Day 62 1/17

So I was just reading my devotionals for the night. I was reading Ezekiel 46, and the Lord is describing how the offerings are to be brought to Him, when the Lord revealed something to me. Something I've known and that many of us know in our minds, but when the Lord opens it up and plants it in your lap it's so amazing. The Lord opened my eyes to see that when He is describing intricate details, and repeats them, He is showing us that He wants things His way. Including the way we come to Him, the way we worship Him. He wants us to give up control to His desires. He wants us to give Him our lives, not so that we may live for ourselves, but so that we can live for Him. That is, after all, why He created us. I was reading in "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan last night. In the second chapter he describes how you or I may know someone who's been in a movie as an extra. They get all excited, call their friends, tell their family, for that split-second where you see the back of their head. They're acting as if they're the main character, but they aren't. They're just an extra. We live our lives like we're the main character. But we aren't. God is. It's everywhere in the bible. GOD created the heavens and the earth. The people rebel against GOD. GOD calls out Abram. GOD picks Joseph and Moses and directs them and works miracles through them. GOD sends prophets and judges because His people won't give Him the one thing He askes of them, obedience. He wants things done His way. Not ours. The truth is, when we've given our lives to Christ, well, we've GIVEN our LIVES to Christ. They are His to do with as He pleases. So if you're complaining about you're situation, it's not because God wants you to be miserable. Quite the opposite actually, Philippians 4:4 commands: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" It doesn't finish with "so long as you have a job," or "unless you're stressed out with family, or bills, or just like being miserable." No, we are to be obedient, and to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, as the verse states. So please, "offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your reasonable service." -Romans 12:1