How are you doing?
Despite sickness across our family and staff team, and the added stress of the school holiday juggle, I’ve been so encouraged over the past few days.
It was so encouraging seeing our members taking up the call to “be part of someones story” by bringing friends to hear the good news of Jesus over the Easter weekend.
It was also wonderful kicking off the Belonging series on Tuesday night, as we explore the core values that drive everything we do at City on a Hill. We began by looking at God's glory and the gospel of Grace and discussed how we can grow in our love and awe of God, by “letting the word of Christ dwell richly among” us (Colossians 1:16).
As we thought about how we can do this practically, our table came up with two really helpful things for deepening our personal faith. These things are often hard to find, are constantly under threat, but are absolute treasures and worth making every effort to pursue.
The first thing to pursue is intimate communion with God daily. We need to find a quiet space in our day for deep and personal connection with God through his word and prayer.
We’re constantly being bombarded with noise. Social media, emails, to do lists, ads. Our devices give us a stimulating little “hit” of dopamine whenever they ping or show us a funny cat video or we tick of a “to do” item. Plus the busy-ness of daily life can drown out our connection with God.
Technology can be helpful. Christian music, podcasts, sermon audio, audiobooks and apologetics on YouTube can all be fantastic ways to "let the word of Christ dwell richly among us". But they are no replacement for putting the phone away, going into a quiet room, closing the door and opening your (paper) Bible to meet with your Heavenly Father.
If you'd like some tips on how to do this – here's an article I wrote for the Belonging crew which (among other helpful resources) has some tips for how to do a "quiet time".
So, what noises are you being bombarded with? If you swim with the current you'll likely drift further from God and further downstream towards the world. Turn around, swim against the tide. Take some time each day to stop, turn off the distractions, and commune with God.
Yours in Christ,
Andy.