365 Days with God - Day 168: Entitlement

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 168, June 20, 2014

Readings: Proverbs 13, Proverbs 14, Deuteronomy 19, Amos 3, Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 2:1-12

What do I want from God?

If I'm honest, most of the time I would just like things to go my way. I would like my family to be perfect, my job to be exactly what I want it to be, my finances to be in order, my life to be comfortable.

What's the problem with this picture?

God's not mentioned. Not at all. I want everything to be the way I want it to be. I want God to answer me, but only in ways I dictate. Often, I'm not willing to let Him be God. I want to take that role, and use His infinite power to fulfill my dreams. I'd settle for him just agreeing with me most of the time.

But is that what God asks of us? Is that a right that we have? That we deserve? If we are as powerless as we seem, ,what could we possibly thing would enable us to demand anything from the God of the universe?

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. (Proverbs 13:4)

All too often, I have the soul of the sluggard. I crave and I want, I beg and I steal, I relax and I dream...but I crave things for me. I crave my kingdom come. Where everything goes my way, and my word rules. And I am disappointed when God doesn't bring this about.

But my problems are twofold. One, I want the wrong things. I want my dreams, my profit and wealth. God wants me focused on His kingdom, instead of my own. Two, I am often without the soul of the diligent. If I was driven, focused and submitted to God, He would richly supply me. Not with the things I want for my kingdom, but with the things he wants to see His kingdom come.

His dreams are bigger, better and certainly less self-focused than my own. Will I crave my kingdom or His? Will I be diligent for Him?