Depend

Well, after hours with Comcast and the Geek Squad, they have finally gotten my internet up and running smooth after 10 days of trouble. I just did not realize how dependent I was on it until it was not available. Aren't we like that about so many thing in life. We just don't fully appreciate things and people until they are no longer around. I know this is just a computer thing....and far fetched to compare it to people...but just take a minute and think about what you are dependent on? Your car or your transportation each day,your home...the base that you are comfortable in, a paycheck or an allowance, a pet watching/waiting for you as you come and go, the local gas station having gas, the hot water you need for your bath/shower....and then there are the people in your lives....the ones you so dearly love, the ones you see at the market, the ones who live out of town that you get to touch base with here and there.

Dependence starts out slow....we really don't even grasp that it is becoming a part of us or our routine...it just happens. We notice when life has shifted....and something or someone is no longer accessible. We are wrapping up this Bible in 90 days journey. Only two weeks remain...with a few extra days at the end. I keep coming back to it becasue it is so forefront in my everyday life. For each day I have to read 12 pages to keep up with the program...and so each day I am joining God in His word. It has now become a routine and I am now dependent on the read to encourage my thoughts in one way or another. We have just rolled into the New Testament. Again it has got me thinking on who and what I am dependent on. And quite frankly....I know that God wants me to learn to live what I am learning. The dependence...all dependence....my dependence is to be on HIM. All other things and people are merely tentative substitutes.

That is hard concept...because in the world that we live in, we trust more in what we see and can touch than what we can't. It is the tangibles...the securities of what we have adopted into our lifestyles that we continually try to keep up with to maintain the comfort level that we desire. But as I continue to read God's word....it is more than obvious that a true and deliberate trust in God conquers all the dependence needs that I have mentally and physically manufactured in my heart and body and soul. Because everythign...everything that I have...everyone that I love....and all things that I enjoy are gifts that have been made available to me by God himself. But never never never has he intended for any of those things and people to pull from my dependance on Jesus. He is to be my advocate, my defender, my guide, my counsel, my protector, my goal initiator, and my "go to" friend who does in fact know all....about me and everything and everybody..

This computer thing has been frustrating...to say the least...but finally I let it go and decided that if God wants me to write...he will have it fixed...and for the meantime as I wait for scheduled technicians to fulfill their appointments....I will seek out other opportunities that God would have me be a part of. And they were all over the place. I found that I get trapped so often in my man made schedule and leave very little room for God to interrupt. Even thought I am doing what I think it is that God has called me to do...I close the door to my heart and mind and don't even allow HIM the rights to interrupt it...and make adjustments to what it is that HE has designed. So he has to make his way in by other means...and this computer interruption was his way of doing so this time.
I figure that when we get too comfortable...in our routines and such...we get complacent...and complacency makes us lazy and if we are lazy we don't make any effort to seek out God...and the purposes that he has for our lives.

Those purposes, if we act upon them, are what he knows will bring us joy and a peace that will give us fulfillment.

The deal is God sent his son Jesus...to make way for our one on one relationship with the Father....who made way for His Holy Spirit to guide us...and whenever life takes a detour...be it something so small as a computer glitch or something so grand as losing a loved one....He remains steady. We change, our circumstances change but God remains constant.

I think sometimes God allows detours just as reminders for me to stay focused on Him and not be sidetracked by trials and adversities and genuine heartaches of sad times. As I read and read and read the story of God....it is so clear to me that he wants and desires and seeks a loving and intimate relationship with each of us....and he has done everything in his POWER to open that door for a relationship....we are the ones that keep seeking the comfort and satisfaction of worldly desires....instead of standing and be content with His heavenly promises. We get frustrated and fearful and despondent....when we find ourselves depending on things of this world instead of blessings and gifts from our true Father. For with God and through God all things are possible and are filled with hope...nothing is too hard for God...but he remains in a position to bring us UP to his standards and help us not dwell on stupid small stuff that has no lasting value.

Jeremiah 17:5
This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

Now really....think a minute...are you focusing on circumstances....and allowing yourself to be pulled downward or are you focusing on God....the mastermind of all livign things...who has the power and wisdom and grace to manage not just a world we live in but each of our lives as well. God wants us to look upward...and seek His way....and depend on HIM. If things are messed up in your life...he knows how to untangle them...if things are sad and you feel isolated...he is there to be your constant companion...God knows our hearts...God sees our ways....God wants to be a part of everythign that we do and think...but oh, so many times we push him aside for things that have no value and true meaning. Today....take a minute to look up...and trust God and ask HIm to give you what it is that you need...and alao ask Him to reveal himself to you in a way that you would recognize...and then quietly listen and watch....and you will know that he is God and is with you. For he is listening and watching you...

Dear Lord, Thank you for giving me this vessel back...and thank you in the days that I was stranded that you showed me so many other ways that I could interact with you and walk in your ways. Help me to grow to be more and more dependent on you...and to look up when things about me seem to be pointing down. Amen


website:
www.cathyjodeit.com
email address: cjodeit@gmail.com
The blog link below has all devotionals from the beginning of the year:

http://simplygod-cathy.blogspot.com/