To Exalt God or Self?

 

The God of the Bible is beyond incredible.  He is lovely and perfect, wise and faithful, good, holy, abundant in lovingkindness, trustworthy, and many other beautiful attributes...


And yet, I don't live accordingly.  I do not praise Him in a manner worthy of Him.  I don't trust Him as I should.  I don't seek after Him consistently or often enough.  I choose to live life my way fairly often and seek to be the captain of my own life in many ways (to be honest, it's not working out too well).


If you're anything like me, too often I take advantage of God's grace and mercy and treat my relationship with Him as though it can be handled on my terms - not in a God honoring manner as described in His word.


I don't devour the word of God by reading much of it daily, even though I have the ability to do so living in the United States where persecution isn't the norm for Christians.  Carrying a Bible for believers in many other countries would be a literal death sentence, and yet here I am with the option of reading God's word even while sitting in a Mexican food restaurant with my family or quoting the Bible and speaking about God as my mom and I go about our weekly shopping at any given store and I don't always acknowledge God and praise Him for who He is.


I don't treasure Him and I don't always trust Him.  I certainly don't always rest in Him and I often cling to my sins of choice by only half-repenting because I doubt His ability to hear and answer in His perfect timing.  I'm guilty of assuming God is oblivious to the hurt in my heart, my desires, longings, and anxiety, and tend to become upset when life isn't going my way.


Sometimes I settle for seeking after God only a fraction of the day or saying, "It has only been a few days since I have read the Bible" which makes it easier to justify not reading God's word the next time I would rather be lazy instead of taking the crucial step of filling my mind with His truth - which really, the neglect of such is only to my detriment and the daily practice of such to my joy, trust, and delight in God (not to mention keeping an accurate view of God's character, how He sees sin, and being reminded of/blessed by Jesus Christ's life, ministry, death and resurrection as described in the Gospels).


I choose to feed my lust instead of pleading with God to give me a clean heart in all ways.


...can you relate?  Will you please pray that in all things, the Lord would take first place in my heart and really transform, sanctify, purify, purge, and refine me?  And if you have any prayer requests, I will take the time to pray daily as well.  You may write to me at:  EmmaJoyBlog@gmail.com