Thursday, November 10, 2011

Praise the Blesser, not the Blessings

What on earth have I been so caught up with?
The past two weeks I have been wallowing in my own world, partying it up alone in pity, and it wasn't until yesterday that I finally realized what was going on.

Over and over within my mind I have picked out every little flaw in my life, dwelt on it, and then complained about it. Why? Because the things which I once had don't exist. "Why would God give me those things and then take them away?" I would ask myself.

I finally see what has been going on between God and me lately. God blessed me, I worshiped His blessings instead of Him, and He removed these blessings from my life so I would worship Him alone. How easy it is to become comfortable with all that God blesses us with, take it all for granted, and instead of praising the Lord for it, turn it into something we admire and obsess over.

Through this, God has been teaching me that He and He alone will satisfy. Only Jesus Christ is able to love me the way I should be loved, and until I find complete satisfaction and fulfillment in Him, disappointment will be the reigning emotion in my life. I search for love and acceptance in all the wrong places, while God's love emulates through Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Last night my school had a Thanksgiving Communion service during which we thanked God for salvation and commemorated Jesus Christ's payment for our sins on the cross. As I walked through the service, reading all the different verses and looking at the pictures displayed throughout the building, I couldn't help but realize how absolutely ungrateful I have been for all Jesus Christ has done for me. I whine, I complain, and I mope over what I am "suffering" from and what I "don't have" rather than thank God for the one absolutely beautiful thing in my life that matters- the love of Jesus Christ and my freedom in Him. We then continued on to another room where I took communion with a group of students I didn't know and a friend in my prayer group. What a night to remember as I was able to fellowship with my classmates and brothers and sisters in Christ, ones I had never met before, thanking God for our gift of salvation and praising Him for the work He has done in us.

I have been given salvation and freedom in Christ. What more could I ask for?

1 comment:

  1. This is so true, and it doesn't change when you get married and have children. Families are wonderful blessings, but it is easy to make them the primary focus instead of God. I love this line, "...until I find complete satisfaction and fulfillment in Him, disappointment will be the reigning emotion in my life." None of us can find true happiness in the things of this world, even good things. True joy comes only from walking with Him!

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