Good stuff

So my daily devo these days is Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest," and I will never cease to be amazed at how deep a few small paragraphs can be. So ya know how we as Christians pray that God will make us more like Him? I know I do, who doesn't? Well, this devo challenges that idea, and has other good things to say. It makes perfect sense, and I suppose it's not the first time I heard it. I really felt like I should share this...June 10th

Seek if you have not Found. "ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." If you ask for things from life instead of from God, you ask amiss, i.e., you ask from a desire for self-realization. The more you realize yourself the less will you seek God. "Seek, and ye shall find." Get to work, narrow your interests to this one. Have you ever sought God with your whole heart, or have you only given a languid cry to Him after a twinge of moral neuralgia? Seek, concentrate, and you will find.
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the water." Are you thirsty, or smugly indifferent-so satisfied with your experience that you want nothing more of God? Experience is a gateway, not an end. Beware of building your faith on experience, the metallic note will come in at once, the censorious note. You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make him homesick for what you have.
"Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." "Draw nigh to God." Knock-the door is closed, and you suffer from palpitation as you knock." "Cleanse your hands"-knock a bit louder, you begin to find you are dirty. "Purify your heart"-this is more personal still, you are desperately in earnest now-you will do anything. "Be afflicted"-have you ever been afflicted before God at the state of your inner life? There is no strand of self-pity left, but a heartbreaking affliction of amazement to find you are the kind of person that you are. "Humble yourself"-it is a humbling business to knock at God's door-you have to knock with the crucified thief. "To him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

The last paragraph really struck me as well, because often this is exactly the breakdown I go through before I feel like I have returned to God's side. "You have to knock with the crucified thief..." WOW. Talk about a humbling phrase.

I am so thankful that God continues to show mercy to me. I fail Him so many times. You know when your heart just feels like bursting with praise? Well, I could never honestly say I felt that until recently. "My chains are gone, I've been set free, my God my Savior, has ransomed me, and like a flood His mercy rains..unending love, AMAZING GRACE."