spiritual goals

I'm not entirely sure that anyone really follows this blog anymore, but this is kind of a check up to keep myself accountable I guess. No one from my first blog about spiritual goals has really checked on me. My D group has, because that's what they're for, but in cyber world I guess there really is no accountability. But, allow me. I'll just tell you how I'm doing, even though you didn't ask. ;)

1. memorize Scripture and review often - I am still trying to memorize and have done my best made attempts at staying on schedule. At the end of January we started memorizing Psalm 103 and by the middle of March were supposed to have all 22 consecutive verses memorized. Toward the end of Psalm 103 (about verse 15) I started to get confused, but I still practiced some and made my notecards. Hopefully with some shorter verses now I can get back on track. I hate being behind.

2. Finish study of Colossians - I didn't do this because it was more like homework. I started doing the E100 Plan and that has been working better for me. It is not as in depth as the study of Colossians I started, but it was something I was able to keep up with and not have a problem if I missed a couple days in between. I have been using the HEAR method with these passages and have been learning from the Old Testament. As you can see, I didn't start at the beginning because I was reading Proverbs in January and trying to do my Colossians study. So I started on day 16 and am up to day 50 now... Starting on the New Testament this week. When I finish, maybe I'll start back in Genesis.

3. Finish study of Holy Spirit - still might do this this summer, but not until school's out.

4. Apply principles from message in church - make notecards with application points, sticky notes - I haven't made note cards or sticky notes, but I have occasionally read back over sermon notes and studied further into them. I hear about 5 sermons (loosely defined) a week between Sunday school, Sunday church, Tuesday chapel, Tuesday church, and Thursday chapel. So sometimes I can't really remember what so and so preached on last week. I could do better on this one.

5. Be more bold with my faith and sharing the gospel. - This one isn't so great... I can talk to you about what God's doing in my life, but I haven't shared the gospel. I think a big reason for this is that I'm usually in "Christian" places - school, church, BX, work (a Christian school), but that still is no excuse.

6. Pray more intimately with God. - This is one that is up and down for me. Some weeks I hardly pray at all, or I feel like I hardly pray at all because I haven't journaled or written my prayer down. So the next week I resolve to write a prayer every day and that goes alright for a week. Then I forget again the next week. I think my prayer life has improved but it is not nearly what it should be. Prayer shows my dependence on God and I can tell a huge correlation in how my life goes with how dependent upon the Lord I am.

7. Love God with more than my mind. - I'm not really sure how to measure this or how to even look for it in my life, but under the "specific - how? when?" part of my goals, I wrote "Ask God for a soft heart and teachable spirit - sensitive to the Holy Spirit." For a while I hardened my heart to anything religious because I was just so sick of it Especially when I am in school and disagree with so many of the narratives behind some statements made in chapel services, it's a constant struggle for me to maintain a balance between being extremely critical of everything one says and being that person that overlooks major doctrinal flaws and just AMEN!s when he talks about Jesus' love. I want a happy medium of being able to discern what's true and what's not but still opening my heart to God, knowing that He can speak to me, even by using someone who says something I don't completely agree with. So I guess in summary, this one is a work in progress. To those people I can trust to teach truth, I seem to have a higher sensitivity to the Lord's working in my heart.

I also planned to review my goals every 2 weeks... I haven't exactly done that because I knew I was pretty much on track as far as reading my Bible and praying and memorizing... although I was slacking some.

So... if you care to, pray for me in these areas, encourage me, and it's okay to ask me how I'm doing on something specific. I won't be mad at you and tell you to mind your own business if you ask me how my prayer life is or if I've shared the gospel lately... I might even like you better if you do ask. (Not that your life goal is for me to like you better... but ya know).