"Because your heart is proud, and you have said, 'I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,' yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god - therefore, behold, I will bring foreigners upon you, the most ruthless of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor."
Ezekiel 28:2, 7
Thoughts:
Over the past couple of weeks - probably months - I have been in a valley when it comes to my sanctification path and my relationship with the Lord. I hold to the view point of sanctification being a lifelong process much like the stock market - you'll have peaks and valleys, but over time it trends up. So upon recognizing I'm in one of those valleys, I'm trying some things to help jar me out of it. The primary action I need to take is to start dedicating more time to my relationship with God. Where your time is placed will reflect where your heart is and over the last several months my time has been spent on material things that will bring me pleasure and alas, they eventually let me down.
My wants and desires have been more than those of God while in this valley. That has to switch and I know it. The question is how to do that. The two simple answers are through prayer and meditating on God's Word, but simply praying and reading as a way to tell God to get me out of this funk didn't seem right. My heart was not in it. I wanted to go deeper and make sure I fully dedicated myself to the relationship. I didn't want to just bring God flowers and apologize...I wanted to show him how much I truly want this relationship to thrive.
Therefore, I have done / am trying three things to start. I have
- Taken my idols off of their towers and dedicated a specific time where I will spend it with God. I will put my time on what is important.
- During that time, I will pray fervently. I have search the Internet on how to create and use a prayer journal for more directed prayer and am going to see how that works. I'm also going to study the art of prayer more intently to see how to improve in that area and of course ask for God's guidance in it (thank you War Room)
- Lastly, in the remaining time I have with God after talking with him in prayer, I'm going to go into his Word. I haven't decided if I'm going to use a workbook or just jump straight into the Bible. One of my idols was reading and the intellectual pursuit that came with it, so I'm leaning towards just jumping into the Word for now and letting God speak to me.
On this first day, I picked up reading where I left off a LONG time ago in Ezekiel. I read Chapters 25-28. I didn't know what I was looking for and was going to let God speak and lo and behold, he had me stumble across Ezekiel 28. Normally, when I get into the judgments and the laments in this area, I try to blitz read because they don't interest me. However, this time I slowed down and took my time. I came across the pride issues mentioned in there and realized that was what I too was facing. It is almost as if God said, "this is what happens to the prideful, so turn away from it."
Will I be able to turn away from pride overnight? No. It is a root sin and it will be a lifelong struggle. However, it is reassuring to see it in the Word again as it will help me to pray over it throughout the day and try to keep it in check. I will fail at times, but God's grace will prevail for me.
Day 1 has lifted my spirits. I hope to see progress throughout this journey, although I know it will be long and hard. I'm not sure if I've hit the bottom of the valley yet, but I can tell the slope is tapering off, so I know it must be close. I look forward to climbing the other side.
Prayer:
Prayer:
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