Week 6 | Alex

The reading this week really struck me on all kinds of levels and in different areas. In the book Covenant Relationships, the chapter about friendships really made me think about the friendships I have and especially about who we can trust with our intimacy. That idea of equipping ourselves with a spiritual shield when we are loving people who are not trustworthy is pretty different and I want to see what that means in my life. I really loved the next chapter that talked about responsibility and how little needs to be given before much can be given. It has taken a long time for me to understand this concept, but I think I am finally beginning to see why it is so necessary that God works this way. The apart about spiritual murder also struck me and I began to think about how powerful words are. When he talked about jokes being at the expense of others it made me take a hard look at my jokes, and I realize that many are funny because they dig into other people at their expense, so if I want to truly become a spiritually mature man of God, I need to watch my tongue and really refrain from making hurtful jokes.

Spiritual Authority this week was also super awesome, in that it spoke about the need to rid ourselves of reasoning. This really convicted me because as I have talked about I really feel like God has been ridding me of rebellion this last year and a half, but this area of reasoning is still a very present rebellion in my life. It is funny though because before reading this chapter I was struggling with it with God and asking him why my life doesn't make rational sense sometimes and why it seems like following him is really irrational. Then I read the chapter and it pretty much answered my question for me. The part about obedience and submission was awesome too, how we need to always submit but sometimes honoring God means not obeying some authorities if they are misguided. Overall this reading struck me when it said God doesn't owe us anything. We feel like we deserve to understand why everything is happening, but really God is all powerful and just by the fact that he is God he deserves our complete unchanging trust in everything.