Pleasing him

Our topic of study in my bible study this semester is learning our place and purpose in the family of God. Today we talked about having a purpose and not really seeing our potential. In I Corinthians 12:18 it says "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." Everyone in the body of Christ, whether you realize it or not, plays a significant part. And God is the one who designed you, who made you fit for the role he designed for you. I may not realize right now how I am to be used, or what way I can best serve the Lord, but I need to constantly be looking. I can't sit around and think, "well, eventually I'll realize my full potential." It doesn't work like that. The only time I'm guaranteed is the time I have right now and if I'm not using it fully, then it's a total waste. See, I have a problem. I'm a perfectionist. There's nothing directly wrong with that, but it does hinder me to a degree when trying to reach out and teach others about Christ. I'm afraid I won't have all the answers right away or that I may say something that isn't right. But I can't let my insecurities stop me anymore. There's a reason I'm here, and that's to spread His word.

This is an analogy my teacher had in class today. A girl wanted to do something wonderful for her boyfriend for his birthday. She made him a big dinner and cooked it all from scratch. She worked all day on it and really put her heart into it. Her main goal was just to please him. He came over, looked at the food, and told her he couldn't eat it because he was allergic to something in it. All her efforts were pointless because she didn't know him well enough to know of this allergy. We need to pour our hearts into serving God and doing all we can to please him, but we need to make sure we know him and what he desires of us or else our efforts are pointless as well.

That analogy hit home to me. In the 11 years that I have been a Christian, I have yet to read the bible from cover to cover. I've studied a lot during my years, but I haven't devoted the time and effort into looking at the whole word of God and studying it fully. There's so much that I can learn and focus on in these books and I haven't taken the time to read in thoroughly. It's pathetic to call myself a child of God and to not read the whole inspired word which is so easily available to me. How can I best understand God and what he requires of me if I don't open my eyes and read all he has to say?

So this is my goal. I want to read the whole Bible this year. So many people do it every year and I have no excuses why I shouldn't. Yes, I'm a busy college student who goes to a christian university which requires us to take a bible class every semester, but that's not enough. I should never say, "I already do enough". I'm going to jump around some in reading (partly because I've already started reading John for my bible class) but I'm going to keep a log on here so that I'll be accountable to this goal. I know when midterms come around and I find myself thinking I'm too busy to study, I'll have a constant visible reminder on here of my goal.

Don't worry, I'll still talk about art and design because that's something that God made me passionate about, but I'm going to try to keep posting on things I've studied in His word so that I can not only meditate on these things, but hopefully reach out to you readers and help you as well. If anyone has any questions or things to say, please leave comments. I may not have all the answers, but He does.