Dependance

This week's memory verse:
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8

I have come to depend on this quiet time in the mornings...I read God's word and pray and listen for God's guidance. I read the Bible study lesson, and then write my blog message using that as a guide. This is my morning routine and my day just isn't the same if I don't follow that routine. God has become part of my morning. 

I am blessed by this routine...but what I need to work on is making God a part of my every MINUTE! I usually come up with a plan for my day during this quiet time...I pray and ask God to help me plan what I need to eat and how many steps I need to get in during the day to improve my health. Some days I follow the plan...but...most days the plan is forgotten by the time I have had my first customer at the library. Stress and busyness have a way of making me forget the good things I prayed about just hours before. This is so frustrating for me.

Today's Bible study leads me to Hosea 10:12-13. It asks me to put parts of these verses into my own words. You can look them up for yourself and put them into your own words as well.

"Sow for yourself righteousness" - do the right things, do what God is telling you to do.

"Reap the fruit of unfailing love." - God loves me no matter what...I need to remember that and rely on him to help me do good.

"Break your unplowed ground." - there are still parts of my life that I have not totally given to God...I need to do the work, and dig in with God to get to those places. 

"Seek the Lord until he comes." - I need to keep looking for Him...keep asking for his help; don't give up

I think the hardest thing for me is figuring out what areas are still hardened and unplowed and figuring out how to "break them up." How do I give them to God instead of trying to figure them out myself? When I rely on my own thinking and my own planning...it doesn't do any good and I fail.

Hosea 10:13 goes on to say when we depend on our own strength, we plant wickedness, reap evil and eat the fruit of deception.

WOW! I don't want that! But yet I see it every day! I personally need help! Why do my morning plans fail during the day? Why can't I follow through? I don't think of the things I do as evil, but if my plan is to eat only healthy foods and at lunch I go and get French fries...is it the French fries or me that is evil and messes up my plans???

Sometimes I just wish God told me every move to make! If I did what God told me to, I KNOW things would be better! But, God is wise and knows that we need freedom. The good thing about a map is that is gives you the lay of the land, yet you still have choices as to which direction to go. A map doesn't tell you how old the forest is or why the mountain is there...it tells you how to get where you are going. God is our map...he leads and guides us on the directions to take to get to him...we are on that journey our whole life. It is up to us to follow his directions or take off on our own. He wants TOTAL DEPENDANCE from us, but doesn't demand it...we have to give it freely to him. The problem is, we have to figure that out and figure out HOW to overcome our self-dependance. 

Lord, I ask that you make me willing to follow where you lead and help me depend only on you. Help me to make my dependance on you last longer than the morning...that I will learn to look for you throughout the day. I don't want to plant and reap wickedness just because of my own rebellion and laziness! Help me look to you for everything! Amen.