A Four-Pronged Approach

When I first started the job I currently have, I was asked to complete a "self-test" which grouped individuals by work style/personality, to help our team work better together. I'm normally not much on these sorts of tests - I hate stereotyping - but this one was approached differently and I found it quite informative. I also very quickly found a spiritual application.

Called True Colors, the system uses the colors Green, Blue, Orange, and Gold to divide categories. Individuals choose the category that is most like them in several areas. In a nutshell, Green is more philosophical, abstract, highly contextual, lots of detail ... Blue is very emotion-oriented, feelings-focused, cares about how people feel ... Gold is highly structured, very rules-oriented ... while Orange is extremely creative, almost the opposite of gold in approach. (I'm a Green, if you hadn't figured that out :) ). A healthy individual will have a little of each color, though one will predominate.

After I completed the workshop I realized that the four colors parallel important elements of my spiritual walk. From that day, I have added a four-pronged approach in my prayers for my own walk with God. Specifically, I pray almost daily that I will be:

• Doctrinally sound (that's the Green)
• Passionately worshipful (there's the Orange)
• Genuinely loving (Blue)
• Carefully obedient (Gold)

The point really isn't about the test - that was just the tool that God used to get me thinking on the right track. The point is about balance. We are all going to find one or the other of these areas easier and probably at least one that is hard. Yet each has a key role to play in our spiritual growth, and each are addressed in Scripture as important pursuits.

In your ministry it's easy to get focused on the "tyranny of the urgent". It's often hard to take a step back and look at the big picture of your personal growth, or the development of those you are discipling. I pray that God will somehow use this four-pronged approach from my own prayer life to help you grow as well!

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)