Good Enough for Me
"They honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me."
This scripture is in the bible in many different places (Isaiah 29:13; Mathew 15:8; Mark 7:7). It is a word that I have been meditating on for the past few days. What does this mean and God, am I doing this to You?
It is easy to talk about something, but it is another thing to act on it and do something. I want to live a life of integrity. I want what I say and do to line up.
I have been praying about this scripture ever since God put it on my heart. I have been asking God to help me honor Him with my whole heart. I have been asking Him to give me wisdom to know how to do that and what it looks like. I want to move beyond mearly talking about God and telling Him He is great and that I love Him.
I want that intimate adoration to go even deeper. I want to have a heart that is steadfast to Him in communion with Him. I need Him and I want to need Him even more. I don't ever want to be satisfied with the depth of our love- I want to always want more of Him and to be closer to Him. This is something I long for and pray for.
I have been studying Acts lately. It is an amazing book but one that has always intimidated me. I have never spent much time there until now. I am realizing how much depth there is in that book and how much I have yet to uncover- I have so much to learn. I only realize that even more as I learn more.
In Acts 7 Stephen is giving an amazing reply before the high council to accusations that were not true about him. Through out his reply he talks a lot about Moses and the exodus. In verse 40-41 he says; "Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don't know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt. So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and rejoiced in this thing they had made."
This passage is huge. It shows me how important it is to simply trust God and not question His ways or His authority. He had a plan and it was perfect- but the people could not see that because they didn't understand it. So they decided they needed to take matters into their own hands. They decided to reject God's plan and follow their own plan. They made a new God and they sacrificed to that and replaced the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It also shows me the danger of pride. The last line of the scripture says they 'rejoiced in the thing they had made.' They took pride in it and were proud of themselves and how good they were. They were proud that they could be as good as God. But then in verse 42 read what happened, "Then God turned away from them." God was hurt and rejected by them so He turned from them. It did not mean He didn't love them, on the contrary He was so jealous over them that He could not even stand to look at them loving another god instead Him.
I want to come to God to love and serve Him alone. I want to rejoice in Him and worship Him whether I understand His ways or not.
In verse 48-50 it says, "However, the Most High doesn't live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says, 'Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Could you ever build me a temple as good as that?' asks the Lord. 'Could you build a dwelling place for me? Didn't I make everything in heaven and earth?"
God is greater than us and His works are greater than our works can ever be. Nothing we can create will every compare to the things He creates; the things formed by His hand. We can not take our matters of circumstances or relationships into our own hands. If we do, it will not ever compare to the awesomeness of what He can create for us. His ways are perfect and good and so much higher than our own ways. Just because we might not understand His ways it doesn't make them any less good and holy and right.
I want God to be enough for me and I want Him to be good enough for me. In verse 53 it says, "You deliberately disobeyed God's law, though you received it from the hands of angels." I want to obey and accept God's will and plan for my life. His ways are perfect and He presents things to us in the most perfect ways even though we might not recognize it at the time. I want Him to simply be enough for me.
I was talking about all these thoughts with someone dear to me and we came to an interesting thought. We started looking at Jesus' temptations in the wilderness. It seems as though the 3rd temptation was really about accepting God for who He is and knowing that He is good enough and that His ways are perfect.
In Luke 4: 9-12 it is written, "Then the Devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, 'If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the scriputres say, 'He orders his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone.' Jesus responded, 'The scriptures also say, 'Do not test the Lord your God."
I don't think I will ever be tempted in this exact scenario. But I am tempted to test the Lord and to doubt His ways and His sovereignty. I think this was what was tempting to Jesus as well. But He was victorious and knew God was enough for Him and that His ways were perfect. He quietly and confidently trusted God and His ways. He did not doubt and He knew He did not need to test God to have the goodness of His ways proven to Him.
I want God to be my beginning and end, my everything. I want to honor Him with my lips and with my whole heart; simply and confidently. His ways and His will are perfect. He is good enough for me.
Isaiah 32:17, "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever."
Righteousness= right standing with God= being right where God has you and wants you to be= being with Him= peace, quietness and confidence forever!
posted by Kellie # 11:52 AM
