Thursday Morning Spiritual Reflections

It just not as easy as I thought it was going to be. On Jan 1, of this year I selected 2 Corinthians 4:7 to be my "verse of the year". "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." 2 Corinthians 4:7 Actually, the verse chose me or God chose it for me. This is probably my favorite verse of all time but God has really brought it to my mind lately and is showing ways He wants to transform me through it. Mostly, when I read this verse I feel His Spirit leading me to praise Him when my human weakness shows through. Praise Him that I am such a mess and need His perfection. Keeping my eyes on the Creator and my need for the Creator rather than the Created which is full of cracks, marks and holes and crumbles easily.

When I first thought about this idea of praising God for my failures at the beginning of this year such a load was lifted off my shoulders. I felt wonderful at first not to beat myself up again when I fail. Turning my attention to God and His holiness is a much better way to spend my thought life. Self-mental abuse is never productive. I'm not talking about thinking through my mistakes and deciding where to make changes. I'm talking about dwelling on my mistakes and telling myself what a lousy wife, mother, human being, etc I am for making them over and over. However, this is not so easy to do. When I start spiraling down into self hatred and I remember this verse and try to lift my eyes up instead of punching myself of inward I find it hard to do. I find that it feels good to be bad to myself and this is very surprising. What purpose does this self-abuse serve? I will have to think more on this and pray that God will give me insights and His wisdom. I don't want to hurt myself anymore. The world inflicts enough pain on me I don't need to add to it.

That's what I'm thinking about, spiritually speaking, this week................