Genesis 28
20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. 22 And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”
This vow of Jacob’s bothers me. This conditional “if” that he keeps throwing in there reminds me of, well, me. Don’t we always try to bargain with God? “Lord, if You will do this, then I will be Yours forever…” Guess what? God has already done more for me than I could ever deserve! God sent Jesus to take my sin away! There is no “if” in my dealings with God. May my vow simply be: “God You have already blessed me beyond any reasonable expectation. I am Yours, do with me as You will. Put me where You want me. I just want to serve You and live so that others will want to do the same.”
Be God's,
Scott
Showing posts with label Daily Devotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Devotions. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, August 31, 2007
7 more pages
I am nearly finsihed with my reading of Dan Gilliam's God Touches and have started reading Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as part of a leadership series we are starting at VCC. I also have several other books in my stack of "must reads" but today, there won't be a lot of reading. I had an eye exam and got my pupils dilated, so everything is blury as I type this.
I find that my vision gets blury when I stay away from the Word of God for too long. I have been doing the One Year Bible as a dialy devotional reading plan for about a decade now, but lately, I have found myself having to "play catch up" because I have gotten away from that daily discipline. Making the adjustment to the end of summer, the start of a new school year, one in college and one as a senior in high school, blah, blah, blah. See? The excuses can roll off the tongue (or the keyboard in this case), but they are nothing more than excuses. Even with blurred vision from the pupil diation at St. Lucie Eyes Associates this morning, I can see that the excuses are nothing more than a futile attempt at rationalization.
It is my prayer that i stop with the excuses, and get focused back on my daily journey with Jesus! It is my prayer that because of my personal daily walk, I will be better able to bring others along on the journey of living for Jesus every day.
On my family blog I wrote the following for today, I'll let it speak for itself, and get down to the serious business of growing closer to Jesus today:
I had my annual eye exam this morning. s I type this, the words are very blury on the computer screen because my pupils were dialted as part of the examination. It will take a good portion of the day for my eyesight to return to "normal" which for me, means the need for a slight correction for distance, and a little correction for reading. Yes, bifocals have been a way of life for me for the past several years. Not that I HAVE to wear my glasses all the time, or even when I am reading, but they help.
As I contemplate the words of the gal who did much of my exam this morning, I can't help but think about the notion that people think if they wear their glasses that their eyesight will actually deteriorate and they will be more dependent upon those glasses. She said that the rality of the matter is that your brain gets used to being able to see better, and recognizes the difference when you don't wear them.
When I spend time daily in God's Word, my life really is more closely aligned to God's plan for my life. Oh, I can "get by" when I don't spend time in the Word every day, but I am only fooling myself into thinking that it is okay. Just like "getting by" without wearing my glasses may be okay, I can "get by" with the reading I do for lesson prep, sermons, etc. But that is not what is best for me.
Just as wearing my glasses helps me see clearly, spending time daily in the Word helps me stay focused on my relationship with Christ. I don't need an annual exam to see how I am doing in this regard, I just need to be held accountable for my personal daily devotion time each day. I have a couple of accountability partners to help me in that regard. Do you?
I find that my vision gets blury when I stay away from the Word of God for too long. I have been doing the One Year Bible as a dialy devotional reading plan for about a decade now, but lately, I have found myself having to "play catch up" because I have gotten away from that daily discipline. Making the adjustment to the end of summer, the start of a new school year, one in college and one as a senior in high school, blah, blah, blah. See? The excuses can roll off the tongue (or the keyboard in this case), but they are nothing more than excuses. Even with blurred vision from the pupil diation at St. Lucie Eyes Associates this morning, I can see that the excuses are nothing more than a futile attempt at rationalization.
It is my prayer that i stop with the excuses, and get focused back on my daily journey with Jesus! It is my prayer that because of my personal daily walk, I will be better able to bring others along on the journey of living for Jesus every day.
On my family blog I wrote the following for today, I'll let it speak for itself, and get down to the serious business of growing closer to Jesus today:
I had my annual eye exam this morning. s I type this, the words are very blury on the computer screen because my pupils were dialted as part of the examination. It will take a good portion of the day for my eyesight to return to "normal" which for me, means the need for a slight correction for distance, and a little correction for reading. Yes, bifocals have been a way of life for me for the past several years. Not that I HAVE to wear my glasses all the time, or even when I am reading, but they help.
As I contemplate the words of the gal who did much of my exam this morning, I can't help but think about the notion that people think if they wear their glasses that their eyesight will actually deteriorate and they will be more dependent upon those glasses. She said that the rality of the matter is that your brain gets used to being able to see better, and recognizes the difference when you don't wear them.
When I spend time daily in God's Word, my life really is more closely aligned to God's plan for my life. Oh, I can "get by" when I don't spend time in the Word every day, but I am only fooling myself into thinking that it is okay. Just like "getting by" without wearing my glasses may be okay, I can "get by" with the reading I do for lesson prep, sermons, etc. But that is not what is best for me.
Just as wearing my glasses helps me see clearly, spending time daily in the Word helps me stay focused on my relationship with Christ. I don't need an annual exam to see how I am doing in this regard, I just need to be held accountable for my personal daily devotion time each day. I have a couple of accountability partners to help me in that regard. Do you?
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