Elizabeth English, our area staff director, spoke at ACF today on the topic of "How do we stay connected and be refreshed by God?" Simply put, talk with God, engage in scripture, and be deep in prayer, aka do quiet time.
"Sometimes, you have no time for quiet time because you are too busy with doing God's work." This has been a chronic problem of mine. I am a do-er. And an extrovert. So I'm almost always doing something... planning ACF, conversing with people, school work... and I sacrifice quiet time for getting more sleep or doing more homework.
There's a story of a rebellious branch that decided it would be much better off apart from the vine. The branch wanted to be independent of the vine, but what can a branch do apart from the vine? A branch that is disconnected will never grow leaves again or bear any more fruit. The rebellious branch is cutting itself off from the source of its life and heading towards death.
"It is like a baby in the uterus that hacks off the umbilical cord because it is annoying. It will die without the nutrients from the mother, its source of life!"
God, I want a deeper and richer relationship with you where I am actually faithful to you. This means going on dates with you again, and calling you at least once a day, and not just talking and demanding stuff from you, but also listening to what you have to say. I don't want to be a dead branch, I want to be alive and well and blooming with fruits of the Spirit.
That uterus example hit me pretty hard.
ReplyDeleteso true. this was awesome.:)
ReplyDeleteas you encourage yourself, thanks for blessing other as well!