Scraps

It’s funny how God will give you little clues in the midst of everyday life. As I was cooking dinner last night and watching my dog standing expectantly by my side the whole time, it hit me. I don’t love my dog anymore or any less if she is always around me. However, she gets major benefits when she is around me more.  I am more prone to give her a little scrap here and there if she is around opposed to me calling her to come get one. The same is true of my children. I don’t love them less if they decide to stay home instead of going shopping with me or if they go to a friends house instead of staying home but they will more than likely benefit more from being with me.  I still might pick them up something at the store but if they were with me and I went to Starbucks, they too would get Starbucks.  It’s not just about receiving gifts either.  If they spend more time with me they will receive more of my wisdom, advice and encouragement.  

I find this true with God too.  He blesses me if I spend a little or a lot of time with him. However, I do gain more benefits from hanging out with him more.  I recognize his voice more easily when I am with him more. I’m able to recognize the gifts he gives me more easily. Best yet, I am able to respond in a way more reminiscent of his because I am studying his ways more.

Romans 12:2The Message (MSG)

Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.