Integrating the Three Simple Words 

This year we are encouraging people to use three simple words to help them in their Christian life - WITH, LIKE, FOR.

Growing in our awareness of of being WITH God  in the moments of our days
Growing in our character so we are more LIKE Christ, and
Being more conscious of undertaking all of the activities of our life FOR God.

A key to growing in these areas is learning to live more of our lives in conscious awareness of God, God's Character, and God's purposes on a moment by moment basis.  Not just at services, or devotional times, but throught each day.  

Colossians 3:1-4 talks about setting our hearts and minds on God.  We all have an ability to choose where to place our attention and that is a great gift from God.  God doesn't force us to be aware of Him or to set our minds on Him.  Rather we have the opportunity to place our attention on God.

But we have so many things competing for our attention.  So we will need to practice paying attention to God.

Here are some simple ways to integrate a growing awareness of God's Presence (with), Character (like), and Purposes (for) into your days.
 

Play the Game of Doors

In a recent service, Rosie shared a prophetic picture of being aware that when we go through doors, we go with Jesus. This was in part inspired by Rev 3:20.

You might like to use this as an idea to increase your awareness of being WITH God - to practice the presence of God. Use going through a door as reminder to turn your attention toward God if only for a second or two.

Inspired by Frank Laubach's game of minutes, you might like to try this "Game of Doors". A game - not because it is frivolous, but because this lighten's the load. If you forget to think about God when you walk through some doors that's ok, its not the end of the world. Just have a go next time.

I have been trying this and at first I would mainly remember after I had gone through some doors! But as I have persisted, my strike rate for turning my mind toward God as I go through a door has improved. Still a long way to go, but improvement not perfection is the goal!!

Focus on Five

When we turn our minds to God in the Game of Doors we will then have an opportunity to briefly remember what God is like.  And as we remember what God is like we can be inspired to be more like Him.  And as we are inspired to be more like Him, we can open ourselves to God growing more of that characteristic in our lives through His Spirit.  

You can choose to focus on various characteristics of God.  Here are five foundational characteristics to get you going:  Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace

Faith - God is the most confident person in the universe
Hope - God is full of a joyful expectation of good things happening in the future
Love - God is love - a will and desire to act for the good of others
Joy - A deep sense that everything is well with the world (even if at the moment there are tough things going on - it is linked with hope)
Peace - A settled will.  There is not a battle of wills, God knows what He wants to happen and is surely working to make it so.  We can rest in that.

From time to time as God reveals more of Himself to you or you are working on an area of your character, you may focus on some more specific areas - patience, humility etc but it is good to regularly come back and focus on these five!

Acknowledge Jesus is the Boss

There is a kids song by Colin Buchanan - Jesus is the Boss.  That is a great thought to keep in mind as we attempt to consciously do more of our everyday activities for God.  Whoever we are immediately responsible to for particular activies - customers, managers, parents, children - lets work at developing an awareness that all the things we do and say we also do for Jesus and with His resources.

Now a large number of the activities that we undertake in any given day involve us going through a door!!!  So you guessed it, each time you go through a door to start a new activitiy you might like to quickly focus on the fact that Jesus is the Boss!