Purpose

I feel that this is the first 'normal' week we've had.

I am realizing how important it is to get to know people before we develop impressions about them. I say that because everyday I'm getting to know everyone better, I realize why they behave the way the do, which helps me understand and adapt to different personalities better. That is something I have definitely been wanting to work on, because I'm not much of a people person.

This week we have been taught more and more what our purposes are in Christ. Pastor Glenn talked about the fact that we are New Testament Levites, while Pastor Michael discussed how we should pray. It completely reconstructed my view on a lot of the things I was taught in my childhood.

Pastor Glenn discussed that as Levites we are called to minister to God, which I believe we get a little backwards sometimes, because we always expect God to touch us and minister to us. This really resonated with me. It's important for me to remember as a worship leader, because we as humans are so accustomed to having 'horizontal' and face to face interactions that we have a hard time adapting to a 'vertical'  and seemingly one-sided relationship with God. In worship, we are too eager to try to minister to a congregation, and we tend to get discouraged whenever the crowd does not respond the way we would like. That's not right, we should worship God in Spirit and in Truth, not in congregational approval. 

Pastor Michael, on the other hand, spoke about prayer. This really helped me this week because the Lord has been speaking to me more and more about who to pray for, when to pray for them, and what to pray for. This is something I've never been comfortable with, but that's what I'm here for, right? I've always followed the model of prayer he talked about, which is praise, repentance, asking, and yielding. I don't remember where or when I learned this, but as long as I can remember I've prayed this way. It was interesting for him to explain this through the process of which the Priests came to Moses' temple. It truly brought light to and made sense of that idea. I plan on studying that more at some point, because no one has ever taught that to me, which is becoming the norm of a lot of things I'm learning throughout the week. Every week gives me a new perspective on my relationship with Christ. and I really believe it has already solidified my faith that much more.

- Danielle