Full Circle

The Lord seems to be bringing me back to the beginning, to the start of this blog and the reason behind it.  Perhaps I have been slipping back into the comfortable old patterns, the known.  

I was doing my study on "31 Days of Praise" today.  Whoohoo I am up to Day 6! The verses I focused on were:  

Ps 99:3  Let them praise Your great and awesome name.  Your name is holy.

which led me to:

Isa.  6:3,5  And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory...Woe is me, for I am undone! "Because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;  For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

and then the next verse given:

Daniel 4:37  Now I, Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth and His way justice.  And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.  

Yes, I am going somewhere with this!!  

Things don't turn out as we plan.  Life doesn't work the way I think it should.  And who do I blame besides myself?  God of course.  I forget that He is good.  That all His ways are just and His works are truth.  I forget to reverence and honor Him. To treat Him with the respect He is due.  I blame and accuse.  I forget His goodness to me, the "visits" He blesses me with everyday.  I forget He is merciful to me. And I don't believe or recognize that He is working all things, even the mistakes, even the disagreeable and the undesirable out for my good and His glory.  

And again I must repent of this practice, this character assassination.  

So onward to the God visit.  I was out jogging this morning, listening to Joyce M as is my practice.  Into her teaching she brought the verses in Matthew 4 where Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  In verse 3 we read, "If You are the Son of God...."and again in verse 6, "If You are the Son of God"...and finally Satan attempts to get Jesus to bow down to Him.  But the crux here for me was that Jesus knew who He was.  He knew exactly who He was. And that is why He could not be drawn into failure by Satan.  And this is what I am to know as well....Who God is.  

When I know and remember and acknowledge who God is I will not fall into the blame and accusation game the devil so much wants me to play.  I will not doubt God's goodness or His plan for my moment, my day or my life.  

This is so easy to write about here.  So much harder to put into practice.  Lord, I am Your temple and want to honor You with my lips, my heart and my life...help me to remember who You are.  Help me to praise Your great and awesome name always, even and especially when things are not as I want them, when things hurt and go completely wrong.  In Jesus name.  AMEN