Renew A Right Spirit Within Me

Judges 18:30-31 -   There the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. They continued to use the idol Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.

Somewhere along the way…. this tribe of Dan that God blessed with a huge victory and possession of a sweet piece of land …forgot the first commandment they had vowed to keep. That one that says ...thou shall have no other gods before me… you shall worship only me… was totally forgot when they placed some of their trust and hope in the ephod and household gods they took from Micah’s house.

God let them make this bad choice for several years. He wants our love and worship…but he won’t force himself on anyone. He lets the natural consequences of our choices slowly teach us how wrong we were to make the choice that pulled our loyalties away from him….or allowed our hearts to think that it was ever okay to slit our love for him with anything else. It must break his heart so bad to watch us be so stubborn sometimes.

I don’t have any household gods or an ephod…but not many people do these days. If I am honest… several different material things slowly tricked me into sharing my complete time and love for God with other things.  The time I set aside to study the Bible and write was crowded out by other things. Something even slowly squelched the passion I once had to rise early each day and write.  The gods of this world come in many forms and sizes….and they slowly crept in to my heart and mind and rearranged my priorities.

I was reminded last night in my Celebrate recovery meeting that I don’t have to stay stuck.  I can realize that I am powerless against these things…and give total control over to the one true God. If I admit that he is my complete power…I can begin to remove all the blinders the world has placed over my mind and heart…and get back to giving God my complete attention.

Father…thank you for the reminder that the world has nothing to offer me. I only live here because you have a purpose for me and you put me here to do a certain work for you.  Forgive me for allowing the world to gain so much control over my heart and mind that I put your purpose for me in the background.  Renew my passion to serve you and spend time with you so you can direct my paths in the way you want them to go. Amen.