Numbers 28:2
“Command the people of Israel and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time…”
It is not devote practices that make us holy. I know this but still fall into it. I follow all the rules and try to get everything right to show God that I love Him. Fenelon notes that “The devotion that makes us holy and devotes us entirely to God consists in doing all that God wants, and in accomplishing everything he desires from us, in every place and in every circumstance he places us.”
God is incredibly patient and kind with me yet I often get it wrong. I give Him my tinny little sacrifice and fail to live a life that truly devoted to Him.
Sometimes I think the answer is just to stop doing devote practices. Part of me believes I am wasting my time and energy. I need to stop, give it up, and do what? I have no clue. Is this the direction to go? I know that living my life just for myself would make me absolutely miserable. Yet, in so many ways, I fail to live a live that loves others well.
Do the devote practices get in the way? Sometimes they do. Sometimes they distract me from focusing on the things that really matter and they hinder me from living a life that reflects His fruit. Devote practices are something I can easily control and manage and I am comfortable with them. I find it much easier to follow devote practices than to step out in faith and take risks.
Other times, devote practices draw me closer to God, in a place of abiding with Him where I can truly be fruitful. There are times that I have seen fruit in my life and/or others lives as a result of obedience and following devote practices which has encouraged me to press into them.
I think the difference is where my heart is at in the moment. Brother Lawrence wrote, “I know that for the right practice the heart must be empty of all other things; because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone, without emptying it of all else besides, so neither can He act there and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him. We ought to give ourselves up to God, both in temporal and spiritual things, and seek our satisfaction only in fulfilling His will. Whether He leads us by suffering or consolation, all is the same to one truly resigned.”
The question I really need to ask myself is one of the questions that Fenelon asks: Have I really made a decision to live to please God or am I still living to please myself? Brother Lawrence wrote, “People seek methods of learning to know God. Is it not much shorter and more direct to simply do everything for the love of Him? There is no finesse about it. One only has to do it generously and simply.”
Sometimes my life reflects that I am really living to please myself. Rather than doing everything for love of my creator, I live in self love expecting God to do for me.
When our hearts are truly devoted to God, as Fenelon notes, we will not only do the will of God, but do it with love, joyfully. He is worthy of my joyful and fully devoted service. Sometimes I just go through the motions. I want to do it all right but my heart is not fully in it. In my heart, I sometimes want to please myself but I do what God asks because I don’t want to get in trouble with Him. I don’t see it His way but I know it is what He wants so I do it anyways.
How do I get there from here? How do I get to the place of devotion to God that lives to please God does so joyfully?
Jesus, you are worthy of my full devotion and joyful service. That I may live to serve you in a way that brings you glory. Forgive me for all my sins and failures. Remove complacency from me.
“Command the people of Israel and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time…”
It is not devote practices that make us holy. I know this but still fall into it. I follow all the rules and try to get everything right to show God that I love Him. Fenelon notes that “The devotion that makes us holy and devotes us entirely to God consists in doing all that God wants, and in accomplishing everything he desires from us, in every place and in every circumstance he places us.”
God is incredibly patient and kind with me yet I often get it wrong. I give Him my tinny little sacrifice and fail to live a life that truly devoted to Him.
Sometimes I think the answer is just to stop doing devote practices. Part of me believes I am wasting my time and energy. I need to stop, give it up, and do what? I have no clue. Is this the direction to go? I know that living my life just for myself would make me absolutely miserable. Yet, in so many ways, I fail to live a live that loves others well.
Do the devote practices get in the way? Sometimes they do. Sometimes they distract me from focusing on the things that really matter and they hinder me from living a life that reflects His fruit. Devote practices are something I can easily control and manage and I am comfortable with them. I find it much easier to follow devote practices than to step out in faith and take risks.
Other times, devote practices draw me closer to God, in a place of abiding with Him where I can truly be fruitful. There are times that I have seen fruit in my life and/or others lives as a result of obedience and following devote practices which has encouraged me to press into them.
I think the difference is where my heart is at in the moment. Brother Lawrence wrote, “I know that for the right practice the heart must be empty of all other things; because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone, without emptying it of all else besides, so neither can He act there and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him. We ought to give ourselves up to God, both in temporal and spiritual things, and seek our satisfaction only in fulfilling His will. Whether He leads us by suffering or consolation, all is the same to one truly resigned.”
The question I really need to ask myself is one of the questions that Fenelon asks: Have I really made a decision to live to please God or am I still living to please myself? Brother Lawrence wrote, “People seek methods of learning to know God. Is it not much shorter and more direct to simply do everything for the love of Him? There is no finesse about it. One only has to do it generously and simply.”
Sometimes my life reflects that I am really living to please myself. Rather than doing everything for love of my creator, I live in self love expecting God to do for me.
When our hearts are truly devoted to God, as Fenelon notes, we will not only do the will of God, but do it with love, joyfully. He is worthy of my joyful and fully devoted service. Sometimes I just go through the motions. I want to do it all right but my heart is not fully in it. In my heart, I sometimes want to please myself but I do what God asks because I don’t want to get in trouble with Him. I don’t see it His way but I know it is what He wants so I do it anyways.
How do I get there from here? How do I get to the place of devotion to God that lives to please God does so joyfully?
Jesus, you are worthy of my full devotion and joyful service. That I may live to serve you in a way that brings you glory. Forgive me for all my sins and failures. Remove complacency from me.
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