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“Following Instructions”
How you do everyone? It’s good to be back. I feel like I’m starting over in a way. Since I’ve been back from conference I’ve been trying to reevaluate my life. God’s been dealing with me on a lot of different issues. I know I can’t take it easy any more, and it sure hasn’t been easy being home. I know I returned from conference on fire, ready to start making things happen, but after a few days, it’s so easy to start falling into the same old habits. That’s why, at this time, I need to remember those promises God laid on my heart and start moving forward to fulfill those things He’s called me to do.
I went back to work after conference and I found myself getting frustrated. I’m a pretty laid back person so it takes a lot for me to get frustrated. I work for a newspaper in Houston as a proofreader/editor. My job involves a lot of reading, but most importantly it involves “Following Instructions.” I work for a company that does most of the advertising for the newspaper. I don’t actually build the ads, I just make sure the ad builder builds them right. My job is to make sure that everything is done correctly. No typos. No errors. Everything the client asked for has to be done just the way that they want it.
I found myself getting frustrated because a few of the ad builders kept making simple mistakes. For example, I’ll get an ad with instructions that say, “Put a blue border with stars around the ad” but the ad will come back to me with a plain black border. So, I have to mark it up, send it back and they have to fix it. You have no idea how frustrating it is when you have to send the same ad back more than once, with the same corrections that you’ve already marked before. Some people just don’t know how to follow instructions.
OK, before I go on, I want to say that I work with a great group of people. It was extremely busy last week and also it is my job to find mistakes, so I guess I’m just complaining to make a point. How do you think God feels when we keep making the same mistake over and over again? He’s probably thinking, “WHY WON’T YOU LEARN?!!! I’ve given you instructions, why won’t you follow them?”
I know God is a loving God. He’s a forgiving God. He’s a God of the second chance. But there are times in the Bible where He got fed up with people. Look at Noah’s generation. Look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at Nineveh. Look at the children of Israel in the Wilderness and on and on and on. Our God is a fair and just God. He’s willing to forgive us time and time again, but He can only hold back His wrath so long.
I’m not trying to scare you into serving God more effectively. I’m not trying to point fingers. If I am, it’s back at myself. What I’m trying to say is that God is calling His church to Holiness. We live in a day and age where sin is running rampant. It’s so easy to fall into sin. One of the speakers at conference was saying that today sin is blatant. The devil knows he has little time so he’s come out into the open. We see an attack on God everywhere, from taking the Ten Commandments out of our courts to taking prayer out of schools. We see gays and lesbians proudly displaying their lifestyle in parades. We see sin everywhere. You can’t even turn on the TV anymore without being offended. Back in the day to get pornography you had to go to a store and purchase a magazine or a video, but today all you have to do is click a button on your computer. I see in our country, a country that was built on Godly principles, a shift towards total abandonment of God. And truthfully that’s scary.
When will we learn? We keep flirting with sin and compromise and that’s what is ultimately going to bring us down. If we are truly going to be Christians that make a difference in these last days, we are going to have to put away some things that are holding us back from being in God’s perfect will for our lives.
I know I spend way too much time on the computer when I could be doing something productive. I can spend 2 hours watching a movie, but it’s hard to even crack open my Bible for 30 minutes. I’m sorry to say, but the “Scripture of the Day” that we send out does not qualify as quality Bible reading. It’s a good thing (we encourage you to sign up for it), but it’s not enough to sustain you. That 10 second prayer you say before you eat does not qualify as quality prayer for the day. That one church service a week does not qualify as quality time spent with God. It takes more. It takes a personal relationship with Him.
I didn’t want to bring a hard word today, but it’s just been on my heart because God’s been dealing with this area in my life. I want to be productive. I don’t want to waste my life away playing games. God’s called me to a great task and I can’t sit back and continue to live a “wishy washy” life. Maybe that’s not you. That’s fine, but I know that God has called me. I know He has chosen me. I know He wants to use me. And I know that I will never reach my potential until I lay aside all that hinders my walk with Him.
It’s very simple. Being an effective Christian isn’t brain science. It all comes back to if we’re willing to “Put Him First” in our lives. It’s about praying, reading and fasting. It’s about making Him our #1 Source. It’s about asking Him, “God what do you want me to do?” then waiting on an answer, and after that doing it. It’s about “Following Instructions”.
I challenge you this week to ask yourself, “Am I where God wants me to be?”
w/muchluv,
geno
DoN’t FoRgEt TO tEll A FrIend aBouT PutHimFirst.com!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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