Gratitude, Obstacles, and Seasons

Tonight's 4th installment of Soul Care Class taught by Pastor Freddy Baez was again a refreshing time of receiving care and learning more about how to care for others. What was taught was both deeply practical, but also deeply spiritual. The following was what I learned and took from the class tonight.

Expounding from Psalm 119:27, Professor Baez shared that sometimes we fall into situations where we do not feel the truth of God in our own fractured reality. Because of this, as we experience times when things are going against us, we must set our hearts to thank God and worship God for who He is and what He was done. He then shared one very practical way that helps him see the reality of God. Every night Pastor Baez practices what he calls the 'Discipline of Gratitude', where as he is laying down to sleep, he counts and names the blessing God has provided for him this past day. He simply begins this time with God by thanking God for allowing him to come back to his own bed to sleep, not a jail cell bed, nor a cardboard box on the street, nor a friend's couch do to some unfortunate circumstances. He just thanks God for a comfortable bed to sleep in tonight, then continues to thank God for every blessing both big and small.

Another topic shared tonight was 'Obstacles that cause a Non-Growing Spiritual Life'. First was guilt or not having a clear conscience before God, caused by unrepented sin or incorrect understanding of God. Second was lack of personal pray or not spending time with Christ, sharing time in simple deep fellowship with God. Third was a lack of spending time in the Word or not knowing the mind of Christ, where we live life not feeding spiritually from God or still drinking milk even though we should be working on meatier understanding from the Scripture. And lastly was lack of purpose or understanding of our part in God's ministry in the Body, where a believer is not serving God and being part of God's community, using one's gifts.

And the last thing I left with was homework to think about what season of our spiritual walk we are in based on a biblical character. The Pastor shared about whether we might be Nehemiah, where we are working on rebuilding ourselves or helping to rebuild something spiritual. Or perhaps, Jonah, rebelling against God's command and experiencing the repercussions of disobeying God. I have been pondering this and trying to evaluate who I feel I am in the scripture right now.

May the Lord help me to have eyes that see His blessings and give thanks for them. May the Lord help me spot what obstacles lay in from of me in growing closer to Christ. May God help me to understand where I am spiritually in my walk so that I might study and see how God is using me, training me, and/or changing to be more like His Son, my Lord.