I love taking those personality tests and quizzes that give you some insight into what makes you tick. For the record, depending on the test I’m taking, I’m a “beaver,” an ISTJ, a “high D,” or a “choleric.” Of course, none of these labels is 100% accurate, and a person’s personality is always changing over time (hopefully) but one thing that I’ve learned about myself is that I am a task-oriented person. This means that what drives me is completing tasks and achieving goals. Too often, I see people in terms of how they can help me accomplish those tasks and goals rather than focusing on their satisfaction and well-being like a relationship-oriented person would.
Category: <span>Devotional Thoughts</span>
I recently finished a book I mentioned last week, “Too Busy Not To Pray,” by Bill Hybels. I highly recommend you read this book if you are interested at all in strengthening your prayer life. One of the challenges from this book that spoke to me was the challenge to pray specifically. In other words, don’t just send up vague, general requests to God – ask Him specifically for what you need.
One of the things I’ve tried to do so far in 2016 is get back into reading a lot of books. Fortunately, law school did not rob me of my love of reading (there is so much required reading to do as a law student that some of them have had enough by the time they graduate) but I have found that unless I specifically make it a priority, it gets pushed out of my schedule. I’m going through two great books right now (I can’t read just one thing at a time). One is “Too Busy Not to Pray,” by Bill Hybels. I’m listening to this one in audiobook format since my church is emphasizing prayer this year.
As a lifelong performer, I can share a ton of stories about times when I stepped out to perform and things went very wrong. There was the time in high school where I was singing a solo on “Who Wrote the Book of Love” and forgot the lyrics (a very common issue for me.) I started trying to make them up and keep singing but if you know the song, you know that the lyrics rhyme. My lyrics most certainly did not rhyme or even make a lot of sense!
Last week, I shared with you the idea that the best way a church can grow in worship is for the individual members to grow in the area of their private worship. This is certainly not a truth that only applies to worship. Churches grow in prayer, in serving, in truth, in all good things when the members individually focus on those areas in their own personal lives. But while it might be easy to figure out how to grow in our personal prayer life, it’s less clear how we grow as a personal worshiper. Do we get by ourselves and sing? Play the guitar? Maybe – but the singing or playing isn’t the important part. You can be a private worshiper even if you don’t play an instrument or carry a tune.