Have you ever had one of those days when you didn't feel like you accomplished very much, but you knew you did? Well, I had one of those today. I had a day like I knew I had accomplished some things because I can see the fruit of them. Four loaves of homemade wheat bread on the counter, chicken soup on the stove, laundry in the washer/dryer. However, I was feeling like I hadn't accomplished very much. I decided to take a warm bath, pray and read for awhile.
So, I asked the Lord, even though I have "accomplished" some things, why do I not feel very productive today? God told me that it was because He was not my priority...my primary focus. My focus was on things I was doing instead of doing things for His glory. He reminded me that I neglected to start my day with Him. He reminded me that I didn't reprimand my five year old very kindly this morning and that I need to make things right with her. He reminded me, most importantly that I left Him out of some of the "good" things I was doing. I realized that when we leave God out of the "little," day-to-day things in life, those things are meaningless. God is good to remind us of those things, isn't He?
As I was reading Ginger Plowman's book Heaven At Home, I was also reminded that not only do we tend to leave God out of our lives, but we also leave Him out of His Word. How do we do that, you ask? Well, many times we get into the habit of only personalizing God's Word to ourselves and leaving our worshipful act of glorifying God out of it. For instance, she says "We read, ""Ask and it will be given to you"" (Matt. 7:7a), and we conclude that prayer is the lamp we rub in order for the Great Genie to grant our wishes and make us happy. God does desire to bless us. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus does delight in answering our prayers: ""And I will do whatever you ask in my name...""(John 14:13a). But let us stop right there for a moment and, once again, ponder what the last part does not say. Jesus does not go on to say, ""So that you will get what you want and be more fulfilled."" Instead, Jesus emphasizes the heart of the gospel, ""...so that the Son may bring glory to the Father"" (John 14:13b)." Isn't that great? We shouldn't ask, so as to bring attention to ourselves. He was saying that when we ask God for things, we do it in order to bring glory to Jesus!
Therefore, God was gently reminding me to do everything for His glory. He also was good to remind me that I couldn't do any of what I did today without Him. Thank you Lord!
Now that my priorities are in order...this has been a very successful day! :o)
