11.6.7 "Complete Devotion"

"Complete Devotion"

Ezekiel 14:12-16:42
Hebrews 7:18-28
Psalm 106:1-12
Proverbs 27:4-6

"Who can ever list the glorious miracles of God? Who can ever praise him half enough?" Ps. 106:2

Our relationship with the Lord is an incredible thing. I don't think we can understand the full magnitude of this, and how important this relationship is in God's eyes. In Eph. 5:31 Paul quotes a verse that we've heard many times at a wedding. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." He explains something very important in the next verse. "This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church."

Our relationship with Christ is one of profound intimacy. In Ezekiel 15, the Lord is describing his relationship with his people. He talks about how he created them, and brought them to him, and then set them apart as his bride. The description of his love for them is quite vivid. It talks of gifts of clothing, jewelry, and how "you looked like a queen, and so you were!"

That's how God views each one of us. The bride of Christ. He loves us more intensely than we can realize. He can't wait to commune with us. To spend time with us. He is passionate about us.

Tragically, his people are not faithful. Ez. 15:15 says, "But you thought you could get along without me..." It goes on to describe how his bride becomes a prostitute to everyone that comes along.

We can be kind of flippant about "priorities" that are out of whack in our lives. Basically, we're talking about idolatry. About how we've found other things than the Lord to please us. To be our "lovers". We prostitute ourselves to flesh pleasing things. This separates us from God.

He created us for Him. We will never be satisfied until there is nothing that stains our intimacy with Him.

Proverbs 27:4 says, "Jealousy is more dangerous and cruel than anger." Do you know why that is? Because when we are jealous, we feel like we are not getting something that we deserve. The dangerous part of it is that it is God who gives all things, so in essence we are mad that God hasn't given us what we feel we deserve. Praise him for the fact that he didn't give us what we REALLY deserve!!!

As I sit and do my "devotions" this morning, I think of what "devotion" means. While often our time in the word can become a ritualistic task, we need to understand the purpose of what we do is to "devote" our heart to the Lord. "Lord, I give you me." That's all it takes.

I love knowing that my wife is devoted to me. She is amazing. She accomplishes so much! She makes sure me and my daughter have our needs taken care of. She'll sit next to me and read during a football game, just because she wants to be with me. She's devoted.

We need to live lives of complete devotion. We must guard against jealousy and all other cancers of the soul.

As you spend time with the Lord today, open your heart to him and ask him to purify you of anything that clouds your intimacy with him. We can't get along without Him. Even if we think we can, we need to be desperately in love with him and devoted to keep our relationship pure.



Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

P Greg


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