Did you miss me yesterday? It was another test of my understanding what it is that God has been teaching me. My computer was infested with a virus or should I say viruses. I am so careful to not open anything that I do not know yet almost a full 24 hours later I am just coming back online. It was during my search for a site called covenant eyes that I caught the disease. I was trying to help someone. Honestly don't the people who create and spread these things have a life. What joy can come from making others miserable? I watched a moivie this weekend and there was a line in it that made the whole movie worth while. "Failure is an absolute but don't make it a habit." My mind immediately said, "Uneasy, anxious and worry are absolutes but don't make them a habit."
I am led to share something that seems to be off the beaten path.
Romans 10:21 But of Israel he says, All day long I have stretched My hands to a people unyielding and disobedient and self willed to a fault finding contrary and contradicting people.
I sure hope that's not me? I'm really trying to stay out of God's way here at the center. So I think I am yielding? There is a push right now to take on a major project and honestly I'm not interested but I am yielding to those that seem to be, to at least investigate the possibility. Disobedient? I think at this moment I am being obedient to everything that I'm aware of? Self willed? I don't want to be prideful but so far these are things I work on everyday with great effort and much diligence. Fault finding? Okay not to bad 1 bad one out of 6? Fault finding just seems to creep in. I'm working on it but just not as dilegently as the others. Contradicting? That is one thing I hate about people and specifically myself. So 2 out of 6. See, I hate when God sends these words that appear to be ( in my mind) for those reading this blog or other things that I write or share with people, because ultimately they are not for anyone but me. And that is the case today so I have been called out from the crowd and indentified by my actions. As if that isn't enough the chapter is not just one verse.
Verse 2 - I bear them witness that they have a certain zeal and enthusiasm for God, BUT it is not enlightened and according to correct and vital knowledge.
This says to me that there is something missing from my certain zeal and enthusiasm for God. In fact it would appear that there could be something incorrect which is vital to the knowledge I currently have. This comes as no surprise as I don't consider myself as knowing it all. In fact I know very little. My knowledge is from life experiences. Each day of life experience draws me deeper into relationship with God. And out of that revelation of His love for me I hope to have and I believe will have a correct response. It is only when I lose focus of that love that my mouth or my actions begin have their way and thus I end up where I don't want to go.
Verse 3 - For being ignorant of the righteousness that God ascribes, which makes one acceptable to Him in word, thought and deed, and seeking to establish a righteousness of their own, they did not obey or submit themselves to God's righteousness.
Righteousness or right standing with God is defined by Him. I think to often I have tried to define what it should look like or sound like. Reason being is that my standards may be just a little lower than mine. Each person's relationship with God is personal and intimate. Righteousness is personal and intimate as well so I must stop comparing myself to anyone else regarding my success or failure.
Application - I have been instructed to leave the application to each of you as it is personal and intimate in nature but helpful and needful for others to find their way.
This is how its laid out in the NASB..
ReplyDeleteVerse 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
Paul might as well have said they're excited about God but what they are doing doesn't line up with the word.
Verse 3 For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
I think that more often than not I tend to fall into this category, while I think I know what God's definition of righteousness looks like and go based on assumption that I do I tend to lose sight of letting God give his stamp of approval.
I have been hearing for weeks about waiting on God. That is my application to simply allow my opinions and actions to be tested by God before I make them known. Allowing Him to fully guide me isn't something I know how to do which is Ok because HE does and HE will guide me.
What happened to the first verse? MY OPINION... We too often go based on assumption and then ask God to approve. In a multitude of words there is much foolishness. Seems to have some value?
ReplyDeleteMy Opinion meaning that I don't want to go based on my own hunches...that I want to do the right thing first not double check if what I think is right is really right. I want God to tell me if what I'm thinking lines up with what he is thinking. Not that I want to make an opinion and have God agree but that I want to be able to make the God decision over the Todd decision.
ReplyDeleteI don't think God is going to TELL you if you are doing the right thing. As you study the word,
ReplyDeletedevelope your relationship with God your "hunches" will more and more often be right.
You will most of your time taken up with double checking what you think is right. You won't be right alot. I think we are susposed to learn and
grow, with age comes wisdom. In any endevor, when you start you make mistakes. Hopefully we learn and make fewer mistakes as time goes by. I think we are known by our deeds which come from our desire to do right. That is in our heart and mind. Missteps along the way are the things that give us the opertunity to learn and do better next time.
I find it interesting to read it in the CEV version, in verse 2-3 it says I know they love God, but they don't understand, what makes people acceptable to him. So they refuse to trust God, and they try to be acceptable by obeying the Law
ReplyDeleteTo me this says they don't understand God's thoughts or ways. I remember reading in the OT that Moses knew God's ways and his people knew his acts. I think that most people today don't understand the things of God b/c they don't take the time to get to know him. For the past weeks we have been reading Matthew6:28-34 and in the past week the Lord keeps bringing me to the word of stillness and getting back into a place where I am just listening and not talking.
So for this application I am going to get in a place of quietness and not just wait, but listen to what the Lord has to tell me and follow through with any actions he sees fit for me to take
"...Seeking to establish Megan's own righteousness..." yeah, ow. This has probably been the #1 focus in my Spirit lately (but perhaps in a different context than how it is presented here).
ReplyDeleteGod speaks to me all the time about seeking 1st HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness (Mt. 6:33). This past week, I just haven't been able to get away from it - and I'm so grateful because focusing on seeking after God 1st caused me to avoid taking (what I now see could have been) a very dangerous and incomplete road.
I have grown to love my quiet times of intimacy with God where sometimes I sing and pray, other times I just sit there, completely still and quiet before Him just resting in His presence - my heart longing to hear from Him, smell Him, feel Him... but I realize (at least for me) it is very easy to get so caught up in "me and Him" that I forget about HIS kingdom and why I am here on this earth for such a time and season as this.
So, Ed, I really liked one of our past applications where we were to repeat to ourselves and others "I am God's child, born of the incorruptible seed, His righteousness and the apple of His eye." So my application for this week is two-fold. It's (1) to deflect my focus from constantly trying to build/maintain my own personal kingdom with God and (2) to remind the Body (and whoever may cross my path that needs encouragement) of this:
"I am God's chosen, royal and holy, God's possession so that I may declare the excellence of Him who calls me out of darkness into light." (1 Pt. 2:9)
I've struggled a bit with knowing what kind of application to do for today. I think I'll follow suit with Hayley and examine the areas in my life that I just don't know God in. To really make it an application and not just a thinking process, I'll write down the top three areas of my life where I know God the least and then write down to top three reasons why under each of the three. Ed, I have a blog...but I'm being insecure about letting everyone see it. It's very transparent, which is hard for me.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about contacting a virus in the line of duty.
ReplyDelete