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"Clean Dishes grant wishes"

Quote for Today:

"Just because we are obeying rules doesn't mean we have an enduring relationship!"
 
Good Morning!  I want to challenge us today to look inwardly.  And when we do, let us use the discernment found in our spirit to view what God might see as He analyzes and weighs our hearts.
 
As I have done such an exercise today, I believe He can see a man very dedicated to doing the right thing but struggling to do it the right way.  Though it is admiral to be such a man, it leaves me frustrated, having failed in the most important aspect of my life-relationship! 
 
If I offend my wife, I am quick to correct my mistake and restore our relationship.  If I offend a staff member, I am fast to make it right.  For I covet a strong relationship with these dedicated servants.  A student, no matter how careful I can be, may become offended indeed.  If I learn of it, I most surely will humble myself and seek immediate restoration in our personal relation.  For most assuredly I would not want to be the cause of a weaker brother to stumble.
 
Yet, the most important relationship I have is with my heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  One is my Creator and the other, my Intermediator!  I cannot enjoy life if my relationship with them has been strained.  But yet, I find myself spending my day following His rules but overlooking damage I may be causing in our relationship. 
 
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I am doing wrong.  It's that I am being wrong.  I am trying to do God's work and neglecting my responsibility to be God's work.  Ephesians tells us we are His "workmanship".  That means we are His manufactured product.  We are not manufacturing His product.  We are the product He is manufacturing!
 
Doing wrong manifests itself in our actions.  However, being wrong is revealed in erroneous thinking.   
 
Mat 23:25 warns us with "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"  The word hypocrite means "actor".  He is calling these people who claim to know God actors.  It's because they know a lot about God but they do not know God.  Thus, they follow the rules, but they have neglected their relationship.  He says it like this:  "for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess."
 
Extortion is the "act of taking from other".  Excess is "to exceed your limitations".  These men did right, but they allowed themselves to think wrong.  They did not take from others.  They did not exceed their limitations.  For that would have defiled the outside of their cup.  But they allowed themselves to think about it with covetous thoughts of jealousy and improper thoughts of selfish excess.  They didn't do it, they just thought it. 
 
When we do right on the outside, but allow ourselves to think wrong on the inside we may obey rules but we are hindering our relationship.  The sad thing is that some of us may do this for days, weeks and even years and never heal the damage done to our relationship with His Son!  We would never do this in a relationship with man, but we will overlook the damage our thinking has in our relationship with the Son of Man!  Remember our human relationships hear only our spoken words.  Our superhuman relationship hears every thought! 
 
We must recognize we "damage daily our walk by what we think not talk"!  Why do we do such things?  Jesus told these religious leaders it was because they were blind.  And so are we at times.  Verse 26 tells us "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."
 
Notice the outside wasn't really clean?  It was clean "also", but not until the inside was "first" clean.  So realizing my mistake again today, I took the time to do some dishes, first the inside of my cup and then the outside.   Then I could say "here's my cup, Lord.  As I lift is up would you fill it up!"

A PRAYER FOR TODAY:  "Good Morning Lord!  I trust you will show me the way to start each day.  I will prove my trust in you by meeting with you and looking to you for the errors in my thinking that leads me to the errors in my way.  As I search my heart, show me my thoughts.  Like David, I ask that you renew a right spirit within me as I bring closure to my wrong meditations.  Lord, as you show me my wrongs, empower me with your Spirit of Wisdom to do that which is right--internally today.  I pray these things in the blood stained name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

A QUESTION FOR TODAY'S MEDITATION:  "Are you trying to satisfy a fleshly appetite by indulging in it?!"