The Periodically

A Poetic Prayer on Beholding and Becoming Like Christ Jesus Father in heaven, Help me to still and slow before You as I meet You now in prayer, to unravel the knots between my head and heart from looking within and without. I meet You here asking You to use Your Word and Spirit to both inform me and form me more wholly to Your image. Your image is one of purity and beauty, of wholeness and holiness, and I’m in awe. I crave You, Your nature, and to image Your likeness. When I stand before the Word of God, it’s as if I stand captivated before a bust of fashioned marble and marvel at the intricacy, grandeur, splendor, and detail of Whom it points to. I am told that, behold, I am to bear this image. To image the reality and substance: Jesus Christ. To be an image of God, a representative resembling His likeness. Oh God! Looking within, I lament at the immense task for which I was created! Yet, innately I desire to assume it. Knowing my flesh and my sinful nature as a son of Adam, I fear th...

Think back to the last time you were introduced, or introduced yourself, to someone new at church. When you left the conversation did you know more about that person or did he or she know more about you? It’s very natural and easy to talk about ourselves. We are our favorite subject. Our own thoughts, opinions, and stories seem important and worth sharing. It takes self-discipline to not make a conversation all about us. This is human nature, and everyone can relate.  The good news is that once we become a Christian, God begins the work of sanctifying us. We have new hearts and new desires and a new purpose, which is to glorify Him. We are now slaves to righteousness instead of slaves to sin. Instead of looking to find approval from man, we now have our identity in Christ. Instead of seeing other people as need-meeters, we can sacrificially give of ourselves for the benefit of another person. Romans 15:5-7 reminds us that God will give us grant us the ability to encourage othe...