Paying attention to what we think we know and to what we believe.

My musings here are to get you involved with reflecting on the scriptures and on II Peter 1:3-11 to start. It takes time to do this. I will make a new post here once or twice a month. To maximize the bennefit of this blog start at the end which is the first post and work chronologically through it...and work at your own speed.

II Peter 1:3 says that everything we need is deependent on God. Our ability to take hold of it depends on our knowledge of God. Rarely are we aware of where we stand in our knowldge of God. Here is an exercise to begin to find out where we stand in our journey.

Review and introspection of this sort takes time. I sugest taking at least a week and maybe a month. Set asside an 30 to 45 minutes each day.
Start each section of time for reflection and journaling with a simple prayer like this, "Lord open my heart, mind, soul, and understanding to what I have come to know of You and where our relationship can grow".

Take 7-15 minutes to remember and journal about what you know from scripture about God. Remeber with humility that you are bringing your own lense of life experiences etc. to your understanding of scripture.

Take 7-15 minutes to remember and journal about if/how/when you experienced something of God's goodness. (Some of us will also need to journal about the sense of absence that we have experienced... Jesus, Job, King David, and many of the Psalms express clear momments when the sense of void or the absence of God's goodness is stronger than our sense of God's presence.)

Take 7-15 minutes to remember and journal about if/how/when you experienced something of God's glory.

This exercise and it's power is multiplied if you have a friend to share your time of journaling with (if it is appropriate to do so... Every relationship of intimacy has appropriate boundries).

Again please note this exercise is to get you in touch with your history of your understanding of God up to now. Hopefully it will awaken in you a desire to grow. Some of you will need to allow your current understanding of God to come appart if you are to know God based on God's self-revelation to us... first found in scripture... but also found in life... I Timothy 4:16 tells us to pay attention to our doctrine (what we believe) and our Life (what we live). It is easy to pay attention to one or the other. How often are we asked to look at them both together?

Notice when you run out of content to carry on your reflections... if you run out... maybe my continued reflections based on II Peter 1:3-11 will help. Stop and pay attention to any answers to your prayers, "Lord open my heart, mind, soul, and understanding to what I have come to know of You and where our relationship can grow". Return to this exercise as needed if it proves helpful and useful to you.

May God cause us to grow in out love and knowledge of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!!!

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" -- II Peter 1:3-11.