Daily Pursuit Every Day: May 3
It's not about right or wrong or even good and evil, it's Life or Death.
I really resonated with today's Tozer excerpt. During the past few years the Lord has been correcting my morality. Right and wrong aren't defined by us. They were prescribed by God. Good and evil aren't defined by us. One is totally God and one totally isn't. We all know to submit our moral decisions to God's word but, speaking from personal experience, sometimes we can use God's word to confirm a moral decision we already made ourselves. This is backwards! This is just the same error as when I would only go to the Lord in prayer when things weren't going my way or if I wanted an upcoming thing to go a certain way for me. I prayed and read the Bible to get what I want. I didn’t really want to hear from God because I might not get what I really want. I thought God’s rules were made to keep me from having fun. Sounds a lot like, “He is keeping that from you because He knows that if you did it yourself, you would be like Him.” That is so full of deception because it comes from the father of lies. Believing that about someone you are supposed to have a relationship with creates shame, guilt, and fear. On our own we feel like we have to run or hide. That’s not a very good relationship building environment.
A relationship with God through a regular practice of prayer and scripture reading is life or death, it's not just right or wrong. Christ is your life. You might have prayed the sinner’s prayer at camp when you were a kid so that you wouldn't go to hell but be careful not to place your trust in that one action. Do not be deceived into thinking you can find your life in anything else. When we find ourselves in that position it's because we don’t have Him and He doesn't know us. We don't spend time with Him. He is not our life. Something else is. I am saying this because I was there. I think we all may find ourselves there at some point. Don't be discouraged or afraid. I simply wasn’t eating the bread and drinking the cup. I was neglecting my salvation, not working it out in fear and trembling. He wants you. Bad. Like getting beat up, crucified, abandoned, mocked and spit on in front of his friends and mother in order to reconcile with you kind of bad. What is an appropriate response to that, really? Is it possible for us to even think of one?
“God have mercy on me, a sinner.” That’s it. I agree with Tozer, it's the only one.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17 ESV
My wife Alysha and I host a podcast called Disrupt the Comfort. In it we discuss what the Lord has been teaching us and how the Lord is moving us out of darkness into light. Look us up on YouTube or Spotify.
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