American Idol?
Reading in Jeremiah, it can seem like God’s responses to Jerusalem and Judah are harsh and punitive; the truth is that God has faithfully kept all his promises and covenant commitments to them for centuries, lavishing on them gifts and blessings, and His whole-hearted devotion. The response of almost the entire nation was to worship other gods, even to the point of setting up images and altars in the middle of the God’s Temple!
Everything God wanted from them was to have them be His people, with Him as their only God. How many times had He called for them to return to Him? And still most would persist in making sacrifices to other so-called gods who had never done anything for His people.
Journal entry:
Where am I in this? Where have I forsaken You, turning to other sources for strength, wisdom, or direction? Or comfort, security, or value? Oh. There it is.
Eating: What is it to me?
Gardening: Why? Fear? Pride?
Ministry: Value in success?
Independence: Default mode
I can do nothing apart from You, and my new nature earnestly desires to do everything with You. Show me how to tear down the “pagan altars.”
I worship organization, though I fail to meet its demands and feel the sting of its rebuke more keenly than Your gentle rejoinders. Rather than my heart following You through my day, I devote attention to my calendar. I am a success if I don’t miss or be late for things on it. I am a failure if I do not…I do penance and resist grace thereafter. I count on it for direction, for safety. Wow… How do I deal with this?
I have said, “Jesus is my Day-Timer,” when it comes to trusting You with the departures from plan. But what about making a plan? You are not a god of chaos, but the God who orders all things after the counsel of His will. You are never haphazard in Your plans.
(Yesterday I had asked how a woman of my design is to keep house…this also applies to organization and other things. He had given me the following:)
-Waits on Me for a word, asking, “What will bring healing?” “What will produce peace?”
-Gives thanks, does not give up.
-Seeks vision: asks for the way
-Walks in favor, not condemnation
-Restores beauty
O Papa-God, keep me walking in relationship with You so that whatever fruit is produced is of You and remains. It is focus on results that leads to…or IS idolatry. You are to be the center of all our thinking, feeling, and doing – with our neighbors (and environment) the beneficiaries of that life-giving loving focus.
Please! Help me to remember!
Still following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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