Application 2

All I´m doing here is applying what I´m learning. It´s a great way to learn Spanish. It´s also a wonderful way to charge my spiritual batteries before heading into what I´m sure will be an emotionally trying year. I´ve found myself spontaneously praying that I would learn the fruits of the Spirit, plus humility, which is a pre-requisite to any kind of learning.
Not knowing where you´ll be in a year has a way of making one´s faith (if one has faith) grow. I´ve found peace by trusting in Christ for my daily bread, and to order my days. I can honestly (and with as little pride as possible) say that I am trusting more in Christ and have more peace than any other time I can remember. This is the first period in my life when I´ve sat down to most meals and been truly thankful that I have food to eat. In Guatemala, this is not a given, and the small portions of meat are a reminder of that fact to this spoiled American.

Pray that God would make me (and you) a better scholar. William Romaine outlined how to do this in Letter Fifth in the book Select Letters of William Romaine, which I am now recommending to everyone reading this blog (Thanks Jeff!). He writes,

Read and pray for more self-knowledge: God´s Word and Spirit will teach you nothing about yourself but what will humble you to the dust, and keep you there. Read and pray for more knowledge of Jesus, of His person God-man -- His salvation-work infinitely and everlastingly perfect; He is yours, now He is received; and all He has, and all He is, as Jesus, yours in title; and so far as you believe, yours now in possession.
Read and pray for more faith, that what you have a title to, you may take possession of, and so make constant use of it. Your estate is great, immensely great. Use it and live up to it: as you do in temporals so do in spirituals. Your money, your land, your air, light, your meat and drink, and house and clothing, these you use; but you have not them in you; only being yours, they are used by you. So do by Christ. When the Spirit would glorify Jesus, He humbles you; when He would glorify His fulness, he makes you feel your emptiness; When He would bring you to rely on His strength, He convinces you of your weakness; when He would magnify the comforts of Jesus, He makes you sensible of your misery; when he would fix your heart on His heaven, He makes you feel you deserved hell; when He would exalt His righteousness, you find you are a poor miserable sinner... let Him be your salvation and all your desire.

Lord, humble us, help us see Jesus, and give us ever-increasing faith. This is the gospel. Repent and believe.