Well it’s Friday again and I am sat here in the prayer room writing a wee blog update. I realise this is a good progression as it’s only been a week since last time.
I just got here. To my great surprise one of the little desks was actually free for me to sit at. Usually they fill up very quickly with students (from the university connected to the International House of Prayer) and other people (like myself when I can get to one). It isn’t quite the same to sit in a chair trying to balance my laptop on my lap while hoping the battery will stay alive long enough to get what I need to do done (and if not, try to discretely get my adaptor plugged into one of the extensions strategically placed around the room).
I love Friday mornings. The prayer room is less crowded and busy, and the 8-10 am set (i.e. slot/ prayer meeting, call it what you want) is always really mellow, and it is a Worship With the Word set, meaning that it’s basically 2 hours of worship and singing/praying the Word of God.
Sat here it strikes me how good God is at speaking to us. This week at my prophecy team briefing we were challenged to choose a name of God from a list and ask God to bring deeper revelation of the face of Jesus in that aspect. I chose to focus on the face of Jesus as a shepherd. The past days I’ve been reading the well-known passages in the Bible referring to Jesus as a shepherd (such as Psalm 23, John 10, Isaiah 40, Jeremiah 3, 1 Peter 2), but as I’ve been going on this journey I’ve found that as I’ve looked at what it means that Jesus is my shepherd, it’s so much deeper then your initial “He takes care of me and watches out for me”. My eyes and my heart have been opened to a deeper depth of who He is. It would be too much to write everything (and I don’t think I’m meant to share everything either. I mean, we don’t expose everything we talk to our close friends about to everyone we meet). However, I wanted to share a few things to maybe inspire someone reading this to go on this journey too, of seeing the face of Jesus, be it as a shepherd or another facet of His character.
Reading Psalm 23 the first bit says: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want”. And so I stared asking Him what that means. Does it mean just material stuff, my basic needs being met? Does it mean something more? In Portuguese it says the equivalent of “I will lack nothing” and so I was asking Him what it means to be at a place of no lack. I asked Him how He provides? I was thinking about how Jesus talked about us asking and receiving, and then the part where Jesus says that we have not because we ask not? And then I was asking Jesus about what it means the bit where it says that He knows what we need even before we ask? Basically I started out thinking I’d just go through Psalm 23, but as I read it, asking Jesus to reveal Himself to me as a shepherd, I ended up being taken on a journey showing me His faithfulness as the Shepherd who provides for what I need. This is just an example of one part of the journey, and I am sure you can imagine the potential continuation as I move on to the rest of the Psalm (and other passages in the Bible talking about this) and parts like “He makes me lie down in green pastures”, “He restores my soul”, “He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies”. The point isn’t do a nice, in-depth intellectual Bible study. The point is to relate to Him, to ask Him questions, to talk to Him, and as you do He will reveal Himself to your heart because He wants us to know Him, not just know about Him.
It is so good, and for me, being in a place where every week I am almost overwhelmed by the depth and magnitude of what I have yet to know of God, it really helps to decide to focus on one thing and see where it takes me. And to bring it back to what started me off on this thought process- God speaking to us- as the set started this morning they were singing about how “The Lord is my shepherd”, and as much as it could be said to be merely a “coincidence” (but I think it’s rather a “God-incidence”), God used it to reaffirm to me that He is my shepherd. And you know, being on this journey of gazing on the face of Jesus as my shepherd, my good good shepherd, singing that song meant so much more to me then it did last week, because I know Jesus as my shepherd in a deeper way today then I did then.
God loves to reveal Himself to us.
It’s been a good week. I am getting into my routine and have found that the key to not feeling totally overtired is to get to bed early enough. It might seem obvious, and I suppose it’s because it is that simple (at least at the moment). I think it was good for me to have a few days where I was really sleepy and tired because it really showed me the consequence of choosing to drink coffee with people instead of sleeping (which writing this truly shows me the reality of it since coffee is totally not something which would increase your ability to sleep and rest, but rather the opposite). That said, I think part of it is also the fact that I am getting into a routine and more then anything am getting to know the people in my teams and not having to face getting to know new people every day. Those who know me well know that I don’t like getting to know new people, but that I like knowing people (and so to know people you do need to get to know them at some point).
Oh, one last thing I wanted to jot down…on Saturday I looked after my good friend’s wee, almost 2 year old, son while she went out for lunch. It was so great!!! I loved it. He is the most gorgeous little boy and it was a nice day so we went for a walk. Walking along and seeing him wanting to explore and look at everything it really reminded me of how I so often rush along and don’t pay attention to what is around me. Also, as you can imagine, the pace a 2-year-old walks at isn’t the fastest pace in the world, and so I had time to look at things and take in my surroundings. It was great. And I love the way children explore the world and the way they try out new things and find joy and excitement in even the simplest activities (like climbing stairs and going down a slide…over and over and over again). It was such a fun and blessed time, and I know I was more blessed then my friend who let me look after him (although I know it blessed her too of course).
Ok. This has turned out to be yet another lengthy post, but I don’t care. I mean, it’s nice that people I know can read it and get a glimpse into what is going on in my life, mind, and heart, but at the end of the day it’s mainly an outlet for me to write for myself about that which is going on in my life so that I can look back on it later and remember and be grateful and thankful for what I’ve been allowed to walk through and God’s faithfulness in it all.
I just got here. To my great surprise one of the little desks was actually free for me to sit at. Usually they fill up very quickly with students (from the university connected to the International House of Prayer) and other people (like myself when I can get to one). It isn’t quite the same to sit in a chair trying to balance my laptop on my lap while hoping the battery will stay alive long enough to get what I need to do done (and if not, try to discretely get my adaptor plugged into one of the extensions strategically placed around the room).
I love Friday mornings. The prayer room is less crowded and busy, and the 8-10 am set (i.e. slot/ prayer meeting, call it what you want) is always really mellow, and it is a Worship With the Word set, meaning that it’s basically 2 hours of worship and singing/praying the Word of God.
Sat here it strikes me how good God is at speaking to us. This week at my prophecy team briefing we were challenged to choose a name of God from a list and ask God to bring deeper revelation of the face of Jesus in that aspect. I chose to focus on the face of Jesus as a shepherd. The past days I’ve been reading the well-known passages in the Bible referring to Jesus as a shepherd (such as Psalm 23, John 10, Isaiah 40, Jeremiah 3, 1 Peter 2), but as I’ve been going on this journey I’ve found that as I’ve looked at what it means that Jesus is my shepherd, it’s so much deeper then your initial “He takes care of me and watches out for me”. My eyes and my heart have been opened to a deeper depth of who He is. It would be too much to write everything (and I don’t think I’m meant to share everything either. I mean, we don’t expose everything we talk to our close friends about to everyone we meet). However, I wanted to share a few things to maybe inspire someone reading this to go on this journey too, of seeing the face of Jesus, be it as a shepherd or another facet of His character.
Reading Psalm 23 the first bit says: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want”. And so I stared asking Him what that means. Does it mean just material stuff, my basic needs being met? Does it mean something more? In Portuguese it says the equivalent of “I will lack nothing” and so I was asking Him what it means to be at a place of no lack. I asked Him how He provides? I was thinking about how Jesus talked about us asking and receiving, and then the part where Jesus says that we have not because we ask not? And then I was asking Jesus about what it means the bit where it says that He knows what we need even before we ask? Basically I started out thinking I’d just go through Psalm 23, but as I read it, asking Jesus to reveal Himself to me as a shepherd, I ended up being taken on a journey showing me His faithfulness as the Shepherd who provides for what I need. This is just an example of one part of the journey, and I am sure you can imagine the potential continuation as I move on to the rest of the Psalm (and other passages in the Bible talking about this) and parts like “He makes me lie down in green pastures”, “He restores my soul”, “He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies”. The point isn’t do a nice, in-depth intellectual Bible study. The point is to relate to Him, to ask Him questions, to talk to Him, and as you do He will reveal Himself to your heart because He wants us to know Him, not just know about Him.
It is so good, and for me, being in a place where every week I am almost overwhelmed by the depth and magnitude of what I have yet to know of God, it really helps to decide to focus on one thing and see where it takes me. And to bring it back to what started me off on this thought process- God speaking to us- as the set started this morning they were singing about how “The Lord is my shepherd”, and as much as it could be said to be merely a “coincidence” (but I think it’s rather a “God-incidence”), God used it to reaffirm to me that He is my shepherd. And you know, being on this journey of gazing on the face of Jesus as my shepherd, my good good shepherd, singing that song meant so much more to me then it did last week, because I know Jesus as my shepherd in a deeper way today then I did then.
God loves to reveal Himself to us.
It’s been a good week. I am getting into my routine and have found that the key to not feeling totally overtired is to get to bed early enough. It might seem obvious, and I suppose it’s because it is that simple (at least at the moment). I think it was good for me to have a few days where I was really sleepy and tired because it really showed me the consequence of choosing to drink coffee with people instead of sleeping (which writing this truly shows me the reality of it since coffee is totally not something which would increase your ability to sleep and rest, but rather the opposite). That said, I think part of it is also the fact that I am getting into a routine and more then anything am getting to know the people in my teams and not having to face getting to know new people every day. Those who know me well know that I don’t like getting to know new people, but that I like knowing people (and so to know people you do need to get to know them at some point).
Oh, one last thing I wanted to jot down…on Saturday I looked after my good friend’s wee, almost 2 year old, son while she went out for lunch. It was so great!!! I loved it. He is the most gorgeous little boy and it was a nice day so we went for a walk. Walking along and seeing him wanting to explore and look at everything it really reminded me of how I so often rush along and don’t pay attention to what is around me. Also, as you can imagine, the pace a 2-year-old walks at isn’t the fastest pace in the world, and so I had time to look at things and take in my surroundings. It was great. And I love the way children explore the world and the way they try out new things and find joy and excitement in even the simplest activities (like climbing stairs and going down a slide…over and over and over again). It was such a fun and blessed time, and I know I was more blessed then my friend who let me look after him (although I know it blessed her too of course).
Ok. This has turned out to be yet another lengthy post, but I don’t care. I mean, it’s nice that people I know can read it and get a glimpse into what is going on in my life, mind, and heart, but at the end of the day it’s mainly an outlet for me to write for myself about that which is going on in my life so that I can look back on it later and remember and be grateful and thankful for what I’ve been allowed to walk through and God’s faithfulness in it all.