Sunday Highlights

We continued the series Back Seat Jesus today with Pete‘s message “Immersing Your Mind”

Every week of this series has given me a good kick in the pants, especially this one!

Pete really challenged us about the noise, the busyness and the junk that we fill our lives and minds with, and how choosing to fill our minds with this stuff rather than setting our minds on Christ has massive ramifications in our life.

Here are the notes I took and the scriptures we referenced:

• Spiritual transformation is a process
• Matthew 16:24-25
• We want Jesus around but we don’t trust him with our life.
• Psalm 16:8-9
• Are you intentionally setting the Lord before you?
• Matthew 12:33035
• Whatever is going on in the inside is eventually going to be revealed.
• The state of your inner life will inevitably leak out.
• The Creator of the Universe wants to be in the driver’s seat of our lives and instead we’re filling ourselves with the noise of the world around us.
• Romans 12:2
• 1 Corinthians 2:16
• Philippians 2:5
• 2 Corinthians 10:5
• Philippians 4:8
• We live in a culture where we have unprecedented opportunities to distract our minds.
• Whatever we immerse our minds in is what our minds will be full of.
• Habakkuk 2:20
• We are allergic to silence
• We need time where we are not in a hurry to immerse our mind in Christ.
• There is a correlation between the noise in our lives and our ability to hear and respond to God.

I was really challenged by today’s message, especially the statements “we are allergic to silence” and “we have unprecedented opportunities to distract our minds.”  I have allowed life to be too full and often times I have squeezed Christ completely out of it.

Lately, I have been using a few things to help me focus and create space for God.

1. Long walks – especially now that the weather is getting nice, long walks help me get away from the distractions of a dirty house, emails to respond to and media to watch/read.  It’s time for me to talk with and listen to God in a relaxed, focused way.
2. Music – I’ve been listening a lot to Natalie Grant‘s album “Relentless”.  So many of these songs connect with me right now and inspire me to open myself up to what God is trying to say to me.  Different music speaks to me in different seasons but this is the one that is on repeat a lot right now.
3. Devotional – a good devotional creates a starting point for me to engage in God’s Word purposefully.  Currently I’m reading “Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen” by Charles Ringma.

I know that connecting with God has to be intentional and yet sometimes it’s the easiest thing to squeeze out of my day.  I’m learning to be more purposeful and deliberate with this part of my spiritual life.  It has to become a necessity in my day.

How about you?  What do you do that helps you create space and time with God?