3 AM

Father,

How can I stand in your presence. I can't. I am so unclean and so are my friends, people at my work, and everyone I know. I don't stand a chance. Do whatever you want with me and through me.

Is radio all about me? I don't have to work in radio if it's not about you.

Is my music really all about me? Then let me never sing another song if my heart isn't right.

I don't want to trick myself, Lord. I know what you have commanded me to do... Why do I fill my life with anything that isn't born out of fulfilling that command?

Let me only be your mouth piece here on this earth for a few years. I fear you and what you can do to me. Only by your grace can I ever even look at your face.

Let me not be consumed by not even any of the slightest perversions of your true command and call. Let me truly die to myself and teach others to do the same.

I Don't Need God For That

(Listen)

Does you life look like you rely on God?

It struck me the other day that I cannot even pray as Jesus instructed people to pray. Part of the famous "Lord's Prayer" has become outdated. I'm referring to the line:

"Give us this day our daily bread..."

We have so set up our lives to not rely on God that this verse just seems unnecessary to us now. Maybe in a time when we didn't have as much money or when resources weren't as widely accessible as they are now this prayer might have been necessary -- but there just isn't a great need for it now.

Do you see what has happened? Do you see what we've done? Slowly, over time, we have written God out of His own story.

Since the beginning of time, this whole thing has been about God. He is the center of it all. He is the star of the show.

We have slowly setup our lives to not need God. We have forgotten about him.

In just a short time the Lord will either come back, or we'll die. We don't really have that long. At that moment, all that will matter is Him. Yet when was the last time we thought about that moment? When was the last time you longed for the Lord to come back?

2 Peter 3:10 says,

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God."

God is looking for people who are waiting for that day. God is looking for people who know they need him.

Do you need him? I mean, does you life look like you're relying on him?

To be honest, I don't know how to end this discussion. I don't want you to end you life focused on yourself. I don't want you to end your life forgetting about God. More importantly, I want you to spend your life needing God.

I don't know what it is for you that keeps you from needing God. Maybe you spend too much time working, hanging out with friends, playing games, planning your future, reading books, etc. I don't know. I just know that in a few short years the things around you will be gone and all that will matter is how you spent your time.

Do you spend your life needing God or not needing him?

No Ordinary Treasure

You need to read Tozer. A.W. Tozer, in his book The Pursuit Of God, says:

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.

I'm realizing how much my circumstances determine my enjoyment and satisfaction. If the things I love or enjoy are taken away, I am affected. O Father, make me a man who pursues you every moment of my life. Make my life and joy dependent on you -- not on health, food, money, people, or items.

How shallow are the thoughts of a man consumed with this world. How deep are the desires and passions of a man pursuing God.