Challenged

I'm back! For those of you who didn't know I'd been away, I've been on the RUCU Cell Leader's Training Weekend 2006!! YAY!!! My third one....wow.

And it was amaaaaaaaaaazin'! But more on that later. I've been hugely challenged. I need to digest it all, I need to let the many, MANY things learned over the last two days (such a short space of time, so many things) sink into my heart.

And so to something I promised a while ago to post, on another challenge God's given me recently. Wanted to wait till I had the appropriate photo. Thanks to Deborah very kindly lending me her USB lead I've been able to upload my photos. And thus, ladies and gentlemen, I can present you with this...

Went home last weekend, and at church we looked at Hebrews 3. Read it! There's SO much contained in that chapter. But what really struck me was verse 1:-

"Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess."

There's so much just in that one verse, never mind the whole chapter! And what struck me more was just five words in that verse - "...fix your thoughts on Jesus..."

The word 'thoughts' really impacted me. I mean, really. So often I say to people, to myself, 'keep your eyes on God.' Well, that's fair enough, there's nothing wrong with that, but it has to go so much deeper than that doesn't it? Coz we can be looking at something, but thinking about something totally different.

And that thought reminded me of sumamt Tim said in prayer brekkie last week, the morning the above photo was taken. We were all tlaking about the amazing sunrise that had greeted us as we walked to prayer brekkie. And Tim shared how, as he looked at it, at all the plane trails criss crossing in front of the sun and diverting his gaze, he thought of how often we're like that. Of how we should be focused on Jesus but we let things get in the way.

So often we can be looking at Jesus but things criss cross in front of Him, and those things are often our thoughts. They represent the most inner parts of ourselves. Our deepest feelings, needs, wants, fears...

I was struck by how much time I waste thinking! Seriously! Thinking things that I shouldn't, daydreaming, thinking/worrying about things that I should just give to God instead of trying to find the solution myself.

My thoughts need to be God-glorifying. They need to be fixed on Jesus. That's hard. But with His grace and power at work in us we can achieve it. And oh, imagine what our lives would look like then...