Pause and rewind

So over the past couple of months since I came home from living the American Dream for the summer there has been a focus on All4God on maturing in faith, based off of Hebrews 5. I have been writing out of a place of spiritual growth I experienced while spending the summer working at a Christian camp and living in community with some great people who love Jesus and live life to the full.
And after a couple of months of devotions, I thought now would be a good time to hit the pause button, have a quick rewind and recap, a “Previously on All4God…” if you like, and then press forward to look at a specific area in which we can strive towards a more mature, solid food understanding – relationships.
So what have we looked at these past couple of months? It all kicked off with ak at hebrews 5 and how we need to stop being satisfied with basic milk, we need to move beyond the simple things and seek more of God. We looked at how God wants us to move out of our comfort zones, and not waste the talents He has given us, but use them to glorify Him. We looked at how God is in control, and how He works all things for our good. There are no coincidences with Him, and He can speak to you while you go to the toilet. We need to focus more on the spiritual, eternal unseen rather than getting caught up in the problems we can see in front of us that won’t last. God hasn’t finished with us yet, and He won’t give up on us. He wants us to stop letting past sins define us, and come and swim in his river of grace. We need to stop being so easily pleased with trivial things when God has great things waiting for us.
He wants us to encourage one another and build each other up in faith and love. He has called us for a reason (to love Him, to serve others and to become like Christ) and we have no time to waste procastinating. He wants us to be real and honest with Him, and come as we are, nott hiding our flaws, but bringing them to Him. We are saved, not because of anything we could ever do, but purely because of the blood of Jesus, poured out for us.
Sometimes we get it wrong, and we need friends who will speak the truth in love and correct us. And sometimes we need to be that friend and point out an area where someone is slipping up in their walk with God to get them back onto the right path. Sometimes we have doubts and that’s ok. God provides reassurances when we bring our doubts to Him. And sometimes we worry, and we need to start praying instead.
Through it all Hebrews 5, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28 and Isaiah 41:10 have crept up a few times and have really been the core verses in my thinking. There have been articles dedicated to great people like Cassie, Carissa, Heather, Jen J and Nancy.
That’s the journey we’ve been on these past couple of months. If you’ve missed any of it please do look through the archives – it is all there. As I’ve been writing it I’ve felt that some of these articles have been the most significant ones I’ve written, they’ve been more personal than the other stuff I’ve written, I’ve heard from more people more frequently how God has spoken to them through these articles (which is the most important thing) and hopefully they have helped you grow closer to God and grow more mature in your faith as you have been reading them.
But now it is time to start heading in a different direction for a few weeks before picking up that thread of thought again. So for the next three weeks or so we’re going to be looking at something I haven’t really covered before – relationships, in a guy-girl sense, and looking at how they fit in with our aim of growing in maturity in faith, how they fit in with our desire for solid spiritual food. (With that in mind the series is called Relationships: the God intended steak)
I’m no expert, and I don’t have all the answers. I don’t have a wealth of experience. But I have some ideas God has given me that I’ll be sharing, it’ll be honest, it’ll be open and personal, andhopefully you’ll find it Biblical and useful. Why not pray that God would use the series to speak to you, then come back tomorrow for part one.