This past Sunday my lovely husband, Eric preached at church. We started a new series called Real Life. We revisited the SOAP method and journaling in our journals that we all got as a church. I will admit, I have stopped reading and journaling. It was easy to let missing one day turn into a week, then a month, and now I am so behind, that thinking about catching up is daunting. But I made the recommitment and I am going to just start now. Actually, I got up early this morning, right when Eric left to go workout and I just sat and read my Bible. It was so nice to have time alone, well, Molly decided to get up super early today, but she was content in her room reading while Mommy read on the couch.
Back to Sunday, Eric preached using the SOAP method and here is what I learned...
S-Phil. 1:1-14, main verse: 6- "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
O-*God is always at work in you
*His work is meant to ADVANCE His cause
*Real Life is found when God is working in us in order to accomplish His purpose through us
A-*Identify the circumstances where you are frustrated with God
*Go from asking WHY to asking WHAT- Phil. 1:12
*Your frustration is restraining your relationship with God
*It's ok to ask why
*We end up frustrated at God if we stick with why
*Your circumstances are because of the decisions you have made
*God will allow us to experience the pain of our decisions
*God wants us to grow through the pain of our bad decisions
P-Prayer, this time was really neat, Eric would pray then Elissa would sing parts of the song "Be the Center"...Oh Christ be the centers of our lives, be the place we fix our eyes, be the center of lives...
Eric also talked about Phil and his situation. I really do think Phil has approached the whole thing with a what attitude instead of a why attitude. I am sure it would be so easy and justified if he thought why and moped around. But he really is asking what God, what is meant to be learned from all of this. What circumstances would change in your life if you just asked what...
