During the church service this morning, we sang a song that was very relevant to certain circumstances in my current life. For the past few months I have been allowing myself to believe a lie that has caused me to follow consistent sin patterns. Every time that I would go to God confessing the sin patterns, He would try to unwrap that lie, but I was unwilling to look. Until recently. Just a few weeks ago, I allowed God to fully show me that lie, and the despicable ugliness it has caused in my life. At that point I made some pretty radical changes that essentially was a way of running and screaming in the opposite direction.
The lie was that I needed something besides God to satisfy me. That God wasn't enough, and so I needed to look elsewhere to find that satisfaction. I often looked in very unhealthy and sinful places, and this was deteriorating my life. But God has been encouraging me with a specific peace of scripture lately, and I cling to this scripture when my flesh wants again to give into unhealthy self-satisfaction.
"You make know to me the paths of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy, at Your right hand pleasures evermore." -Psalm 16:11
Then this morning the lyrics to a common worship song of the day really uplifted me in this area.
A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
Should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace
A thousand times had I given into my flesh, yet God stood ready to shower me in mercy. And when I stumble, He catches me and uplifts me with His grace.
Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise
But now I can replace that urge of the flesh with a godly desire to seek fervently after God's will, and place it as up-most priority. And my new purpose is to lose myself, that is the flesh, in giving God praise. "Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord." -Psalm 150
In my heart, in my soul
I give you control
Consume me from the inside out
Let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out
I give you control
Consume me from the inside out
Let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out
So going back to that piece of scripture from the Psalms, and combining it with these lyrics; God is everlastingly satisfying, and thus I choose to give Him my heart and soul, to give Him control, and to let both His satisfying grace and His will consume me both inside and out.
As you strive to prepare for future marriage, or grow in your current one, I challenge you to remember that only God can fully satisfy. And it is when we try to seek complete satisfaction in other places that we are lead towards sin. Place God as top priority, and your other priorities will fall into place.
"God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing."
-C.S Lewis.
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