Nancy goes on tell the other 4 motivations for our quiet time with God alone.
The first is submission. One thing that Nancy mentioned was that we often pray that God would take away our trials and temptations. We should not pray that He would take them away, but that He would help us get through them. Just like Jesus, He faced the temptations and everything we go through, but He was still submissive and did God's will, which was dying on the cross to save us from our sin.
The second thing is direction. We should seek God's direction in our lives. With our schedules that we make, with our time. Nancy says that God needs to be the One who finalizes our plans. We need to pray and bring what we are doing to Him and ask for His guidance. One thing she said that I liked was, "So when someone comes and says, "Will you...? ...what do you do? You say, "Let me check with the Lord first, and I'll let you know." Full submission right there, along with wanting God's direction. We need to continually ask God what He wants us to do and tell Him that we want His will to be done and to show us what we need to do.
The third thing is Intercession. Interceding is the action of pleading on somebody's behalf. We need to call on God to help others, not try to change them ourselves.
The fourth thing is Transformation. You become like the person or Person that you spend the most time with. If you are with a none-Christian friend a lot, you become like them, if you spend time with the Lord you become like Him. Whoever you spend your time most with, or whatever you spend your time doing or thinking on, you will become like that. So we should focus on the One Person that we should want to be like, Jesus Christ. I love the way she compares things. She says explains the two ways of 'changing'. We can change 'metamorphosisly' or 'masqueradely.' {I have no clue if those I true words, but I just added the 'ly'} Metamorphosis means that you change from the inside out, and masquerade means that you only change on the inside. She mentions halloween. How lots of kids dress up and go trick-or-treating, they were costumes. They may be a clow or a pirate in costume, but that is not what they are in real life. She says out we often 'put on a mask' to try and fool other people. And the main place a mask is put on is at church so we seem more 'spiritual' than we truly are.
I have to admit I have done this, and probably still do a tad bit. But it's not so much a fake mask anymore than it is truth. I am truly changing, and I am not just 'acting' like I am changing. It's a great deal of hard work, but it can be done. And in the end, it is ALL worth it!
~~Em
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