Devotion and Practice...

This morning as I was finishing my reading of Ezekiel, the Lord jolted me with several verses from 33:30b-32. It says, "The people say to each other, 'come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.' My people come to you as they usually do and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but not do put them into practice." I read that as I was going through my devotions - I had just asked God to speak and I was sitting before Him to listen to His word. As I read those lines I had to stop and ask myself if I was just like them. Do I proclaim to want to hear God's Word and do I even express devotion, and yet lack in the practice part? I had to admit those verses related to me more than I wanted to acknowledge. A major part of this journey has been to face that reality and begin to do life differently. I am slowly learning what it means to come to the end of myself. What it means to really means to die to self. To come to the end of my strength so that God's strength can be manifested in me. I am not there yet. But I am learing how recognize quickly which thoughts and actions that are about to come out, are not God's. As a result I am beginning - just beginning - to do life differently. There is nothing like the small confines of an RV to reveal and expose things in my life that had been able to remain hidden behind my own rationalizations. Thank goodness God never gives up on us. May you too come to the end of yourself so that Christ can truly be glorified in you. Bless you!!!