Doing What Is Right

Why is it so hard to always do what is right? I am not talking about lying or stealing but doing what is right when results are involved. We are a very results oriented world. We do things to get results and if we don't get the results we want we get frustrated or quit. I think that sometimes God wants us to do what is right even if we don't get the results we want. For me that is weight loss. As I have lived in a diet oriented world, as long as I am losing weight, I keep eating the right things. The minute I don't lose the weight I want to lose, I get frustrated and if it doesn't turn around quickly... I quit. Guess what? I gain all of the weight back, I have not maintained a healthy temple for my Savior and Satan has won.

I am trying really hard to do all of the right things... eat right and exercise. I have even given up cheese and I have lost all of 1 pound in two weeks. I told my small group about my struggle and that I really think that this is a Dana-God-Satan battle and that I have to stick it out this time. I am tired of Satan winning this one. I wonder if God wants to see me do what is right because it is what is best for my body and my family, not because the scales are rewarding me. That is what I am going to do... The Right Thing!

Doing the right thing with or without the results can come in many areas other than eating. It can come in your quiet time and Bible study, it can be keeping your house cleaner, it can be exercise, it can be something at your job. God wants us to do what we know is right and look to Him for approval, not anyone or anything else.

My challenge to you this week, examine your life and look for something that you do only because of the result you might get and do it because it is what you know God wants you do!

God Wants Me to Put HIM First!

Haggai 1:3-9 says, "Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.""

Wow, what a powerful verse! God is telling us... commanding us to put Him first in our lives. When I read these verses last night, I was almost blown away. For me, I have struggled with contentment at various times of my life... you know, never being satisfied with what I have. Wanting more, wanting better. God is saying until you put me first, nothing else will be satisfying to you; nothing else will be good enough. Not your clothes, not your house, not your food, not your relationships... you will always be looking, searching for more, for better. Searching for peace, contentment, happiness.

Consider what would happen if we put God first. He would fill us up. We would not be filling our bodies with unnecessary food, filling our homes with junk hoping "it" would make us happy, we would not be looking at our relationships especially our marriages as hopeless and unsatisfying, turning our eyes to others or to other options like divorce to make us complete and at peace. God would make us complete and at peace. We need to quit trying to fix it ourselves and just look up... to Him!

What are you filling your life with in place of God? Are you happy and joyful and content with your life? If not, consider what your are filling your life with and replace "it" with God.