Growing during the Ordinary Times
Six months ago I wrote to encourage you to focus on your spiritual growth in 2025, setting time aside for spiritual reading and prayer. (To see that letter click A Year of Spiritual Growth, December 30, 2024)
As New Year resolutions tend to fall to the wayside and the business of life takes over, I wanted to encourage us again to pause. Take a closer look at the ways God has been inviting you to grow. Is there a consistent way of thinking or doing things that needs to change? How can we grow in our love for Him? How can we better display His love to others, especially those we find hard to love?
We pray you take these questions to heart. Listen to the Spirit. Be open to other ways He may be directing you, and molding you to be more like Christ.
As we have entered Ordinary season, I also want to remind you of what Christiane wrote last year:
“Now, we come to what’s known as Ordinary Season with awe and expectation for the manifestation of His Presence in our everyday lives. Every mundane, and ordinary moment of our lives can now participate in the expansion of His Kingdom. We have been given the privilege to walk with God, letting Him display His Light wherever we go, and showing forth His Love to all those who come our way.
We shouldn’t think of these days as ordinary, in the sense “there’s not much happening”, rather we should celebrate how our ‘ordinary life’ becomes ‘extraordinary’ as participants in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We can live out the most mundane and ordinary events of our day in God’s Presence.”
(Thy Kingdom come, June 1, 2024)
As you long for and rejoice in God’s Presence in your life, you may want to consider some of these good resources. They are practical ways to pray using apps on your phone. They have been very helpful to us when reading Scripture, praying, and meditating each day. Amazingly, all of them are free! For those who don’t like the digital experience, we will be making some daily bible reading guides available at the church in front of Charlotte’s office.