Friday, May 15, 2015

How to Stay Re-fuelled for your Creative Journey, Part 2



How do you stay “refuelled”? That was the question we ended with in Part 1. If you missed it, you can read it here.

We are “whole” beings, but we still have a “triune” nature. That means, as humans we are spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23.) Our soul* and body** need to be “refuelled” regularly if we want to live well. Right now though, I want to focus particularly on how we can refuel spiritually.

Why do we need to stay refuelled spiritually?

The more you truly walk with God, the more you realise that you can't fully live and function without Him. How does God sustain us? Through his Word.


Simple. Prayer, and reading the Bible. Put them together, and they're like fire and gasoline.


Jesus Himself said “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that God speaks [present tense].” (Matthew 4:4)

How do we hear what God speaks?

The Bible is a key way that God speaks to us. As we read and converse with Jesus, (who by the way is the Word!***) the Bible really does come alive.

It's then that God's word becomes food to us. It feeds our Spirit.

We don't just want to read it however, we want to meditate over it (Psalm 1:2). Meditating on something is basically actively thinking about it. It's a bit like chewing your food.

These ideas about Bible reading (from IHOP) have flipped my bible reading on it's head at times recently. It's a great article that puts prayer and bible reading together. Again - it's like lighting a flame next to TNT.

My biggest enemy

My biggest enemy for engaging with God could be one of your big enemy's too. It has a glass screen, and it's probably in your pocket right now, filled with notifications. Don't check it now, finish responding to this first.

My smartphone has been a huge distraction for me over the years. One thing I'm learning to do is “fight fire with fire”, and use my phone to distract me with the word of God. For example, using the Youversion Bible app, I get notifications with the verse of the day, and I also have it emailed to me at another time of the day, in another translation. It's easy to activate this, just go to “Settings”, then “Notification Settings”, then press “Verse of the Day”. Let me know how you go!

I found this article very encouraging a while back: “Your Bible Reading is about to Threaten Your Smartphone Focus” Read it now if your Smart Phone is ever distracting for you, and get aggressive pursuing the things of God!

* Our souls can be refueled, for example, by doing things we love, and also by spending time with people we love.
**Obviously, your body is refueled by good food, nutrition, sleep, and other things.
***John 1:1

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