Doing Business With God

Today, as I sat under the teaching of my Bible study leader, I was once again reminded of the importance of where our hearts are, being real...being obedient, and doing business with God. What do I mean by this? As I read more in the book of Isaiah, I am astonished at all the similarities of Judah in the day, and America today. We as a whole are well off, we are prosperous, we are successful, we have much, and there is overwhelming sense of "we can do it on our own..." and really, much pride is taken in that. Being humble, and vulnerable is difficult for most, (myself included) and there is an entitlement, ungrateful attitude that is seemingly seeped into our core from birth. We deserve the best, no one gave it to us, we earned it. Isn't that sort of how we feel as we climb the ladder at work, or do well in our own little worlds? Praise from man trumps praise from God, and being religious because "it's what you ought to do" tends to be more important that being real. Well friends, I'm here to pose a question to you that I've been asking myself today, "Is it real?" And if it's not real, than really, whats the point?

And by "it" I mean your faith. Your relationship with God, and who you profess to be. I'm not talking about the popular phrase, "be true to you.." that implies that even if "you" is morally wrong, go with it, if that's what you are...

No. Far from it. I'm asking you, is your walk with God honest, humble, reliant on Him alone, and grateful. Yes. I said grateful. You may feel as though life is just to hard, to be grateful for too much, and honestly, I'm guilty of this thought myself. But friends....we have much to be grateful for. I'm not just saying "count your blessings when things are good..." I'm talking about taking your eyes, (my eyes) off of ourselves when we are in pain, placing them on the cross, and saying, "Lord, I trust you."

We are not to be dependant upon our own securities, because when are we truly secure? A robber could break in at any time, and a tornado could sweep through and destroy your town, and then what? Do we determine that God does not care?

Well...in Isaiah, the story is this, Judah, is a strong, prosperous town, who has truly forgotten God.. She has decided that she is OK in going through the religious "acts", because isn't that what they were commanded to do in Leviticus? True. The commandments are there, but when there is no depth behind the actions, and no truth behind the words...then they are as I said in my last post, "meaningless." I'm afraid for many of us in this great nation of ours, we are in exactly the same place. We are strong! We are full of wealth! We have it all compared to most parts of the world...and friends, we are prideful. It's true we need to take care of what God has given us, but instead of being grateful to God, we want more! We have determined for the most part, that we are in our lives circumstances, because we got ourselves there! We made a name for ourselves, we earned our first dollar, and we intend to keep it that way.

And, our hearts are far from God. God is not pleased with this type of attitude, and He has thankfully given us the example of Judah to show us what He desires from us. It is true that life can be hard, but friends, God uses some of those hardships to hopefully get our attention, and cause us to once more take a good look at the cross...and do business with God. To ask God once again, whats your will for me? Show me where I ought to be, what I ought to do? Ask Him what His plans are for you rather than what you want for you. (I am no exception to this rule)

Friends, perhaps you consider this cliche at this point, but do you believe that God loves you and wants His best for you? His best, is better than anything this world says is best, or what you tell yourself is best. The truth will come out in the end, and as long as we still have breath, and we can still read His word, than we know, there is still time to take His best, over ours.

He tells us what we ought to do in Isaiah 1:16 and 17

There are 7 things He lists for us to get our feet back on the right track, and to do this much needed business with Him.

Here they are:

*wash your hands and be clean (stop what your doing that wrong)

*Take your evil deeds out of His sight

*Stop doing wrong (confessing)

*Learn to do right (Ask Him!)

*Seek Justice

*Encourage the oppressed (quite only caring for yourself)

*Defend the Fatherless

*Plead the case of the widow (look out for the needy)

And I would finish this off by simply saying, when these things are done with an honest heart, it is pleasing, if we try and accomplish this list because we are told to, but our hearts are far from God, than this too, is a waste of our time and God is not honored in it.

It has to be real. God sees whats real, and whats not...

The best part of this, is He has so much grace on us, He warns us over and over again, and I feel, we need another warning friends, I need another warning. If I become to complacent, to self-reliant, my work for the Lord diminishes and my discontent, ungrateful attitude takes over, and I'm sure is easily seen by others.

So I ask you...are you grateful? Are you real? Have you done any business with God lately? He's waiting..He loves you...and yes, life is short.