prayer

Useful or Beautiful?

October 15, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

Do you see God as useful or beautiful? This was a question mentioned somewhat in passing by David Platt recently, but it hit me hard. Why are you a follower of Jesus? You may have initially chosen to follow Christ because you saw the beauty in His love and His compassion for you, but has that same fascination remained?

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Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Perhaps as the years have passed you’ve come to view Him as more useful than beautiful? A good way to measure this is by looking at the content of your prayers. Are they more focused on His magnificence and the holiness of who He is, or are they more self-focused requests on what you want or need?

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Be Still

October 11, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

I spent some time in the mountains recently and was once again awed by the beauty and creation of God. There is something about getting away from our man-made surroundings and into the natural world God created that reminds you of His magnificence and beauty. In our busy and harried world, we spend too little time taking a break and getting quiet with our Creator. We were not created for the bombardment of impulses affecting us every day. We were not created to fill every minute of every day with (mostly) mindless activity.

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It’s okay to be still. In fact, the sons of Korah realized the wisdom in this and wrote what God had said to them: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). When the Israelites were preparing to take the land promised to them, God told them to be still and He would fight for them (Exodus 14:14).

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Your Spiritual Heart

October 4, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

Christine Caine made a great analogy between our physical heart and our spiritual heart. She said, “Your physical heart muscle pumps and regulates your blood flow. That blood carries oxygen and nutrients throughout your body. If you exercise that muscle with cardio workouts and feed it healthy nutrients, it grows stronger. But let it languish and feed it junk food, and you know what happens: the arteries get clogged, and the muscle grows weak.

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The same is true of your spiritual heart… What happens if you let your spiritual heart languish and you feed it junk food, the ‘earthly things’ that do not satisfy? It also gets clogged, grows weak, and sends toxicity pumping throughout your life.” How are you nourishing your spiritual heart?

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Do You Know Who You’re Talking To?

July 19, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

I believe we too often forget what a privilege it is to pray. At some point, we began to take it for granted. When was the last time you considered what was actually taking place when you began to pray? Prayer is our opportunity to talk to the one and only almighty God of the Universe. We are conversing with the One who designed and created not just ourselves, but everything on this planet and every other planet.

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Truth be told, we should all be far too intimidated and awestruck to even utter a word in His presence. In His grace, He has adopted us as sons and daughters into His family (Romans 8:14-17), which means we not only have a right to be in His presence, we have the intimacy of a familial relationship to be able to speak to Him with ease.

Vision, Faith, and Courage

May 24, 2018 by Tim Sherfy

Outside Union Station in Los Angeles is a plaque reading: Vision to See / Faith to Believe / Courage to Do. I love that. It’s a great encouragement to me as I seek to follow Jesus. When we set out to do something in His name and to further His mission, it is His vision guiding us. He can see so much bigger than we could ever dream. No matter how grand our vision, God’s is always so much more.

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When you think your dream is too big, remember God is saying it’s not big enough. How ridiculous is it to think we might be dreaming too large for God? What exactly is it we think He can’t accomplish? He is able and willing to do whatever we ask and immeasurably more when we are doing it for His glory and His purposes (John 14:12-14; Ephesians 3:20-21).