Lost In the Prairies.....Found by God

Ah quiet time.  Where did you go?  There was a time I got up without any trouble.  Where I didn't hit the alarm button and then turn over and go back to sleep.  I have been struggling for some time on getting up.  I know what I should do and yet.....I don't do.  This was no exception this week.   I am going to make myself and you a promise that this week, I will get up and do my quiet time.  I want to get back into a routine.  To go to bed earlier and get up earlier so that I can spend some quiet time with God and get re-energized.  

This week God was really talking to me about Pride.  It hit me in last week's verses and while reading So Long Insecurity by Beth Moore.   I started this week struggling with a situation with some friends.  I won't go into particulars but this quote by Beth Moore really spoke to the situation.

"Sometimes people and situations make us feel insecure because they nick our pride, plain and simple.  all the blows of life aside and every other root yanked out of the ground, we wrestle with insecurity because we wrestle with pride"

I hadn't thought of that before.  I was so focused on myself and my feelings in the situation.  I felt the victim.  But why?  Why was I allowing this to control me and make me feel less?  Why was I questioning what kind of friend I was?  It was because my pride had been bruised.  I thought I was something to someone only to discover I wasn't.  Then who was I?  

This week's verses dealt with pride.  In Mark 9: 33-35, the disciples argue with each other as to who was the greatest.  Talk about pride and vanity.  Jesus never walked around saying He was God and therefore the best and all should bow down in awe to Him.  He was humble.  He was sacrificial.  He was loving.  He didn't hang out with the "cool" kids, He hung out with the rejects, the troublemakers, the messies.  He didn't judge them, He accepted them as they were.  He was about others, not self.  This is something that I need to remember.  I need to lay down my pride and embrace humility and sacrifice.  I need to remember that others should come first, not me.  I need to accept that I am not in control of things.   Only by doing so will I become more like Christ.

This week we are going to look at the verses through the Paraphrase method.  We are to first read the verse or passage over and over.  Think about what God is telling you through the verses we are studying.  Then put the scripture in your own words.  See how this applies to you and then pray about it.  I know I have a problem memorizing verses, but can paraphrase verses quite easily   It should be interesting where God leads us this week as we are studying James.

This week's verses:

This week's memory verse:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.  Psalm 119:11 (NIV)