Bucket List

To have an ever-increasing sense that I am being kept by and for God; to patiently "climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost" and "wait to see what the LORD says and how he will answer my complaint" [Habakkuk 2:1]; to not belittle the input and counsel of those around me, but to welcome and even pursue it; to faithfully "serve the purposes of God in [my] own generation" [Acts 13:36]; to live in constant, conscious awareness that I am in the presence of an awesome God "who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy" [Isa. 57:15], which is a place of abundance, soul-satisfying pure delight, and "fullness of joy" [Ps. 17:11]; to pursue what "makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding" [Rom. 14:19]; to be godly with contentment [1 Tim. 6:6]; to "show perfect courtesy toward all people" [Titus 3:2]; to make God known to a world that is starved for true beauty; to have inexorable confidence that God is able and willing to do what is best for me; to desire obedience from the heart more than my sin; to "earnestly seek God" [Ps. 63:1]; to really say and believe in my heart's heart that "You are my LORD; I have no good apart from You" [Ps. 16:1]; to be "thankful and worship God acceptably with reverence and awe," for our "God is a consuming fire" and we are receiving a "kingdom that cannot be shaken" [Heb. 12:28]; to "not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course," to testify to the gospel of the grace of God [Acts 20:24]; to understand that when I am so "utterly burdened beyond my strength," it's to make me "rely not on [myself] but on God who raises the dead" [2 Cor. 1:8-9]; to grieve over my sin and embrace forgiveness as pointing to his "immense patience" [1 Tim. 1:16]; to continually remind myself that I cannot be good enough to put God in my debt [Luke 17:10] and I was created for His glory, not He for mine [Isa. 43:7]; to not let unbelief make me waver concerning the promise of God but to grow strong in my faith as I give glory to God, "fully convinced that God [is] able to do what He [has] promised" [Rom. 4:20]; to live under the "constraint of Christ's love" [2 Cor. 5:14]; to never doubt that God "[is] good and do[es] good" [Ps. 119:68]; to thank and not grumble against God for the blessings he lavishes on my sisters; to spend my life, creativity, prayer, talents, money, and efforts becoming beautiful with the kind of beauty that is imperishable; to embrace God's sovereignty and let it engender courage, energy, and humble, risk-taking love; to never take for granted the "access by faith into this grace in which [I] stand" [Rom. 5:2]; to think of the sixteen-year hiatus in construction to rebuild the temple and remember that sometimes what God wants us to do is filled with difficulty and opposition in order to more fully magnify his grace and provision [Ezra 4:4]; to humbly recognize that even if "secret things belong to the Lord our God," I have still been granted "all things that pertain to life and godliness" [2 Pet. 1:3]; to "bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God" [Col. 1:10]; to find and "eat" God's words and let them become to "a joy and delight of my heart, for I am called by His name" [Jer. 15:16]; to "hold fast the confession of [my] hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" [Heb. 10:23]; to, when I suffer, entrust my souls to my faithful Creator while doing good [1 Pet. 4:19]; to see God as the source and substance of blessing; to not be a victim of my circumstances and past but use both as a stepping stone to greater fruitfulness; to have a healthy, stable mind fixed on the Lord; to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ [2 Cor. 10:5]; to not manipulate, but instead surrender and wait for the Lord to act [Ps. 37:7]; to not preach Christ out of selfish ambition [Phil. 1:17], but to be so affectionately desirous of those around me, that I am ready to share with them not only the gospel of God but also my own self [1 Thes. 2:8]; to not compare my lot in life to that of others - "When Peter saw [John], he asked, 'Lord, what about him?' Jesus answered, 'If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.'" [John 21:21-22]; to have encouraged and challenged you in this post 😉😜