Devotions

Update on devotion: (1) Deuteronomy 11:18, (2) Psalm 1:3, (3) 1 Corinthians 12:4, (4) 2 Corinthians 11:4, (5) Psalm 46:4.
1. "Fix these words of Mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads." I think that although this chapter talks about loving and obeying the Lord, any words He reveals to us should be imprinted and fastened onto our hearts like lockets. I know how frustrating it is to feel like my slate-- which I have worked incredibly hard to fill the right way-- is wiped completely clean every night while I sleep; as if something is looming over my head, sneering its eyes and laughing as it rids of everything I've done. But when we pose the mind of a child, the heart of a child, we are at best teachable, humble, and understanding. As His Word says, "Unless we become childlike [in this sense], we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

2. "He [who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked] is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." A tree with withered leaves is kind of like a chicken without wings or a lamb without its bundles of soft fur. Bert without Ernie, right? What is it like to be without "that thing" that makes you you? I have a feeling that there are many chickens out there [theoretically] who are looking for their wings. There are many trees that shake from cold in dead of winter because the leaves have fallen. This kind of resembles Christians who have gone from on fire to lukewarm. I know that I have not walked the upright path of righteousness as vigorously as I should lately. While I don't "walk with the wicked," all sin and unrighteousness breaks the Lord's heart. Just as there no "little" sins or "too big" sins-- just sins. When we put God into a box He loses all His majesty, beauty, and wonder. Just like stuffing a tree into a cardboard box would surely break the branches, it's much better to let God work on His own terms.

3. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit." Firstly, I would like to apologize for my haphazard writing, as all these thoughts are pouring into my brain. It's like my hands are on fire and I can't type fast enough. I have never been one to sit back and fully enjoy what I have Of course I know that I am blessed and have been bestowed grace and everything worthwhile in abundance-- according to what the Lord sees appropriate. But I know that many of my possessions are very dear to me. I may not be jealous for things like a relationship or a "better" job, but in the temporal things which will not leave me satisfied at the end of my life. My need for materials, like my books which comfort me to no end, stem from a source of insecurity. This I know. When have I ever been fully satisfied with who I am? The person I am has always yearned to look prettier, be skinnier, be accepted because I know where I come from. I have the highest expectations concerning modesty and things I have no control over. I am not good at accepting compliments and do not exactly enjoy receiving them. I am paranoid about people around me. What are they thinking? The list seems to go on and on. You may ask, "How have you survived to this point? What role does your faith play in your messed up brain? How do all those things relate back to 1 Corinthians 12:4?" Well, I suppose it falls under the category of "Why we shouldn't be jealous people" more than anything else. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit." Instead of focusing on the gifts, talents, and abilities that we may not possess, why can we not find joy and comfort in knowing that what we do have is still good because it came from the Father, too? Why can't we seem to understand that, if God had created us all the same, we'd have nothing to offer to the world? Why is it so easy for us to focus on what we could use more of? As I write this I am utterly disgusted, but I know that even today, I was probably living out the exact opposite of what I'm writing here. It just happens. It's just "America," people say. They spit that nauseating sentence around as if it were the key to solving all of life's problems. Is it just one of those "I could get used to this" things we say when we have and get everything we want? Do we really need to buy plane tickets to go experience the slums and mud huts in another country? Or can we try to rat out the root of the problem here-- the only place where that problem can truly be fixed? All that said, I was thinking of Stacie Orrico's song "More to Life."

I've got it all but I feel so deprived
I go up I come down and I'm emptier inside
Tell me what is this thing that I feel like I'm missing
And why can't I let it go

[Chorus]
There's gotta be more to life
Than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me
Cause the more that I'm
Tripping out thinking there must be more to life
Well it's life but I'm sure there's gotta be more
Than wanting more

I've got the time and I'm wasting it slowly
Here in this moment I'm half way out the door
Onto the next thing I'm searching for something that's missing

[Chorus]
There's gotta be more to life
Than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me
Cause the more that I'm
Tripping out thinking there must be more to life
Well it's life but I'm sure there's gotta be more
Than wanting more

I'm wanting more
I'm always waiting on something other than this
Why am I feelin' like there's something I missed

[Chorus]
There's gotta be more to life
Than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me
Cause the more that I'm
Tripping out thinking there must be more to life
Well it's life but I'm sure there's gotta be more
Than wanting more

4. "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most High dwells." This is tonight's devotion. This verse speaks volumes to me about God's eternal presence. The beginning of the chapter says that even if mountains are crashing into the sea (which would be pretty neat to watch from afar, I have to admit) and they are quaking in movement-- even if every nation in the world is in discord-- all the Lord has to do is speak and the earth melts. He will always be with us. For Heaven's sake, He dictates time and everything that happens in each day! In this video, Chris Tomlin writes that "what remains, what is real-- is love." Not any love, but God's love. "When hope is hard to find and faith is in decline...there is love, there is forgiveness. You will never go without love."