Some one liners from todays reading…
If God is God, then I am not.
If God has the first claim on my life then I don’t.
The great drama of life is to feel something. If we aren’t participating in the Kingdom, then pleasure in our bodies is the next best thing people choose.
Irony… engaging in bodily pleasures actually deadens feelings, thus we need a bigger hit to achieve the next high.
Gratifying self opens us up to a place where nothing is forbidden. Why becomes why not?
When knowledge isn’t centered on God, God releases us to a nonfunctional mind.
At the core is the first statement, a heart that has made me god in place of God.
On a different note , I appreciate the Martin Luther way of looking at a scripture.
1. Ask God to apply this verse to your life in as many ways as possible.
2. Make appropriate confessions based on your applications.
3. Thank God for anything related to the verses truth.
4. Offer requests of God based on that verse.
So I went to one of the Psalms for today Oct 2, so Psalms 2, 32, 62, 92, 122 and chose 62:1
“For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”
1. My soul has a difficult time waiting or being silent. There’s always a rush to fill in the blanks. When faced with something, I race to my version of its salvation. Waiting to see what God wants to do is not my inclination. I spend a lot of mental energy on my fortress or my defense of myself or my God(as though He needed my help!). I am shaken based on the amount of time I think about solving things.
2. Do I leave room for God to work or fill up all the space with me? I need to let God work out the salvation of the issues that lie before me. But also act based on the Holy Spirits direction. I need to choose what I think about recognizing it is my choice to dwell on things in my thought life.
3. I thank God that He is working out things for His glory. I’m thankful that He is even more mindful about our life and world than we are. I recognize the gift of someone else being my rock, salvation and fortress. Recognizing the futility I even my best efforts at those things.
4. Lord help me to walk through the moments of my life able to see the great gain of waiting on you and living in your strength and protection. To yield my good plans to your even better plans that might not look anything like my own.
Truth, Grace, and Time 