His Perfect Choice

Today's post is a little more on the serious side, mostly because I have been in a place of prayer and doing a lot of quiet thinking before the Lord.

"You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree; and you shall tear down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Ashe'rim with fire, you shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so to the LORD your God. But you shall seek the place which the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there." ~Deut. 12: 2-4~

I have been thinking about this portion of scripture the last few days. This chapter is continuing to instruct the Children of Israel about what they are to do when they go in to possess the land which God had given them. Call me crazy, but it is seemingly pretty clear. Go in, destroy every single thing that is dedicated to idols, associated with idols, resembles idols, or bears the name of the idols. The people do not get to pick an choose which are the "less harmful" or learn to tolerate certain things.

Nope.

Go throughout the land and destroy ever. single. thing. Everything. No exceptions.

God is pretty straightforward, wouldn't you agree? :) I underlined one specific part of it because it really stuck out--"destroy their name out of that place." Utterly wipe the land clean of anything to do with the idol. Make it so that if anyone mentions the name of the idol, it will be a foreign word.

God is Holy.

He is Pure.

He is Righteous.

Why would we expect Him to dwell fully alongside things that are less than righteous? 

The last few months, I have realized that God is really doing a deeper purification in my life. Not to say in a boastful way that I have become more righteous than you. :P But God has been continuing to pinpoint things--even seemingly small ones--that stand between me and His full presence. He's showing me things "far in mountaintops" of my heart that are still kept separate from Him. 

One of those things was an electronic device. It actually (to me) did not seem like an "idol" (they usually don't..haha), and I tried to be careful of how much I used it. Yet, it captured my attention and my spare time in a way that only God should. I would use it before I went to bed, and first thing when I got up, simply because it was accessible and easy. So, God asked me to get rid of it (in a very unusual way), and after too long on my part, He gave me the strength to follow through! Praise God! And did you know, I have not missed it at all? Nope.

Can I also just say that it is the sweetest thing, knowing that God is not satisfied with 3/4 devotion? He wants my whole heart--my undivided heart. I want to get to a place where these things in my life become a foreign word---a distant memory. 

I love Jesus.

Yet, I want to love Him more.

And, little by little, He is showing me how.

In Him,