Undivided Devotion
God knows you and loves you. He knew you before you were born and He knows all the days of your life. Devote yourself to the one whose devotion to you gave you your very life.
“Go back to your own country, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.” Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God. Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials...the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” “No,” he said. Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown. The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.” Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back.”
Numbers 22:4-9, 12-13, 18, 20-35, 38
Do you not think of the movie Shrek when you read this passage? Did you know there was a story of a talking donkey in the bible? What can we learn from this story? Like us, Balaam wanted to follow the Lord, but he got frustrated when things did not go the way he expected.
Have you ever gotten frustrated when you see your plans change, the road blocked, or others getting in your way? What happens to your heart? Can you stay faithful to follow Jesus commandment to love others in the midst of unexpected disruptions? Is your devotion to God limited to when life is delightful?
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalms 139:1-5, 7-10, 13-14, 16-17, 23-24
If you ever find yourself unsure of what to pray, consider praying Psalms 139 over your life. David was a man after God's own heart because his heart was God's. His actions were not perfect, but his devotion was. Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those whose hearts are pure for they will see God. Is it any wonder that David had such a deep relationship with the divine? His heart's cry was to be humble and praise the God who made him, knows him, and leads him in ways everlasting.
Is this how you feel? Have you prayed that God would search you, test you, and reveal to you any offensive way in you? Have you given Him authority over your life to be the one who leads? We live in a world that can make you feel unseen and unknown. The enemy loves to try to separate us from the loving arms of the Father. Don't let him. Declare the truth. God you know me. You made me. You knit me together in my mother's womb. My greatest weaknesses were made by you as are my strengths. I am not a mistake or accident. I am your child, I am who you made me to be. Lead me. Grow in me a devoted heart and shape me to become I more like Jesus.
“Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied. Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone? For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?”
Ecclesiastes 6:7, 9-12
There are many things in life that can shape how you see yourself and how you see God. Wisdom calls out our appetites and abundance of words. What do you hunger for today? Is your appetite to get something you have been asking for or that God's will be done? Are you thirsty for justice and righteousness in the world around you or that you comforts would be protected?
Wisdom tells us to listen more than we talk. What if we learned to simply ask God how He is moving through each circumstance rather than question the one who made us and knows all that happens under the sun? How would it have changed Balaam's journey on the donkey if he had stopped to ask God why the road was blocked? Will we stop to pause and pray before we proceed?
“I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry...Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful...because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord...But you trusted in your beauty...You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols...This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways...I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done"
Ezekiel 16:4, 8-15, 17, 22, 42-43, 47, 52, 58-63
There is a tension between God's divine design and our present reality. Look at the words God used to describe His design for your life. He wants to bathe you, cleanse you, anoint you with oil, dress you with fine linen, adorn you with jewelry, feed you with the finest food, and make you know your beauty. Do you see yourself as beautiful? Do you know you were made by the hand of the living God?
God gives and the asks us how we will use what we are given. Ezekiel calls out the people for using their gifts for pride, pleasures, and worshipping false prophets. Paul said while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Hundreds of years before Christ God said He will remember his covenant and make atonement for you and for me. His grace and generosity are meant to turn us from the ways of the world to the ways everlasting. His love is given that we might devote our lives to loving Him and those around us.
“Keeping God’s commands is what counts. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short...those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. I would like you to be free from concern. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 7:7, 17, 19-20, 22-23, 29-32, 35
Paul says keep God's commands. What is Jesus' command? Love one another as I have loved you. God's guidance and invitation to constantly examine our lives is not to produce shame, guilt, or fear. His goal is devotion. Undivided devotion to Him and a life that produces fruit that feeds others.
The enemy wants to twist the truth. He wants you to think God is holding out on you. He wants you to think that He is restricting you and keeping you from fun. Can we learn to discern the voice of truth from the voice of the false? God is not holding out on you when He blocks your way or disciplines your journey. God is guiding you with an everlasting love that leads to everlasting life. He cares too much for you to let you wander away and experience the death that is separation from Him.
How will you respond to times of correction and His call to follow? Will you beat the donkey, metaphorically speaking? Or will you give thanks to the God who made you, knows you, and loves you responding with a heart that cries out to have your heart search, asking for revelation and truth, and seeking the road to everlasting life?