New Years and stuff

My primary resolution is finish what I say I will do.

I need to do my laundry. I need to read more. Most of all I need to pray with joy again.

Maybe in all the wear and tear of the years, seeing some prayer requests answered, seeing some still up in the air, a part of me has lost the will to pray because i fear and stopped believing they would be heard. If I pray in thanks only for how the day had already went, the requirement for faith is significantly less because it already happened. How do I get to a more prayerfully bold life? Is it through prayer meeting? One of the first times I fell in love with prayer was in the covenant chapel with a few brothers and sisters. We had powerful prayers, we had devoted, desperate prayers. Of course I realize its not the meeting, but the community that made it so wonderful. But in order to get there, is a prayer meeting in order? Maybe, but I also want real personal prayer too. I'm having a hard time bridging what I want and what I do.

Things that draw my spirit closer to Christ:
1. Worship music, especially worship with a body of believers. There is something beautifully special about worshiping in community, I feel a togetherness and it makes me free before God.
2. Blogging, I try to think of interesting or deeper things to write about and it tends to steer my thoughts closer to Christ, of course not all the time, but for the most part .
3. Book club- a few friends have been gathering to read and discuss christian books and its helped increase my knowelege and thoughts about ministry. Also, whenever i read a christian book (rarely, because I so prefer fiction), i tend to just accept what i read. In this setting, other people challenge and question the author, and it makes me think about it deeper than i would on my own.
4. Emails with close friends. Email is awesome. Sharing life with a friend, not just the what am i doing nows, the superficial whats going ons, but real-- soul struggles draw me closer to Christ, because the advice and encouragement is always founded on Christ's love. If a sinful person can love me like that, how much more is the father's heart?
5. Discussions, talks, emails, communications with spiritually older and more seasoned women. There is power in their joy, vivacity for life. I am envious and in awe of how they lead their lives, with the kinds of prayers they have and as much as my mind can say this or that about theological differences or concerns, i cannot doubt they live a life devoted and consumed by the Father.
6. Sermons in the car- i tend not to want to listen to sermons except on a long commute, perhaps it was a part of God's plan to make my commute everywhere 45-1hour. Matt Chandler is a beast.

Things that lead me away from Christ:
1. TV- I am able to sit down and watch 12 hours of tv straight. Its sick, but true. I enjoy too much vegging out and at the center of those thoughts is a sense of entitlement. "i've worked hard, i deserve to relax" kind of mentality and it not only wastes so much time, but leads me away from gratitude to God.
2. My messy room, i pretty much have no space to sit except in this chair. The floor is covered. Ideally, i would like an area to sit, pray on my knees, look to the word. Maybe the space thing is an excuse...
3. Getting worried about money-- I guess this is a given, but i'm not like my mom at all. I'm pretty weird about money, i never make a budget, sometimes i spend hoping i have enough but too scared to check my balance. eek. haha But thinking about money consumes all parts of my brain because then i start thinking about the future, about savings, about all this or that.. and it just makes it all about me.


Its time to put away handle things, stop putting them off.