Praise

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave. -Psalm 86: 11-13-

Three verses of complete power, so much that I stuttered, I needed to hear all of that. I need an undivided heart, I need to fear His name more, I need to praise and glorify His name, and I needed to be reminded that I was pulled from the depths of the grave.

Verse 12 stayed with me a little longer - I will PRAISE you, O Lord my God, with ALL MY HEART; I will GLORIFY your name FOREVER. What would that really look like? There's always verbal praise, verbal glory that we can give to God as we pray and go about our day. But just yesterday I read about God calling us to be do-ers of the His word (james 1:22-25, Luke 6:46-49). So, I wonder, how can I praise and glorify God with my actions.

It's been rough on me not having any job, and not having much to do while I wait on people to call me back. And I think, actually I know that I have wasted a lot of time. Of course, it's okay for me to relax, but not to be a complete bum. God has given me all this time that I could/should be using to learn more about HIM, to draw close to HIM - that would bring HIM a lot of glory. And if I was learning more about Him, I would probably be praising Him more. AND, if I was spending time in His word, I wouldn't be as tempted to make poor choices!!

I also know that I've had a poopy attitude at home. I don't try to, it just happens. When i try and talk, I sound agitated, or I have a blank look on my face, or I don't want to tell them anything. It's hard to have conversations with my family, and many of the conversations are heart breaking: either bad news, or how my sister doesn't care about God, or gossip, etc etc. However, this is the place that God brought me back to. I don't know if I'll be leading them in salvation prayers but it hit me today that my actions/attitudes can lead them to question my lifestyle. Of course it's hard, but it would bring God glory.

Today I remembered teaching the kids in macomb about Jesus and how he used to water to wash his disciples feet. And my challenge to them was to do something nice for someone that they wouldn't normally do. To empty the dishwasher for mom, or help a sibling with a chore even if it wasn't their turn. I think I need to take my own advice. If I'm going to be home all day there's no reason I can't do a laundry check, get that ironing done that's been sitting there since last week, wash the dishes, put away the dishes, vacuum, clean windows, take out the trash, go grocery shopping and the list goes on and on. Now, i do some of these things, but nearly as much as I could do (especially being that I am home all day).

It also struck me that in verse 12 he talks about praising with ALL of his heart. David didn't want to just give part of his heart to God, but wanted to give him thanks with everything he had. How often do I feel my heart and my life divided into so many different parts and places. I know some people focus on our humanity, and will say that we can never praise with ALL our heart. And that may be the case, but you'll never know if you don't try. If we only do what we think we can do, we are putting God in a box, and not trusting that He can do so much with out lives if we just give them over to Him. In the spirit of Christmas, it's like wanting to find the perfect gift for someone but fearing that you will not find it. So instead of getting them something, or trying to look for it, you give them nothing instead. I wonder if that's how God looks at it? If we only give half our heart, if it really comes across as nothing? Or maybe it comes off as luke warm (revelations).

Again -Psalm 86:11-13)
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

PS If you could join me in praying about God's will/direction for my life, that would be much appreciated. I should hear back from Mooseheart this week.