A Journey through His Word

I have finally accepted the call the Lord has had on my life for several months to read through His Word in chronological order. As I begin this journey, I do so with the full expectation that the Lord is going to transform my life through the renewing of my mind. There have been times when I committed to reading through the Bible when my thoughts were of my own accomplishment and the blessing that would come from exposure to the Word. This time is different. This time I feel that the Lord is calling me to Himself and that through His Word He is going to change my life.

I am writing this down partly so that anyone who reads this can keep me accountable to my commitment, but the main reason is to mark this date as the starting point of a new adventure in my journey with the Lord. I believe that by the end of 2009, my family will receive a great blessing from the Lord through the work He will do in me during this time spent with Him.

I was speaking with my friend Jim yesterday and confessed that I rationalize that I don’t have time to commit to daily reading of the Bible or other books. As we talked it became clear that there is a good measure of laziness mixed into that recipe, and that the enemy desires for me to be complacent, detached from my God, tired, lazy, disobedient, rebellious, and alone. Over the past several months I’m sure he has been pleased with the way I have wandered from the path the Lord has cleared and placed before me. I have rationalized about this as well; telling myself that I can still see the path off to the right or left and that I am still traveling in the general direction of the path. I have sinned in my disobedience to my God, my Lord, and my Creator.

As part of His call, the Lord has called me back to the discipline of fasting and He has called me to pray for those He will put on my heart. There have been several people He has called me to pray for over the past year and I have prayed sporadically for them, but I believe that He is calling me to a disciplined time of prayer for those He brings to my heart and mind. I have asked forgiveness for my disobedience in this as well and I also apologize to those for whom I have been called into prayer. I know the Lord will accomplish His will, and that He certainly does not need me to accomplish anything. I also know that He calls me to prayer for a reason. I know that I have missed a blessing from Him by following my own path rather than His path, and I have done a disservice to those for whom I was called to pray.

My desire is to be obedient. My desire is not to “accomplish” anything, but only to more closely live with my Lord in the way in which He has designed me to live and has desired for me to live. I know that part of the reason for this time alone with my Lord is so that He can convict me of my sin. I am not looking forward to being humbled; I wish now I had humbled myself before my God every day.