Day 1: God is trustworthy

So, I decided to go through the 40-DAY JOURNEY of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Devotional Book by Peter Scazzero. The devotional book already provides the verses, prayers and exhortations which are alreadyyyyyyy meaty and insightful in itself! But for someone who's willing to spend extra time to dig treasures of insights straight from context of the suggested verses, I'm going to dive head first and maximize this blog to capture my aha moments. Feel free to glean from these but I highly encourage you to go through the journey as well, buy the book (got mine from Shopee) or look it up online.

Today marks the Day 1.

"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to listen than the fat of rams."

1 Samuel 15:22

The Prophet Samuel called out King Saul for an offering he's about to give to the Lord. Wait, why would Samuel hinder such an initiative? Offering to the Lord sounds just proper, right? Well, if you read the context of the whole chapter, Saul followed the suggestion of the people and totally missing the instruction of the Lord. He didn't obey the Lord's way but he did it his way. Later, in the chapter, it says that the Lord rejected Saul for rejecting His word.

Oh, that's a harsh consequence we might think. But the Lord sees the hearts of men. Saul's disobedience was in reality - REBELLION towards God. You see, when we consider our ways and strategies better than God's ways, that's pride and arrogance right there. As God's people, we are called to live in complete surrender to Him. Our surrender is translated to us fully obeying Him, according to His word. We no longer need to negotiate with God when our trust is rightfully placed in Him. At it's core, rebellion is the fruit of misplaced trust. Have you noticed? When we disobey God, blinded by whatever fear- those moments revealed that we had have put our trust somewhere else but God.

Trust can only be grown in our relationship with Him. Prayer strongly aligns us to Him. Prayer grows us in surrender to Him. Real prayer brings out obedience from us only when our eyes are enlightened by how trustworthy God is and His words are. In prayer, we don't just speak but we first see Him and listen to Him. Prayer starts with Him. It's about His person, His character and nature. Our prayers (along with its adoration, declaration, pleas and requests) are just the by-product of how we're knowing Him, really knowing Him. And when we see His beauty and acknowledge that His ways are best and perfect, then we can walk in humble obedience unto Him.

Truth: God is trustworthy.

Questions to ponder:

What is God telling me about Him? What are His instructions?

What keeps me from surrendering fully to Him? Is it the voice of my family and friends? Or have I decided to do it my way, not His way?

Prayer: Lord, help me see You for who You are and help me grow in prayer and walk in surrender. In Jesus name, Amen.

#Day1 #EmotionallyHealthySpirituality #daybyday #livingloved