignoring God a lot. When I started to ignore my friends and skip Bible Study, I realized things were going too far. I surveyed, in a most unscientific manner, the patterns and routines, or lack thereof, of those I knew professed belief in Christ. What did they do for devotions (or daily quiet time as it often known as)? How did they ensure prayer was a priority? What had worked in the past and what was currently working for them? When did they take time to read the Bible and spend focused time with God? Starting with some good ‘ol maternal advice, my mom had a number of suggestions for me. Start small. Read a little devotional article (one of those tiny one page book thingies) with breakfast. Write a few sentences of a prayer/spiritual to do list. Such as: 1. find...

The second thing that came out of my reading Celebration was the idea that I’m scared of silence. And being alone. I definitely still have some solitude & abandonment issues which are completely irrational and downright silly. I fill my time with so much noise at work, at home and in the car. There’s always music or TV or the radio or something going to fill the void. There are a number of steps that I told myself I had to take when I got home. It wasn’t easy to start. It isn't easy to continue. Step One—I have to cut back on my TV again. I was very much addicted to TV in high school. It only got worse in college, esp. when I dropped into the lowest stage of my depression. I’ve fluctuated as an adult between better and worse. It was easier in many ways when I didn’t have cable. Luckily I have an understanding roommate who doesn’t mind parental controls being set. And I’ve happily rediscovered Disney, Nickelodeon and Boomerang. So I’ve already made some strides. But just...