keeping P.A.C.E.

I've definitely slipped in my posting.  It's been hard to get anything done after class this week.  At any rate, here I am with a thought.

A few years back someone told me this acronym: PACE, meaning proper application concentrated effort.  Last summer, when I was training for a marathon, I learned a lot about pacing.  On a long run, setting the right pace makes all the difference in the world.  If you start out going to fast, you'll burn yourself out early.  If you go to slowly you don't develop or improve.  The key is to find a pace that pushes you and every week turn it up just a notch.

Well, this journey is no different.  It's not sprint; I'm set to go the distance.  It's so tempting when you decide to go on this journey to want to develop a legalistic regimen of praying for an hour a day and reading a book of the Bible per week, or fasting for x number of days.  There's nothing wrong with any of those things.  But what I'm learning is there is a difference between being spiritual and being spirit-led.

Being spiritual is at the heart of hypocrisy.  It's about putting on a "form of Godliness", doing all the "Christian" things, but when you find yourself just doing things because they seem like they fall in the "what Christians should be doing list", then more than likely you're just being spiritual.  When missing something on your list makes you feel like you've let yourself down, then there's a chance that you're not being spirit-led, but being spiritual.  Being spiritual, you find yourself telling God what you're going to do and prayer is just your opportunity to fill him in on what's going on.

Being spirit-led is about a relationship with God.  It's communication.  To be spirit-led you have to quiet yourself and spend time in the presence of God with no agenda, but allow Him to give you an agenda.  It's intently listening to God and the leading of Holy Spirit.  It's unhurried; it's a walk with your closest friend and most trusted advisor.

It's definitely important to set aside time for prayer and studying your Bible, but what we  have to be careful of is how we spend that time.  Don't just make it a checklist item, but make each appointment with God significant; be excited about spending time with the King.  Also, we can't get to the point where we confine our time with God to a certain block on our calendars, but we must allow God to freely flow through and infiltrate every moment of our day.

I've found myself slipping into a checklist relationship with God.  I'm learning to just rest in Him and let Him set the pace for the journey.  The only way I can keep the pace is to be spirit-led, rather than rushing around being spiritual.