SLIGHTLY ODWAY...

this is my take on Spirit-filled speech, which i have been thinking about alot lately (sorry if you read this chris, i know we've already chatted about this kinda stuff):
I believe that the crap of this world cannot contaminate your heart. Your head is easily influenced by worldly stuff, but not your heart. I think that’s the way God’s made us. So when praying, we should be praying from our heart, not our head. In other words, we should speak like Jesus. In this way, I find that when people say “just” or “umm”, they cannot be Spirit-led, because Jesus would never have said anything like “Father God, umm, would you just fill us with Your wonderful presence”. God didn’t make us with “umm” or “just” in our heart. “Umm” is a habit word – you start saying it and it’s so hard to stop. You say umm when you’re gathering your thoughts and working out the best way to say things. For prayer, it isn’t necessary to strategise or beautify our words. I think God would prefer that we’re totally open with our rambling, and I don’t think He minds at all if what you saw doesn’t make sense, because you will have let Him into your heart and I think that’s the most important thing. I really can’t imagine Jesus ever saying “umm”. “Just” really gets to me too. It’s as if you’re downsizing God’s amazing works. “Lord I just pray…” I think that prayer is an incredible gift that God has blessed us with, and I don’t think it’s something that we can say “just” about. It’s like saying “I simply ask for…”. Not good. God’s grace is a lot greater than something to be described as “just”. And we could take “just” in the sense of “justice”, which we don’t deserve anyway, coz we're sinners. Our God isn’t a fair God. We deserve to die, but by His grave we have been saved. Is that just? I don’t think so. Instead of using “just”, I reckon “completely” would be a much more thankful and faithful and hopeful word to use. eg. “Lord would You completely have Your way with my heart”.
There’s also the issue of luck. I don’t believe in luck. Does it say anywhere in the whole bible, anything about luck? I don’t think so. So why do we always say “lucky!” or “Good luck”? I don’t think that’s very Godly. If you believe in luck, how can you believe in God’s purpose and plan. It wasn’t luck that helped you, it was God’s purpose to keep you out of trouble. It upsets me that Christians say to each other “good luck”, coz I think it would be much better to say “bless you”. But this has been made into a tacky cheap phrase that only old folks ever say coz it’s not the ‘cool’ thing to do for youth to say “May the almighty God be with you”. So maybe I’ll lead the youth in our church on a rebellion against the world’s fixation on luck. It’s such a habit though. I always find myself in that situation of about to say “good luck with your exam...” or whatever the situation might be. Scripture passages and verses are great for alternatives though. I think I’ll have to find one I really believe will be the most effective and use it instead…
“I pray that out of His glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit” (Ephesians 3:16).
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3)
More verses to come…
but yeh, i think luck is a word that we, as Christians, need to steer clear of. i find that people (Christians especially!!) always say "good luck " to eachother. i'm excited that maybe people who read this will be challenged and will join me in my 'anti-luck protest'...
i hate how i always say "awesome" - such a habit. funny that i missed 6:30 church where Geoff was talking about how the word "awesome" should be reserved for God alone. i agree totally. i just struggle getting out of habits...

Lord would You help me to reflect You more in the way i speak and think