Just Follow the Yellow Brick Road

The other day I was having my devotional time. Well actually, I really can't call it that. It's more like a date with God... except reverent, and holy.

In this alone time, I usually pray that God would prepare my heart for what He is going to teach me through His Word that particular day. Then, I flip my Bible open and the first passage I lay eyes on is the one I read. Usually.

Before you condemn me for not having a good, solid, structured devotional time, just hear me out. God has really used this method of studying His Word in my life. He has guided me to passages that are so applicable to my life; sometimes it scares me. 

Clearly, He knows me better than I know myself.

So anyway, I was reading my Bible - just having some quality time with God. You know?

For a whole week the only passage I was led to was Acts 23.  

Everyday I turned with slightly glazed eyes to Acts 23, assuming I was simply not letting Him lead me. How could that verse apply to my life? 

And every day I perused the Bible, hoping to find something else - anything that was more applicable to my life. 

"Will my Bible only open to page 1028 forever?" ~my brain.

After a week of opening my Bible and giving a discontented sigh, I sat down on Sunday night and prayed. Like, really prayed.

After communing with my Savior, I opened His Word again. Reading Acts 23 refreshed, my eyes were finally opened to what He needed to show me.

This verse leapt off the page at me - when Paul stood before the Sanhedrin saying, '"My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day"' (Acts 23:1).  How cool is that! Paul has an amazing testimony.

What he was saying was that there was nothing more he had to do for God to take him home — he had already fulfilled his duty before God. 

I deeply desire to be a completed work in Christ - I want Him to use me, sculpt me, refine my imperfections.

When I get to heaven, I desperately want to hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" As I kneeled before God that night, I prayed that I might someday say I have fulfilled my duty to God. 

Jeremiah 18:4: "But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."

Now that's a chewy thought. Just sayin'.