Complete Cleansing

The Lord has been really blessing at work. I have three very large tasks to get done by the end of the week and honestly, I didn't see how I was going to be able to get them done. My boss authorized overtime (not manditory, but allowed), so I have been working a tiny bit of overtime. I think it's important to keep a balanced life even with the added stress of deadlines. It is amazing how the Lord enables us to get things done in the time that He gives us to do them. I think back to school and how often it was that I didn't feel like I had enough time and yet somehow, I graduated. It was all a blur... day by day not knowing how I was going to get everything done and finding Him to be faithful in helping me get it done. God really blessed today. I was working on one of these projects and my boss sent me an email telling me to make the other thing more of a priority. I had already made quite a bit of good progress on the other thing and so I kind of wanted to continue working on that, but I went ahead and worked on the other project. I honestly thought this project was going to take like at least 2 days. God blessed so amazingly... He graciously gave me one of those "light bulb" moments where I understood exactly what was going on and exactly how I was going to develop this new thing. In about an hour and a half, I had it working! God is so good! He didn't need to bless me in that way. The struggling and fighting with it is often good for learning patience (taking a while) and humility (needing help), but He gave me the easy road today. I'm very thankful for His help.

I have been reading in Jeremiah the last few days. The call to have our hearts completely toward the Lord has continually caught my attention. In Jeremiah 4:1-2, God instructs Israel as to what they ought to do and promises blessing if they do them.

"If you will return, O Israel," declares the Lord, "Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver, And you will swear, 'As the Lord lives,' In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory."

There are two big things here: return to the Lord (including putting away anything that is hindering us from being fully committed to Him), and don't waver. I think of Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt when she looked back longingly on Sodom. May the Lord give us hearts that detest the things that He hates. He provides the grace and help to both hate those things and not waver in turning from them. He enables us to be faithful.

God, I confess to You that I don't always hate the things you hate. I don't always love the things that You love. Forgive me of my sin and turn my heart to love You fully. I want to have Your heart so that my desires are a mirror of Yours. Use me to carry out Your will as You deem fit, not because You need me, but because I need to be used by You for my own good. Accomplish Your will in me.