Tuesday, September 09, 2008

What's My Excuse????

So, I decided to be a good girl today and open up the devotion that gets sent to my email inbox. I began having one sent to my email because I thought "Surely, this will make it easier for me to get my devotional readings in" At first it did....but it's just as easy to let the day pass and delete it and tell yourself, "Tomorrow I'll make time"

I'm better about it some days than I am other days....today I opened it and it was one of those devotions where you know it was for you and that you were the one who God wanted to hear/see/read those specific words. But I think it's one that many of us can relate to in one way or another so I thought I'd share the part that spoke loudest to me.


...Perhaps you have been hiding behind some excuses of your own lately. Maybe your excuses involve exercise like mine did. Or maybe they involve other things like why you can't give up a bad habit, why you aren't able to forgive someone, or why you are continuing in a sin God has been convicting you of. Maybe you have been letting excuses keep you from a more intimate relationship with God, or maybe you have been excusing the fact that you need to accept Christ as Savior. Even as you read these words, God is impressing on your heart that there is something you need to do--but you have been letting excuses serve as a barrier between knowing it and actually doing it.

I'm good at making excuses. How about you?? There are excuses that are weighing on my heart heavier than others as I read and re-read this passage. The solution in the devotion was this:

...Today I invite you to remove the excuses in your life. To choose one excuse today and begin to tear it down, taking just one brick out of the wall. Over the next days and weeks, choose more bricks to remove until one day, nothing is standing between you and that scary thing you know you need to do.

I could come up with excuses to NOT tear down the wall of excuses. Like for starters, "that wall is just too big to tear down right now. I just don't have time." and, "What if this really isn't what God wants me to do? How foolish would I look then for pursuing something that isn't and wasn't ever His will?" It's like I'm waiting for the neon, flashing sign or something.

UGH!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

I'm great at making excuses. Actually, mine is all about justification. "Of course I can't sit down and pray for 30 minutes a day. I have a special needs child." Blah blah. Pretty pathetic justification. That's why it's called a sacrifice... you know, just a small sacrifice of time. I mean, Jesus did sacrifice his life for us and I can't give up 30 minutes?

For the record, I'm just like you. Some days I do it. Some days I don't. Good thing there's grace :)

jen said...

Excuses really are justifications that keep us from learning the truth and finding our way on our paths in life. I thnk the more awareness we can bring to the barriers we set up for ourselves, the higher we can climb! Thanks for sharing Becky!!