“Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” 1 John 5:21
My heart is full of love for the Lord and today all I can think about is how I can please Him. Pleasing the Lord is a big deal to me, but it is not always on the forefront of my mind as it should be. There are many days, I hate to admit, that my thoughts are consumed with just junk and concerns that are not even concerns but that I have made be concerns, and by the end of the day I have made it all about me and not about Him. Do you know what I am saying?
In my search to find the verse that I could just cling to and offer up to the Lord as a sweet aroma of pleasure became not so findable. The reason for that was because I was looking for it to say certain things and have certain words that I thought it should. It was because in my heart I wanted it to be so perfect that it would leave a continual smile on His face.
So there I am in the word of God searching and searching and for some reason a couple of comments that were made by some people kept popping in my head. “You know Kristi there are other things besides church and the Bible.” And the other comment was “Kristi, not everyone wants to talk or hear about God all the time.” And of course to both responses I was completely shocked and flabbergasted that I think my response to both was, “Really, what other things are more important than God and why would you not want to talk and think about God all the time?”
And that is when God led me to 1 John 5:21 “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” Here is where God whispered, “Kristi if you want to please me, keep me and make Me the center of your life. Keep your thoughts on Me at all times, store my word deep within you and don’t ever let anyone keep you from mentioning My name. Let love be your main goal and continue to obey my word.”
When I stopped to ponder on the Lord’s comment it hit me, the days I allow there to be other things besides His word or when I allow the things of this world to crowd my thoughts, are the days that are horrible. I am grumpy, stressed-out, annoyed with anyone and anything, and am more concerned about me. Even my speech and my conversations with my family and friends are not in anyway pleasing to Him.
So for me pleasing the Lord and putting that smile upon His face is done not by my words but by what He sees in my heart and I want and desire nothing more than for Him to look at my heart every day and see that it is all about Him.
Jesus pleasing You is what pleases me. Forgive me when I do those vice versa. Amen
