Saturday, February 21, 2015

Finding the Motivation to Do Your Devotions, Part 3

So these are the points I hope you've gotten from parts one and two:

1.  Seeking God is a choice we make and it does matter.
2.  We need to seek God's face to know His will.  

Maybe you think I'm being a little overly dramatic here . . .but please understand,  I'm not one of these people who was saved out of a godless background.  God has been a part of my life since before I could speak.  I was born on Wednesday and in church on Sunday!  And then again on Wednesday and so on and so forth all my life.   Anybody that goes to church that much starts to think they've heard it all after awhile.  The natural thing to do is to start thinking that you've got this God thing down and then God doesn't get your best because you feel you don't have to think about God that much because you've already been there and done that.  The problem is, God likes that attitude just about as much as a wife likes this statement "I told you on our wedding day that I love you.  If anything ever changes, I'll let you know."

Nope, not okay.  A woman wants the love of her life to be in love with her forever!  She wants to share private jokes with him . . .she wants that little touch when nobody is looking and she knows it doesn't mean he wants something from her right then. . .it just means he loves her.  A woman wants all that.   Why?  Because it means that her husband STILL only has eyes for her.  That's the kind of woman who doesn't freak out when she's out with her husband and some young thing that looks amazing in yoga pants walks by because she knows that her hubby only has eyes for her.  Oh, she knows he saw the young thing, but she also knows he's trained himself not to look at that girl and think about the girl.   She knows this because every single day they talk and he shows her with his words and his actions that she is still his one and only.

That is what God is looking for in a relationship, too.  He wants your heart.  He wants my heart.  And He wants to His way to be our first choice.  And the beautiful thing is this . . .when we give Him first place, it makes OUR lives so much better.

Which leads me to my third point.

Sin is toxic and sin is powerful.  We've already discussed how it is so easy to believe that not communing with God is just . . .well, not that big a deal.  But now we're going to go a step further and label ignoring God a sin.

The thing is, if you aren't thinking about God, you will be thinking about something.  If you aren't thinking God's thoughts, you will be thinking other thoughts.

Now I know that there are a lot of what we will call "nuetral" thoughts out there and those aren't bad at all.  Those are thoughts like "I wonder if switching laundry detergents would make that rash on Johnny go away?"  Or thoughts like "If I get Susie a leapfrog will she finally want to think about her letters and spend some time learning how to read?"

It might be thoughts like "Grandma sure looks good for being 99 years old!  Wow, I hope I look like that when I turn 99!"

We should have those kinds of thoughts.  But the kinds of thoughts that we need to know exist are the kinds of thoughts that sneak up on us and try to destroy us.  Those thoughts have the potential to become sin.  I have a hard time even typing that concept.  I have a hard time with it because I have dealt with thoughts that wanted to destroy me and I thought that they were formed by me and therefore an extension of myself and I would never purposely try to destroy myself.  I resent the implication, for example, that depression is a spiritual problem.  I don't think that.  But what I do think is that depression puts us in a vulnerable place where these thoughts can become sin, ie,  toxic and powerful.

Let me try to explain what I mean.  Let's use the example of a boy and a truck.  Let's call the boy Sam.  Everyday Sam goes to work after school.  One day on his way to work he sees a really cool truck.   He admires it.  Nothing wrong with that.  What would be wrong is if Sam found out that it is a one of a kind truck and not for sale and then if Sam began to obsess about that truck and how to obtain it and if Sam started to maybe sneak out of the house at night and go over and touch the truck and dream about driving around in it and that kind of thing.

See, we ALL have thoughts that come knocking on our door and if we are wise enough to recognize them as just thoughts that we should "let go" then that's great.  But if we aren't reading the Bible and praying, chances are we're going to get a thought that we should let go, but for some reason, we're going to pick it up and handle it.  And obsess on it.  And if we aren't careful, that thing is going to stick to us like a flea to a dog.  We aren't going to be able to get rid of it on our own.

So the third thing that should motivate you to do your devotions is this:  you need God because without Him you aren't going to recognize those thoughts that want to destroy you AND even if you do recognize them as toxic and powerful,  you are going to need help getting rid of them.

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