More Reading

Last Sunday I preached on The Lord's Prayer. It was a rather hard subject for me. This is mostly because I don't pray enough and I know it. God helped me to write a very good sermon, but through it I felt compelled to commit to pray more. I pledged to God that I would read a chapter of a book, that makes me think more about God, every night for a year. I also pledged that I would do this reading before I read my nightly fiction. So, I started reading "Listening for God", by Marilyn Hontz again. I started reading it a while back, but never finished it. I like the book. Through reading that, I pledged to also read the Bible at the same time and pray. Now I don't really have time for the fiction at night! Somehow, that doesn't bother me. Which makes me very happy.

I have a new friend who is struggling to read the Bible. She has a hard time understanding it. (Any ideas or suggestions for her are appreciated.) But I found something in Marilyn's book that might have helped some. She wrote, "Since the Bible was written under inspiration, I need to ask the Lord to help me read it by that same inspiration." Doesn't that make a LOT of sense? I had never thought about it exactly like that before. I hope it helped her. I enjoyed being used by God to show someone else something.

I think I will grow a lot because of my pledge. I'm ashamed at my lack of having done these things regularly before, but I know God is continually working in me. And as long as I am willing to learn and be molded, I don't need to feel ashamed. Thank you God for molding me!