Confession No. 17: I Wanted To Hear From God

How do you hear from God? I spent much of 2008 wanting to hear more from Him. One of the deepest cries of my heart is that I would have a real life relationship with my father. I tried everything last year, until I finally realized that He has already given us a glimpse into His world through Christ. Jesus is the living word of God and as we read the Bible we can still hear God speaking to us today. “When you received the word of God…from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is…the word of God” (1Th 2:13 NKJV)

When I started looking at the Bible as actual words from God to His people, the text took on entirely new meanings. We have clear instructions on how to live, love, and serve our King. Through His word we can hear His gentle whispers to our souls.The next time you open up the word, don't just read it, but allow it to read you.

Allow God to speak to you and He will transform you from the inside out. That's what happens in relationships. The more time we spend with people, the more and more we start to look and act like them. Remeber that the Bible is the stethascope that allows us to hear God's heart, so grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair, because He has some clear-cut instructions that He wants to share with you.

Confession No. 16: I'm Dealing With Perfection Infection

Perfection, like pride, can destroy our sincerest efforts to please the heart of God. Before a job interview my mom once told me that I needed to do something unique to help myself stand out over the 11 other applicants... Thus started my addiction to over-complicating, overworking, over thinking, out-performing, don't stop till you can't go anymore life. The night before the interview, I worked till the sun came up. I had created a brilliant presentation and had the job less than a week later. It was great advice, but it has hindered me in so many ways since then.

It sometimes feels like everything that I do now has to be over the top. The really horrible side to this is that I am often slow to make progress. A lot of my good ideas never get launched (because I'm waiting for them to be great) and my relationship with God often seems performance based rather than based on HIS grace. My confession for today is that I want to be healed from my Perfection Infection. I want to be more satisfied with God than I want to be perfect. I want to remember that HE doesn't love me because of how much I do for Him. I want to rest in His presence knowing that He loves me as much on my worst day as He does on my best day. I want to be satisfied with Him alone. I want to live a life that truly says I believe that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."