Time Away

I've just returned from 24 hours away. A hard but refreshing time. My purpose was two-fold:
1.) To just get some quiet space to be with God and pray.
2.) To meet with 4 other men about forming a strategic alliance for the advancement of the gospel in our lives. This meeting was mainly organizational and we have our first real meeting in the Summer.

While away from the normal noise of life I am often able to hear God and myself in ways that I don't normally.

Part of what He is showing me is my lack of appropriating the gospel to my own heart and life in the situations and trials God brings me. The time away allowed me to connect with God in fresh ways and say to Him and my own heart, "Christ is all I want or need." Following Him is hard, and there are crosses to bear... yet Romans 8 is true:

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.