1 King 16-18

"So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, 'How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.'"

(Story recap) Many kings of Israel that succeeded Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Ahab was one of them. God sent one of his prophet, Elijah to confront Ahab and the people of Israel of their sinful ways. (End recap)

This may be going off topic, but as I read this passage, God reminded me of how my heart wavers between the idols in my life and God way too often. As we know, idols are anything in our lives that keeps our eyes off of the Lord our God. And I was reminded this day that the biggest idol most of us (or is it all of us?) face is ourselves, our pride.

Sarah, I'm so encouraged that you took this new job you just started. By you taking this job, you really humbled yourself and lifted up to God all that you thought you deserve from your job.

That word "deserve" is a really scary word. It's one of those words that make me feel like a hypocrite so often. Because when I am before God, I say, "God, I deserve nothing!", yet when I am before other people, I often think, "I deserve everything!" How many times have we grumbled about how we are not getting the things we deserve? Things like how we deserve to be getting paid more at our jobs, how we deserve more respect from others, how we deserve more support from our loved ones, how we deserve more time for ourselves, and the list goes on and on and on.

Once we start on this path of what we deserve, our eyes are completely off of God, for we cannot serve two masters. We have pretty much started worshiping ourselves.

But it's so easy to do this, isn't it? It's just how we talk. If all of us truly believe we are thankful for all that God provided and that we don't deserve anything, we would not hear any complaints from anyone whatsoever. but the reality is we all complain all the time. there's always something...

I have to be really careful, too. I'm about to graduate and I need to get a job in the next few months. And my heart is constantly telling me of all the great jobs and money that I deserve...

But thank God that he knows our hearts. And I'm so glad that you and I can learn this lesson together of humbling ourselves and trusting in him. I don't doubt that God will bless you and I with more than what we can imagine. God is telling us we don't need to worry about what we deserve. When we make a choice to give all of our hearts to him fix our eyes upon him, he will take care of everything in our lives. Let's rejoice in the Lord this day for he, indeed, is good:)