No Other Gods

I just finished reading the book "No Other Gods: Confronting Our Modern Day Idols" by Kelly Minter and as I came to the end I was sad because she was challenging me in my thinking, my daily living and what I put in the places of most importance in my life. Then boom it was the last page.  I am now on the quest for a new book to read but I need to focus on and remember all that I just read and felt was so important.

I looked back at some of my highlights and I want to share about two that stuck out.  The first is:

 "Christ is not mystified by our weakness, our fear that perhaps he is not with us, our wonderings about his love.  He became one of us for many reasons, one being his ability to sympathize with our humanity.  Being able to approach him with this understanding has greatly helped my sense of his there-ness in my life."

Christ is not surprised by the fact that I am not strong every day or that I struggle at keeping Him number one in my life.  He walked this Earth and felt the same longings as a person that I feel.  I may not be able to touch him but He is always there for me and I can count on Him more than I can count on anyone else.  Everybody lets us down at some point.  Our best friend will forget to call or hurt our feelings, our spouse will without a doubt do something that makes us feel they are not really there for us all of the time...like embarrass us in front of others or make light of something that is really important to us.  God is there for me and all I need to do is sit myself down, quiet myself and focus, not just a quick Bible reading and going through my prayer list...but really focus on Him.  He has brought me through so much and I am so prone to wander.  Help me focus Lord...not on my worries, money, Christmas coming, homeschooling but on you...only YOU!

The other highlight was:

"Sometimes it feels easier to wait the thing out instead of really pleading with God for an experience with him.  Or worse yet, easier to run to a replacement god we can actually get our hands on."

I am human and I live on this Earth so that means that things will get tough, how do I respond to those times.  It is so easy to say, "come on pull yourself together", or "things will get better, just hold on", or "something good will come from this".  How many times have I said these very things to someone because I don't really know what to say.  Where should we turn, what should we do?  I know I like to turn to cookies, cake or chocolate.  It is there, it won't say anything bad to me and for a moment I am enjoying myself.  Unfortunately, my "muffin top" is turning into a bundt cake...I have got to stop turning to other things like sweets when what I need to be doing is turning to God.  I need to throw myself at His feet and instead of "waiting the thing out" plead with my God to calm my restless impatient ways.

Colossians 1:17 He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.  This has been a verse of strength for me but I am asking myself do I really believe it?  Do I live like I believe it or do I turn to other gods to try to hold things together? There is only room for the One True God on this journey...The Project continues.