An Adventure in Ministry

At this time of year, lots of people talk about resolutions. People talk of dieting and keeping fit, quitting smoking or drinking. I heard a statistic that 35% of us make a new years resolution and only 8% of them stick to it. That doesn't sound good, does it? I haven't made any resolutions, as such, but have made a renewed effort to spend more quality time with God each day and try to have more of an attitude of gratitude.  In my devotion time I have felt God has shown me a picture of a door. As I considered this, I began thinking about God opening and closing doors in our lives. It is a concept seen time and again in scriptures and also in my life. I  believe there are times when God closes the door on situations in my life and has opened new doors for me with fresh opportunities. There have been times full of hurt, bad situations, dark times and God has closed the door to them. There have also been good times, enjoyable times that have become closed doors. But the ...

At the start of this new year I felt called by God to try something I had come across in a few blogs. You choose a word (prayerfully!) and use it to hang your thoughts, journal and ideas for the year. A lot of people I have read about have seen it really transform their life, so I thought I would give it a go! The word I chose was GRATITUDE. So this week I have started 52 weeks of gratitude, and I will attempt to share some of my ponderings with you!    The first week asks why start this challenge? Well gratitude is a great thing to exercise. The talks time and time again about giving thanks. But how often when we pray are we guilty of giving thanks to God as a pre-curser to the main event.....asking for what we want.  Having an attitude of gratitude is something that I believe could completely change my faith, my marriage, my ministry and my relationships. When we go through our life looking for opportunities to give thanks, we can't help but also see love, ...