Taking a Rest

So I've been back a couple of days now and still I'm tired! I've only just woke up from a nap and am about to go back to sleep for the night.

I just want to share something that I've realised the last few days. I don't take enough rest in my life.

I have lots of nights in and time at home where I decline to go out so I can 'rest' but one thing this New Year adventure has shown me is that rest is so much more than just not going out. Ironically going the furthest I will go all year has shown me that!

Often when 'resting'..I'll end up doing so much in the house. I could write Compassion Letters, blog, chat with friends at home but neglecting the things that make up true rest...prayer, sleep...things that don't require a lot of body and mind movement or things where God can just revitalise you :-)

Since I've got back from America, I realised how getting away from everything has helped refresh me whole. Even though I'm physically tired, I can fix that (and will do in bed now!) but my mental and spiritual tiredness is gone!

I don't know what everyone's New Years Resolutions are but here are mine:-

1. Try to finally stop biting my nails!
2. To give a night to God every 'normal' week this year. ('Normal' being weeks that I haven't got things like Camp or unavoidable activities every night)

Hopefully these nights will help me rest spiritually and also help me rest mentally through the power of God and through just not doing much but not doing much with Him!

What are your New Years Resolutions? I don't normally like them as if they are important enough you should do them anyway , regardless, but I can see the extra motivation a New Year and a fresh start can bring you.

Praise God for 2012!

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year to everyone! 2011 feels good!

I'd like to start by saying that I don't believe in making New Years Resolutions. I believe that if something is important enough then you should do it straight away rather than delay and give yourself excuses for not doing it.

However, I'd like to issue a challenge to everyone for 2011. Let's make 2011 the year of Love.

Love is very important in the Bible. The Bible actually goes very far in declaring its importance:-

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

This is a feeling I have, and feel free to disagree or agree in the comments section, that Britain is neglecting loving each other so much these days. I even feel it is missing in the Church as a whole to an extent.

The greatest commandments in the Bible concern love:-

Luke 10:27

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

After saying this Jesus was asked who the neighbor was and Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. I love this parable because the Israelites & Samaritans were enemies. Yet when the Israelites was hurt, the Samaritan was the only who would help him. Love in Great Britain is so selfish. People help others for their own gain, or just help those who love them and they might not help them at all (in the parable, people just walked past the Samaritan).

Let's be unselfish with our love this year. Let's help and bless the people who have hurt us, who don't care about us. If we need an example to look too let's look at Jesus. We hurt God so much with our sin, yet He gave His life so we could live.

Let's be liberal with the love in 2011!