Why do we honor God without Acknowledging Him?

We pray for revival. We pray for many to be saved, on our campuses, in our cities. God, we pray this fervently, while we at Moody have been so lazy. We haven't been getting out into the community and sharing Your Truth with the people. We think our assigned ministry experience (PCM) covers our responsibility of service to You. God, please give us more grace, give us motivation, desire and drive, to take the next steps in our walk with You. We Moody students are sheltered in the Moody bubble, and we don't see the weight of the need to be stepping up in our devotion and commitment to Him. We pray so often for Christians in our school, in our church, and in our city, to rise up and bring a revival, but we don't pray for ourselves to do it. Until we give ourselves to God to be that one person that makes the difference even when my plans were different, revival will not come! O God please help us! We want so much for your holy name to be revered and honored, but we don't lift more than a finger when it comes to being that person.

God, we are so lost, so hopeless. We as Christians are failures so much! God, we ask for grace, for mercy, for power and strength; and when you give it to us, we squander it. Oh God, how dare we squander your gifts, your good and perfect gifts! But we do! God, we realize our utter dependence on you, even as Christians, to do anything that pleases You. But God, we seem to be content to ask for your power and then use it for “our” outreaches or in “our” lives. God, we are so wrong. You give us these things for your glory, and we still see the perfection of ourselves as the object of our pursuit. God I know that as long as we focus on ourselves, we will never worship You. God I have experienced the difference when I work so hard to be a good Christian, and when I go into Your sanctuary it doesn't matter. It only matters if I worship You! And God there are so many times when I don't worship You.

So what are we to do then, if we are utterly dependent on You to pour out Your grace on us to do good, yet when you do, we still squander it? Father, we confess our utter depravity. Father, we are still bent to do evil, by doing good things without giving You honor. What then, do we do? [And God says, “Acknowledge Me in all your ways.”] Yes, Lord, for when we acknowledge You, You will direct and smooth our paths. When we acknowledge You, You alone get the glory, and we work not for ourselves. And when we acknowledge You in all our ways, You will lead us to righteousness, for Your name's sake!

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This all makes so much more sense now, that as we live our lives for God, we honor Him by acknowledging Him in all our ways; we obey Him by acknowledging Him in everything we do. Acknowledging God in everything is a really good way to make sure you do everything with pure motives, and God said if you do, He will direct your paths. So acknowledge God in all your ways, and you'll find it much harder to go wrong! In doing that, don't lean on your own understanding – follow God's, even when (especially when) it conflicts with yours; but instead, trust God's understanding and obey it, even if your plans were different. And how do we seek it? Acknowledge God in all your ways, and He has no other choice but to come through with directing (smoothing) your paths.

In acknowledging God in all your ways, you are Tieing your life more completely to God's, and your way becomes clearer, straighter, stronger.

Around God but not With God

God's taught me a lesson in the past few days. I'm coming back to Him today, and things are better now. Here I write my journey. Enjoy reading, and I challenge you to challenge yourself while you're reading. Try to identify with me - where I was, and where I'm going.

Background:

For a few weeks now I've been so busy with school that I neglected my “quiet time” just about every day. A couple times in there I had some “really good Bible reading times” but I haven't really talked to God as a relationship for quite some time. I really need to because I really need to, but to add to that I'm looking for a job and I haven't really handed it over to God yet. I thought I had a job, and I might, but they haven't called me to schedule work for me yet, and it seems as though God is just holding them off until I return to Him. I do need the money for next semester, and it looks rather feasible, IF God puts me into a decent job. Furthermore, since I came back to Moody, I've been somewhat disoriented as to what my aim within a Moody education should be – Bible or Youth Ministry major – and besides this specific unsurity, there is a disorientation just about my path in life, about future plans, goals, desires. I'm beginning to realize that I haven't had the light on. Without God's direction active in my life through my constant seeking Him, I'm lost. When I don't have alone time with God, to talk and trust, the light grows dim, and I don't know where to go. With God, I just feel rather distant. Like the idea of Him is here, but He is not. Like He's just outside my door, still accessible, but I haven't had him in my room to visit for a while. Classes, chapels, and conversations are all about God, but seldom with God. That has been my problem. I've learned about God, but haven't been with Him, haven't known Him intimately for a long time, haven't experienced the relationship that I should be having with Him. No I'm not an “experiential” Christian, but I believe that relationships are experiential more than anything else (the experience based on correct and intimate knowledge of the other), and this is exactly what God intended when He created us, when He came down to us, and when He died for us.

Prayer:

God, Why have I forsaken You? Why have I neglected You? I've gotten so caught up in school, in learning about You, that I've lost track of actually knowing You. Father, I really want to know You. I want to intimately know You. God, give me Your love, show me your lovingkindness. I want to be with You again. Lord, help me find my way. I am lost, and Your light has grown dim in my life. God, please come near to me, so I can feel Your presence, so I can know You care, so I know You're here. Thank you God, I feel You are near now, and not far away where I had placed You before.
God, please give me vision, to see ahead, to see where to go, where to set my bearings. Or if you want me to stay with the current moment, without knowledge of Your plans for my future, then help me to understand that that's where You want me. I don't know right now. God, I've been one of Your children who “doesn't know,” who “doesn't understand” (Isaiah 1). Father, I believe where I went wrong is when I trusted you a little, but when the going got harder, I didn't trust you more. I took more responsibility and put it on my own plate, not sharing it equally with you like I should. When I have more responsibility, I need to talk to You even more, God. I am only a man, and You know my limits. You can work the rest when I am lacking.

Father, my heart needs changed. In order to have You, to want You, to need You, in every moment of my life, my heart needs changed. Lord, I don't want to live this life without You. I don't want to live one second without You, because to do so would be estranging You, sinning. God, keep my heart and flesh and mind. They are Yours now, but they may not be Yours tomorrow. I want them to be Your always! Perhaps it's because I never give them completely over to You, because You would never give them back if I had.

Take my life, I lay it down, to You who's crowned. I give all my pride, I give all of me. Lord take my flesh, take my mind. Take it all, and keep it all. Father I don't want it back. It should never have been mine. Why I've held on to it I don't know. Give me wisdom, give me Christ – give me You. Only You, Lord, only You. I will worship only You. I will work for only You. Lord, every second is only for You. If you wanted me to lay on my side for 390 days, yea for the rest of my life, I would be pleased to serve You. Only make me sure of my calling so I will know how to please You best, God. Oh, why did I ever leave? But now, lead me on and I will run after You!

I've run the other direction so many times, so far I've gone without knowing it. But while I flee, You sang to me over and over and over again. So I lay my head back down, and I lift my hands and pray to be only Yours, I pray to be only Yours – I know now You're my only Hope. Sing to me the song of the stars, of your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again. When it feels like my dreams are so far, sing for me of the plans that you have for me over again. So I lay my head back down, and I lift my hands and pray to be only Yours – I pray to be only Yours – I know now You're my only hope. I give you my destiny; I'm giving you all of me. I want your symphony – singing in all that I am to Your glory. And at the top of my lungs, I'll give it back. So I lay my head back down, and I lift my hands and pray to be only Yours – I pray to be only Yours – I know now You're my only hope left to glorify You.

Solution:

How often do we talk about God and talk with God in our conversations with our friends? How much do we really engage God in chapels? Our classes are either learning human things that are useful for learning and teaching about God, or learning about God directly, even being amazed at God at times, but how much do we engage God in our classes? Proverbs 3:7 says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” I think this is exactly the verse for me at this time. I've mused about it for years, how we dampen the importance of that first phrase, “acknowledge Him in all your ways.” What does it mean?! Really, what implications does that have? What should we do? “Acknowledge Him in all your ways” -- give Him credit for things as we talk about it – not only that, but thank Him on the spot for good things! We sometimes do it privately, why not do it publicly? If someone mentions the weather is nice, say “Thank-you God!” You might want to say “Praise God” or “Thank God,” but my emphasis is actually talk to God! When you're in a conversation, if you have a God-centered mindset, you will think about everything as it relates to God. If someone complains about the food in the SDR, you will think about it with God in mind. God as the Source, God as the Giver of good things, God as our Provider, God as the one who oversees everything that comes into our lives. Do you want to complain about the food now? And with this mindset, every conversation will have the good and the bad. I believe we must learn to talk to God in our conversations with our friends. I should literally treat every one-on-one conversation as a 3-person conversation, with God standing there with us. Because I believe He Is.

Isaiah 1

The book of Isaiah has been interesting to me for a long time now. I don't think I've studied it enough yet. Like several of the other prophets, it outlines the story -- oh, the wonderful story! -- of God's dealings with man through history, and looks forward to the fulfillments of promises in His wonderful plan.

Here's a snippet from Isaiah chapter 1 that I just love. It shows so much of God's heart. These are God's words -- imagine God saying this with perfect expression of His ultimate holiness and disgust, but also immense love and longing.

"Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."

For a little turn of topic, God has been teaching me a lot about perspective. One might call it worldview, or a way of thinking. On Sunday I listened to two sermons by Paul Washer. He is so powerful because he has such a radically different -- and more correct -- worldview than I do. No matter what he talks about, it is powerful because the way he sees things is so powerfully right. His view of God is so strongly God-centered that everything he says probably could be traced back to his understanding of God.

I want to have a right view of God, and a strong passion for Who God Is. I want to see things in the Bible the way the Bible teaches them, the way Jesus taught them, the way they are -- not hindered by how I've been taught to interpret certain things in the Bible. I'm beginning to realize that even my objective thinking is so warped by my post-modern culture. The way I think and the conclusions I come up with are always subject to further interpretation or others' opinions -- but when it comes to God's Word, there is NO further interpretation! To have a right view of God, I need to read my Bible more -- to soak it in, to think God's thoughts on the pages. O God help me! I'm such a failure at these things -- transform my mind, my physical mind, so I will do what I resolve!