30 for 30 RESET – Day 6

Gatheringplace   -   September 6, 2024

“Then God said, ‘Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years.’” Genesis 1:14 NLT

What are these things, seasons, days, and years? They are divine RESETS!

God created the world in seven days and tells us to rest one day per week, and Paul says we are to come together on the “first day of the week” to worship Jesus (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2), and God gave Israel a bunch of holidays. These are all for remembrance and resets. Fresh starts.

God calls us to stop work on the Sabbath to think about Him, spend time with family, and rest. Then reset for the next weekly cycle.

Isn’t God good? He did not make us to run, and run, and run without taking time out to assess where we are, gain His wisdom, make adjustments, reset, then run with renewed strength and clarity.

If you are not taking time out to rest, reflect, and reset, you will wear yourself out and possibly end up heading in the completely wrong direction.

Then there are “seasons.” Just like there are seasons in nature, you will go through seasons; growing up as a child, adolescence, then adulthood, singleness, marriage (seasons in marriage), having children, being an empty nester, having grandchildren, moving from your career into your golden years…

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NLT

If you do not take time, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly, to reset, you will be moving too fast to know what God is doing. It is critical to slow down, calm down, and let Him direct you. This is what our 30 for 30 is for – to draw nearer to Jesus so you can follow Him more closely. He has the best plan for your life, right down to today.

John

QUICK TIP ON HOW TO SPEND 30 MINUTES WITH GOD (REMEMBER: This 30 for 30 is a tool to help you, not a rule to shame you. Just do your best and let God do the rest.)

“Upward, Inward, and Outward”

  1. Upward: Get quiet. Settle down. Begin to thank God for Who He is – patient, kind, merciful. A God who forgives sins – Who has forgiven your A God Who cares, Who listens to your prayers, a miracle working God. (There are many other attributes you can thank Him for. Go HERE for a prayer guide as well as a list of God’s names that will help you thank Him for Who He is)
  2. Inward: Read a chapter in the Bible. I would suggest one Psalm per day. Start with Psalm 1 and go from there. Or read one chapter of Proverbs per day. Start with Proverbs 1 and go from there. And as you read, stop, and think about what it is saying. Take your time (even if you don’t get through an entire chapter – it’s okay!). Ask God to speak to you through it.

A deeper dive: For those of you who would like to read the Bible in a year, here is a fantastic way to do it. It will take more than 30 minutes per day, but it will be well worth it. It not only gives you a reading plan, but each day there is a short, very well-produced video explaining what you are about to read. Go HERE for your one year through the Bible reading plan.

  1. Outward: Ask God to show you how He can use you to reach those around you. Then begin to pray specifically for individuals. Pray for your family members, your boss, co-workers, classmates, friends, your church, its members, its mission, its leadership. Pray for our city and our nation – that God would rule and reign in every mountain of influence, raising up leaders who fear Him: Church, Family, Government, Education, Media, Entertainment/Arts, and Business. You won’t be able to get to everything in 30 minutes, but that’s okay, just pick one or two areas per day.

PRAYER POINTS:

Personal:

  • Closeness with God
  • Deeper devotion to Christ
  • Renewed vision
  • Renewed passion
  • Strength
  • Joy
  • A profound commitment to act as Jesus would during this election year.

Church:

  • And increase of God’s manifest presence.
  • To see more CHANGED LIVES!
  • An increase in Miracles
  • Salvation for those far from God (make a list and pray for them every day)
  • More young people joining the vision at GPC
  • New building for GPC

World:

  • A mighty harvest in our city and nation.
  • That godly men and women will fill the seats of government on local, city, state, and national levels.
  • For our missionaries (Use the bookmark handed out at church, or go to our website and check out our Missions page HERE)