EXPAND TO READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 1 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verses 24-25): New book in the Bible and I see You are still coming at me in a strong and direct way, Father. These two verses speak directly to the struggles of my heart since coming to faith. I far too often think that I am wiser and stronger on my own or in my own ways. Every time I try to do things on my own or think in my own ways, however, I find after the fact that I messed up and things could have gone a completely different and better way had I just submitted to Your wisdom and lean on Your strength. Please forgive me for this, Father. I know that You are wiser and stronger than I can even fathom, yet I struggle with releasing control over my life. This is one of my many faults in this life and I hope that through this relationship with You I can slowly but surely begin to release all of this control over my life that I feel the need to have.
PROMISE (verse 9): You make us such a simple yet extremely powerful promise that is often unheard of in today’s society. You promise us that You are faithful. In this world, it is hard to find people that are truly faithful to others. Even I have faltered many times in this towards my family, friends, coworkers, and sadly even You. Faithfulness is not something I should just take for granted, yet You give it freely to me even after all of my faults and transgressions. Thank You so much for this powerful and amazing promise, Father. Help me to be better at appreciating Your faithfulness in this life.
ATTITUDE (verses 3-4): I do struggle so much with the attitudes of thankfulness and appreciation. I don’t know why but I just find it difficult to walk in attitudes of thankfulness and appreciation like Paul does in this letter to Corinth. He later recognizes some of their faults and issues that he’d like to bring up, but he opens with how grateful he is for them and speaks blessings onto them. Help me to be better at embracing an attitude of thankfulness, appreciation, and gratitude towards others in this life, Father. Help me to be better at recognizing when I am not, so that through Your good counsel and wisdom I can become a better man in this life.
COMMAND (verse 10): This command, unfortunately, is not being even remotely followed in today’s society and I imagine it has likely been an issue since the beginning as it is written in Your word which is a couple thousand years old. You tell us that there should not be division between Your followers in our faith as we are all to follow You, lean on Your truths, and be united in our understandings and convictions of our faith given to us by You. I am guilty of disobeying this command as well since coming to faith, Father, as I have disagreed with many sermons and others in the family of Christ without actually having anything from You to back those disagreements. Help me to be better at knowing, understanding, and embracing Your truths, so that when I do find myself in disagreement with a brother or sister in Christ, I can use Your truth to get us all back in alignment with Your will for us.
EXAMPLE (verses 26-31): In these verses, You give us such a powerful example of how You use the things of this world in ways that we fail to properly understand. You say that You have chosen the weak to shame the strong; You have chosen the things society views as “nothing” to be changed to “something” so that we cannot boast about ourselves in Your presence. These examples You give us in this set of scripture simply shows us that You can literally use ALL things for Your will, Your glory, and good teaching towards us. Thank You so much for knowing how we need to learn, Father. Thank You so much for giving us many ways to learn from You, but also to glorify You and boast about You. Thank You for often redirecting our selfish and fleshly ways back to You in a way that lessens the burdens of those old ways so that with You we can be reborn into new and better ways of living this life for Your glory.
*DAILY NOTE: New book in the Bible for my quiet time, yet it seems You know exactly how and when to speak to me. Right off the bat, Corinthians is speaking loudly to the pain I’ve been holding onto in my heart. It’s speaking directly to the hardening I’ve allowed my heart to go through. It’s speaking directly towards the attitude and negativity I often have towards others whom I disagree with. You are speaking rather loudly to me already in the book of Corinthians and I am so grateful for this. I am looking forward to the lessons You have in store for me in the coming weeks, Father.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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