Psalm Sunday: 25:5 – Every Hour

Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

Psalm 25:5 NIV

The chime app is great for busy folks to give them reminders simply that time is passing. I have it on my phone, and it chimes at me every hour at two minutes to the hour. At the beginning of 2013, my pastor Bob Cherry challenged all of us to do things that would remind us of God’s presence throughout the day. He introduced many of us to app as an easy way to automate a reminder.

As you hustle, bustle, and grind through the day, how often are you taking time to acknowledge God’s presence in your day? If you’re saying to yourself right now, well I pray over every challenge, look back to Friday’s post. Are you praying or wishing? Are you dialing in to God, raising your hands, and expecting that God will meet your challenge? Or are you tossing something out there into the beyond, hoping that God has a minute to take notice, and maybe He’ll throw you a bone this time?

Examine your continual prayers. Do they demonstrate a deep conviction that God has met your needs in the past and you’re trusting him to do it again? Or is it more like you’re doing it on your own, and you just need a something to fall in place to keep doing it? Where is your hope all day long?

Mastering Your Story, part 1

Every story can be summed up in a few short sentences. The essence of any story, no matter how epic, can be distilled down to 2-3 key points. Don’t believe me? Pick your favorite play or movie, and try to describe it in three sentences of fewer than 30 total words. If your favorite story is God’s story, here’s how you might describe the bible:

The Old Testament tells us Jesus is coming. In the Gospels, Jesus is here. In the rest of the New Testament: Jesus is coming back.

In three sentences containing 25 words, that’s an accurate, albeit incomplete, summary of the greatest story ever told.

It’s much harder though to tell your story as objectively. I recommend starting by boiling it down to its essence. So, fill in the blanks:

I was _______________, but now I am __________________.

It took me a few weeks to get comfortable my story in this brief a picture, but I would tell you:

I was a slave, but now I am a son of the King.

If you want to go deeper, I would encourage you to check out the message I *borrowed* this from:

http://vimeo.com/43971491

For Mastering Your Story, part 2, click here.