At a church freedom gathering several weeks ago, the speaker read from Deuteronomy 5. What stood out the most to me was the verse" You shall have no other gods before me."
My heart was immediately pierced with conviction although I had no idea at the time what kind of idols I had put before God.
Through prayer, God showed me that my marriage had become an idol to me.
Ouch!
The next day He showed me that homemaking was next on the 'idol list.'
Double ouch!
I don't know that I can adequately explain how these 2 things have become idols to me except that they were certainly consuming more of my time and thoughts than He was. I was more concerned with my performance in my roles and what other people thought of me than I was about pleasing God.
I will mention right here that marriage is very important and is something that deserves a lot of time and effort. It is after all, instituted by God Himself! To be a homemaker is also a high calling and not one to be taken lightly.
But nothing... nothing... not even marriage or family should ever take higher priority than my personal relationship with God the Father.
In the past few weeks, I've been allowing Him to help me get my priorities back into balance. I'm learning to trust Him more with my marriage and home. I'm beginning to learn how to 'be' rather than 'doing' all the time. It's the constant doing, striving and competing that causes me to feel overwhelmed which leads to feelings of personal failure and incompetence in every area of my life, especially in regards to homemaking and marriage.
Still meditating on Matthew 11: 28-30, I am reminded too of so many expectations that I put on myself that are of my own doing. Not God's. His commands are not burdensome(I John 5: 3 ) and His yoke is easy and burden light! He sees me as a beloved Child regardless of what I do, wear, cook or how well I manage my time.
These past few weeks have been so freeing for me! I have so enjoyed listening to God's voice as He instructs me on a daily basis. I'm nowhere near perfection yet; I still have a whole lot to learn but it is a life-long process!
What has God been teaching you lately?
I'll be sharing more on what God is showing me in some specific areas soon. In addition, I have several practical posts to put up this week. Stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I am so glad to hear you are getting everything back in balance. Balance is one of the many things I struggle with too. I can't wait to hear more, it is very inspiring!!
Wonderful post Mary Ann, you are not the only one struggling with those issues I know I have to remind myself regularly what is important in life. Thank you for sharing, I look forward to more of your insightful posts.
Glad to see you are back at your blog! I know that your time away was a needed time of rest and reflection. Thank you for your honesty, here, about your idols. God has been teaching me a lot about the same subject, recently.
Post a Comment