Justification.

Lately, there has been a lot of justification going on in my life. Justifying spending money going out to eat every week. Justifying wasting time watching meaningless television shows because they're entertaining. Justifying doing SO much for myself and so little for others. Justifying not reading my Bible because I'm "too tired." Justifying not focusing on God and what He has called me to.

What am I doing?

Seriously, Tara, what are you doing?


I remember distinctly a couple years ago when God flat out told me, "I've got something big in mind for you." (I know that may sound a little crazy, but it was the clearest message from Him that I have ever received.) It shook me in my bones. I knew at that moment that my life had to be different from the world. I knew from the very core of me that I couldn't be caught up in the American, self-seeking lifestyle. This was a very strong warning that echoed throughout everything I had been reading. Instead, I had to think and speak and breathe and live God's lifestyle, letting Him set my path. 

But right now, I'm smack dab in the middle of being just like the world. Doing so much crap that is just plain contrary to Scripture. It's awful. I relate to Paul completely when he says, "For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time." (Romans 7:17-20, The Message)

I am so broken! Why is it so hard for me to daily follow Jesus? I need a total reformation of my mind and heart through Him. Instead of thinking, "What should I do today?" it should be, "Lord, please somehow use me for Your Kingdom today." Instead of wasting money of myself, I should look for ways to give it away to those less fortunate. (After all, we are only stewards of these resources here on Earth. They all belong to God, not us.) Instead of judging people and their actions as "bad," I should be humbled that God chose to save me, a filthy wicked sinner, and allow me to become His child, a new creation. And that there is NOTHING good in me but Jesus.

"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." (Romans 12:1-2, The Message)

Our life is an offering to Him, a sacrifice; therefore, we are not the owners of our bodies. Knowing this, we realize that neither are we the owners of our decisions; we can't base what we do solely on what we think is right. Every simple action we perform must flow from God in order to be good and righteous; He brings out the best in us! We don't bring out the best in ourselves, so why would we ever rely on ourselves for anything? We desperately need Him to make any sort of difference in this broken world.

This is the exact opposite of what the world tells us. Satan wants us to believe that we should only depend on ourselves for happiness and fulfillment, working to make "our own" money to buy more and more things while giving in to every desire of our flesh. Don't buy into his lies!

"Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life." (Romans 8:5-7, The Message)

There is freedom found in being a sacrifice to Christ.

Lord, thank you for waking me up. Thank you for blessing me more than I could ever hope to deserve. You have broken my bonds of slavery to sin! Give me Your eyes to see, Your heart to love, Your hands to serve. I can't do it without you. Let me drink of your living water; there is no way for me to be filled of my emptiness without You. Allow my joy in You to spill out into the lives of others, giving them hope and wonder at Your grace.

I hope this message blesses you.