His glory, and the first priority for our own usefulness is to keep ourselves in continual communion with the Lord Jesus and to see that the vital sprituality of our faith is maintained over and above everything else in this world.”
Charles Spurgeon, Evening by Evening

This past month I’ve made the commitment to be more intentional with God. I would work to get into the Bible more, pray more and pay attention to the little things He does for me throughout the day.

While I did and didn’t.

I did read my Bible more and I think I’ve made a habit of it. My Bible in a year group in Facebook is really helping to motivate me to stay on track. (It’s not too late to join us! You’d just finish a month or so after us) I really have enjoyed getting to read the Bible daily and hearing what other people are thinking when we share passages with each other. It is good.

“The quickest way to be spiritually rich in heavenly knowledge is to dig in this diamond mine – to gather pearls from this heavenly sea. When Jesus Himself sought to enrich others, He quarried the Holy Scriptures.”
– Charles Spurgeon, Evening by Evening

I didn’t pray more than usual, though I was more consciously aware of God’s answers to my prayers when they came. Which is really cool.

I started my women’s Bible study (more on that here!) and I have a feeling it’s going to be wonderful and stretching and inspiring. This place of stepping up and sharing life with people intentionally is on the way of being more of who I am supposed to be.

And paying attention to where God showed up? That kind of rocked my little boat a bit. It’s not that He showed up or did epically more than usual, it’s that I was able to notice it. Which was the point.

“In the same way, we must rely on God’s sovereignty to enlighten our eyes to His truth, for Paul prayed these words for the believers in Ephesus: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritancd in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe” Eph 1:19-19.”
Jim Reimann, Evening by Evening

But really the biggest discovery/rediscovery was noticing just how intentional He is with me and each one of us every day of our lives.

He listens to our questions and gives us answers (one day some of my reading brought up question and then later that question was answered in my devotional).

He hears our prayers and before we even have voiced the prayer he has begun to orchestrate the answer for us. It may have started months before, or years. But he knows what we need better than we do and is very careful with those needs.
He leads us to read the right verse, He gives us peace, He has someone affirm the words that have been going through your heart, and on and on.

He leads and guides in so many ways they cannot all be listed. And that is that.

The Lord knows those who are His.
2 Timothy 2:19.

He is so intentional with me. And you. And us.

“O sweet Lord Jesus, since you are the present portion of Your People, favor us this year with such a sense of your preciousness that from its first day to its last, “we [may] rejoice and delight in you.”
– Charles Spurgeon

And that is how my January went. I feel like the month’s focus was very valuable and would hope to keep these newer additions to my routine in place as I move on to next month’s focus.

My goal:

I think of you through the watches of the night. Psalm 63:6

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How could you be more intentional with god these days? Have you begun to see just how consistent and careful He is with each of us and our needs?
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I’ll be writing about my plans for next month’s intentional focus sometime next week! Who wants to join me? The topic is marriage. How can we be intentional about our marriages next month?

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