Midweek Moment: September 29, 2020
As a church, we are looking at what it means to have an emotionally healthy spirituality; the type of faith that allows God to have access to the whole of your life, your past, your scars, your highs, your lows, and most importantly, bring transformation to each of those areas. Not for the sake of transformation itself, but so that we might become more and more like Jesus and be Jesus to those we meet in our individual spheres of influence.
Many of our small groups are diving deeper into the weekly topics covered on Sundays. As a group, we will be practicing the Daily Office, a way of connecting with God to simply be with Him, rather than to get something from Him. The Daily Office has been practiced by Christians around the world for thousands of years and the word Office comes from the Latin word opus or “work”. For the early church, the daily office was always the first work of God to be done.
We live in a place that seems to be driven by our opus, our work. There is always more to accomplish, another deal to make, another email to write or send, another phone call to jump onto, just one more thing to do so we don’t fall behind.
So often I can jump straight into my to-do list, my kids set the morning’s priorities, or my email tells me what I should be doing first. BUT, what if our first work of the day was to simply be with Jesus? Not to ask anything of Him (although that’s good too!) but to simply sit with Him, soak in His presence, read scripture, and worship Him? I wonder how our priorities would shift and even be set by Him, rather than the other way around?
What would our church look like if our first work was to spend time with God and be shaped by Him? What would our region look like?
What is one step that you could take to create space for your first work to be sitting in the presence of God? It won’t be perfect, but a baby step is better than no steps at all! I truly believe that the more time we sit in Jesus’ presence, the more we will be changed into His likeness.
Blessings,
Katie