Not Just a Morning Morsel

So I've been really bad at doing my devotions this week. Like really bad. And it's really affecting my life. I can feel myself slipping backwards. It's a horrible feeling.

This morning I was heading out to open at my Caribou. It was really early. Like 4am early. I have no desire to be up at 4am. Ever. When I have kids, and they wake up and need Mommy at 4am, or when I am flying to some "exotic" place and need to be out of my house at 4am, okay, then 4am is understandable. I know this is work, and it's a priority and important. But 4am?? Okay.

4:40 rolled around, and I was all ready to head out the door, but what's the point of getting to work early when you are opening? So I sat down at the table again and opened my Bible.

I only had a few minutes to I wasn't able to read in Ezra or John (where I have been reading),but I had a book-marker at Psalm 79. A couple verses really stuck out to me:

Do not remember against us our

former iniquities;

let your compassion come

speedily to meet us,

for we are brought very low.

Help us, O God of our salvation,

for the glory of your name;

deliver us, and atone for our sins,

for your name's sake! (Psalm 79:8-9)

These verses really outlined how I was feeling. I needed to be brought low, and I was. My ache was for God to meet me there. He answered my silent, unconscious prayer.

After I finished up Psalm 79, my eye was drawn to a verse I had underlined in Psalm 80 when I read through the Psalms last year:

Restore us, O God;

let your face shine, that we may be saved! (Psalm 80:3)

The last time I successfully read my devotion, the chapter in Taste and See talked about finding a piece of Scripture to bask in all day. Not to attempt to survive on just a morsel in the morning and nothing else the rest of the day. One would starve.

I took this to heart and have tried to do this throughout the past days that I have spent time in the Word. Today, I meditated on Psalm 80:3. I needed restoration. My backsliding is unacceptable, and I needed restoration to a place where I could be in communication with Him. And with this verse, I was able to see it. My desire became to "let [His] face shine, that [I] may be saved!"

All for His glory.

Transformed into Holy Creatures

Today I was reflecting on the fact that I have not blogged in a while. Life took over. Sorry.

The week of February 20th marked the one year anniversary of my kidney stone. To get the whole story, read my blog post. It was a week of remembrance for me. It was also the busiest week of my semester so far. God is good and glorious. He took my mind off my terror and gave me other things to think about.

I was reading my devotional, Taste and See by John Piper, today. The chapter was entitled, "Discernment by Desire: Finding God's Will by the Fragrance of the Holy." Honestly, I had a really hard time concentrating through it, but the last paragraph grabbed my attention:

The assumption here is that our faculty of delighting or desiring is healthy and God-saturated. And that is the great challenge of the Christian life: Be transformed in the renewing of your mind that you may approve [not just prove, but approve, that is test and then delight in] the will of God (Romans 12:2). Our great need is to be people whose delights are the very delights of God. (115)

Pastor Piper's paraphrase of Romans 12:2 really caught my attention. Now, I know that it's a very popular verse. Most everyone who has been to a conference of any sort or spent any time in the church has heard this verse, most of the time in addition to Romans 12:1.

However, do we really stop to think about what Paul is trying to tell us. Here, read it and really think about it:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2, ESV)

Now most people focus on the transforming of one's mind, and though that is EXTREMELY important, I want to focus on something else: the adjectives that describe our sacrifice and what the will of God is. The words "holy," "acceptable," "good," and "perfect" are all important to how we should understand these verses.

Our sacrifice should not just be mediocre; it should be HOLY. Like really holy. Like: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:14-16).

We need to strive for that holiness. And goodness and perfection and acceptability.

So I will encourage you to read over these verses again. Meditate on them and what they mean. You don't need me to point out the truth in the Bible. That's what the Holy Spirit is for. Just keep digging in. It's totally worth every moment you spend reading the words of God.

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights of the word, holding fast to the word of life.... (Philippians 2:14-16a, ESV)