Book Review Friday: Colossians

First things first, let's read Exodus 1-5 for the next week. It will take us 8 weeks to get through the whole book with reading 5 chapters each week. :)

I really really really liked Colossians. It's right up there with one of my favourite books to do a review on, but I'm afraid I won't do it justice to how it spoke to me this week. There was a bang!! in the very first chapter. This is one of those oh-so-good but oh-so-hard verses, "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;" 1:10,11.
Now pretend you are having a hard time wanting to do the right thing. A very hard time. In fact you just don't know if you can keep doing the right thing and remain sane. I've been there before and those feelings come and go sometimes. Reading these verses at a time like that is both bad and good. It's bad because you realize you have to keep doing the right thing anyway, and good because of that verse 11. 'strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;" All within the time it takes to read 2 verses my heart can go from the depths of despair (I just can't keep trying to please Him!!!), to realizing that He is the one giving the strength to do it. It's totally supernatural!!! And the thing is that when I do what this verse says and trust God to give me the grace to handle anything that comes my way there really is peace and, believe it or not, joy! Though I was surprised to find out that the 'joy' mentioned isn't a bubbly happy kind of outlook on life. It's more of a quiet understanding and contentment knowing that God is in control and you have a much greater closeness to Him because of your present circumstances.
How can I expect to live life constantly hoping for my own happiness in my own way when I was created for another purpose? "All things were created through Him and for Him" 1:16. For Him, we were created for Him. I have to keep eternity in mind. No matter what He plans for my life and all that I may have to deal with there is a much greater purpose than what I can see. Many times I am completely blind to all that He is doing and I only see either problem days or those good days and just put one foot in front of the other, discouraged or with a spring in my step. When my focus shifts from the problems or being happy to trusting God and what He is doing, that calmness and joy comes.
Practically speaking verses 3:17 & 3:23 show me what I need to do to stay on the right path. "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." "And whatever you do, do it heartily , as to the Lord and not to men," Pretty self-explanatory verses. They should convict us all in many areas of our lives. If I started taking notes of just how I spent my time in 5 minute segments each day all day long, I would probably be shocked at my misuse of the time God gave me, and just how many things I did that I couldn't really do 'in His name'.

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this long. I need to get some shut eye before my little chillins are awake and rarin to go for another whole 12 hours! I'm going to need some of that 'might' and a little of that 'glorious power' before 6am tomorrow! :)

Well, here's Mr.Linky. Please link your review if you did one and I'll love reading them tomorrow. I'm sorry I didn't get my review done until such a late hour. Sometimes life just doesn't work out the way one would expect. :)
If you are new to the whole Book Review Friday thing just check it out, the links to the info are on my sidebar. We'd love to see a new name pop up!