God is trying to teach me...

In our small groups and CE classes we’ll take time to go around the room and share what God has been teaching us. I believe God always has something he wants to teach us. Sometimes his lessons hit us like bricks in the face. But most of the time they are gentle stirrings inside us putting us “back on course.” Too often we don’t take time to recognize these stirrings, and they get drowned out by the noise of life.
So…welcome to my small group. This is what God is teaching me:


Patience

I confess, sometimes I’m not very patient. So God has to constantly remind me to be patient. My struggle is impatience with progress. I want to see things and people changed right now. When working with students I so desperately want to see them grow closer to Christ, I can get frustrated when I don’t notice change immediately. I often forget that this process takes time. One of the maxims of our student ministry is “ministry happens through relationship, and relationship happens through time.” The same is true for our relationship with Christ. It takes time to develop. So when I see a student commit his life to Christ, God reminds me that it will take time for him to “grow up” to where I think he should be. I forget about the year or so it took me to really take hold of my relationship with Christ after my conversion. Even the Apostle Paul went off to Arabia after his conversion to “sort things out.” It’s hard to quantify the internal transformation one experiences after accepting Jesus Christ as the leader of their life. I need to be patient and let the Holy Spirit work through me and other people to help affect change in a student’s life.


Prayer

Real men fight from their knees. Life is short, Pray hard. God answers Knee Mail. You’ve got to pray just to make it today (M.C. Hammer). Insert Cliche here.
There’s a lot of clever statements you can slap on a bumper sticker to express the importance of prayer. And I’d agree with most of them.
But the reality is – Prayer is hard.
I constantly have to be reminded to pray. God is always teaching and re-teaching this to me…but it seems I never truly get it - so he’ll probably be teaching this to me again in the near future. Bottom line: If I want to see God move in my life and ministry, I have to pray.


People

People are the centerpiece of ministry. God’s heart is for people. Saving people so they can be in relationship with their creator is the whole reason for Christ’s atoning sacrifice. But, people can be buttheads. And people are complicated. Sometimes it’s easier to sit behind my computer and avoid people all together. When I do this, God tugs at my heart and lets me know I need to be impacting people for him. I need to be in real relationships bringing the power of God in direct contact with people’s needs. This cannot be done through email, on IM, or on a blog. I have to have face to face relationships with people.