Exodus 19:16-21:21
Matthew 23:13-39
Psalm 28:1-9
Proverbs 7:1-5
Exodus 19:22 Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”
Jesus is our High Priest and we can approach the Father through Jesus. So we don't have to fear that the Lord will break out against us but today is a day that I have made the choice to set aside as a sabbath. Those "who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves". Consecration takes preparation. It is an intentional act of prioritizing God in your life. With the last few days of the theme of a sabbath rest being so prominent, I realized that for me to act on what God was putting on my heart I had to plan to make Him a priority. After all I plan to spend time with my husband and my friends. I look ahead at my schedule and put them on it so that I can spend time with them. How much more should I intentionally prioritize my time with God. I can honestly say that I talk to God all day. I start and usually end my day with prayer as well as pray throughout the day as things and people come to my mind. I ask God for guidance and direction and intervention in my words and actions often. But is that any different than the fact that I talk to my husband every day and discuss the things that need to be done, coordinate schedules, share events of our days, seek his opinion etc.? I can do that with my friends as well. For my relationship with my husband to be more than my relationship with my friends we need to intentionally spend time together where we prioritize each other. We need to share our deepest hurts and joys. We need to sit and hold each other and listen to each other's hearts. We need to connect physically, emotionally and spiritually. The priorities in my life should be:
GOD (not church)
Husband
Children/family
Others
I need to make God a higher priority in my life than even my time with my husband. So today I have set aside this day for God. I need to consecrate myself to Him. I'm going to spend some time looking into what that looks like.
Okay, I am back and I just spent an hour reading journalling and praying. I could share so much but then no one would read this because it would be so long.
I found this article that is linked here How to consecrate yourself to God | Jericho Walls (jwipn.com)
Soooo much good stuff! If you are feeling a need to dig deeper into what it means to consecrate yourself to God I recommend intentionally taking the time to look into it for yourself. Don't even read anything else I have to say if you are drawn to go there now. Listen to the prompting of the Spirit. If you are not feeling that tug on your heart that is very okay so read on. I have a feeling that this post is going to have legs that take me in different directions. We will see.
Consecrating yourself means to give priority to spiritual things over physical things. It will require intentionally avoiding things that may hinder you from connecting with God or take away from your time with Him. That does not mean we only have to separate ourselves from what is evil.
Consecration is not a single, once-off decision. It becomes a way of living. Once you decide to consecrate yourself, you must be prepared to continue pursuing God for the rest of your life. In a way, our consecration will never be “complete.” We never “arrive” or achieve perfect righteousness, perfection or holiness. He asks of us to make the commitment of consecration and then to actively pursue it for the rest of our lives.
Exodus 19:23 Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”
This reminds me of Deanna talking at conference about the need to have a signal to yourself and to others that you are spending time with God and you are not to be disturbed. Some people have a prayer closet or a room that they go to. My room that I go to is not only used for time with God so I think I will make a sign for the door for others and turn off my phone and start off with worship music for me. Do something to set apart your place and time with God as holy. This should be done daily.
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Every day we are to consecrate ourselves to the Lord and have a place and time that is set apart for Him. But once a week we need to give an entire day to Him. But remember that Jesus said that the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath. God is not calling us to set this day apart because He needs it but because we need it. When He is the only thing that we need to think about and worry about it removes all the distractions, stress and work from our lives. It allows for us to rest and recover from the work of the week. Don't worry about cleaning the house it will be there tomorrow. Don't worry about checking your email. You may even chose to turn off your phone and not turn on a TV. Don't worry about anything that might hinder the peace you can find with Him. When we are focusing on Him then even if we don't sleep we can rest. But it is okay to take a nap too.
Matthew 23:23“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
This reminds me of this past Sunday's message in church. Pastor Rick talked about giving. I have had the conversation about tithing many times. I believe that we should tithe on our gross income as well as give offerings as we feel led to do so. Many people feel that because Jesus abolished the law that we are not "required" to do so. These people often reference the scripture in 2 Corinthians 9:7 to say that our giving should be a matter of the heart. "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." They will argue that they give of their time and talents and that makes them feel better about not tithing. I think we need to take scripture as a whole not in pieces. In Matthew Jesus is admonishing the Pharisees because they gave their tenth without fail but their hearts were wrong, so the matters of the heart were lacking. They did not serve others well. When He says that "You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." it goes both ways. We are called to love others and give of our time and talents as God is the giver of all those gifts. We are to be just, merciful and faithful. But we should not practice these things and neglect our tithe. When it says "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart" does not mean that you should give what feels good to you. It means that you should not be giving with any concern as to what others are giving. In the early church there were people who did not give a tenth, they gave everything they had to the church. The only people who are to do that are those whom God calls to do that. We are called to tithe but God can also put it on our hearts to give more than that. If He does then we should give it. But we should not give more because we feel compelled to do so knowing other people are. At the same time we should not be reluctant to give and give less because we know that other people are giving less. We should listen to God and respond to what He puts on our hearts to give. I believe if you are not able to tithe with a cheerful heart then you should not tithe but I would encourage you to examine your heart. Ask yourself what is in your heart that causes you to be reluctant to give. Why do you feel that it's okay or even necessary to withhold from God what is rightfully His. If your reason has anything to do with worldly things. Bills to pay, personal discomfort, a sense of fairness etc. If you find yourself looking for ways to justify your feelings as a way of avoiding examining your heart perhaps consecrate yourself to the Lord and then seek His face on the subject. God said through the prophet Malachi 3:8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."
This does not mean to give because God will bless you. That again is the wrong motivation to give. It is saying that when you put God first and recognize that all that we have is actually the Lord's and trust Him and His word you should give what God puts on your heart to give. When you do, you can trust that He will provide all that you need to do it and He will honor and bless you for your obedience. There is nothing else that God says we can test Him on, and it is the one thing that people won't test Him on.
What do you say will you consecrate yourself to the Lord in all things?
I guess this post only has 2 legs and they are walking together to take me closer to my Lord. Thank you Jesus!
This song was the one that brought me into tearful worship today.
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