God Is Steadfast - In Spite Of Us

Well, its been two weeks since my last post. Anybody miss me? Anyone...? Hello...? Is this mike on...?

As I've mentioned before, spiritual discipline and consistency have always been a shortfall of mine. I'll work and work and reach a spiritual plateau, and instead of pressing on, I sit on my good intentions and rest.

"I don't have to read my Bible today, God understands."
"Don't have time for that devotion today, but me and God are tight, so it's cool."
I don't have to write a blog Every week, blah, blah."

While these are just mine, I'm sure others can fill in their own scenarios.

Why do we do this? Why do we set our eyes on the goal, then stop halfway through the race? Is it because we don't have a true view of the goal?

Jesus is our goal. To be one with Him is our goal. We know that in our human selves this race is for a lifetime, but we turn our eyes to ourselves, off of Him, sit in the middle of the track and say "See how good I am?".

From a legal standpoint, two laws would be enough to cover. "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself." (Dut 6:5) (Lev 19:18).But we can't love God fully, and turn to ourselves and our own understanding, and we can't love others properly, because most of us don't love ourselves properly. We are to put ourselves in God's care in bad AND good times. We are to love others with the same forgiving love with which God loves us. But when we step out of focus with God's love, we can no longer give that to others. These two are interdependent of each other.

Not to worry though. Even when we turn from Him, His grace is more than enough to allow us to re-turn to Him. You see even though we are not consistent, His love and grace ALWAYS are! Focus on Him is the key. Empty ourselves completely to be filled with Him completely. To reach a point where we see others with God's loving eyes, and other see God's love in us. Something I admit to failing daily, and daily needing God's grace to restore me. But even as inconsistent as I am, God is steadfast forever. Amen.

If you get a chance, read through the book of Romans this week. Maybe a couple of times. Paul says it so much better!