Putting God 1st

Greetings Everybody,
Wanna take a look at something that happened this morning, link it to a scripture, and bring the lesson home for ya.


This morning, I got up at my usual time, got my coffee, and sat down to visit with God in my prayer journal.


And it didn't take long before there was this wee little nagging going on inside me.  
I was curious to see if anyone had read my blog while I had been sleeping. 
And though I tried to keep my focus on my prayers, I didn't try hard enough.


I told myself that it was no big deal to put God on hold for a few minutes to go check my Christian Blog. (But in my heart I knew that what I was considering was wrongheaded.)


Still,  I stepped away from those prayers to check the stats on this blog.


And so today I committed Idolatry.


When I left the Throne Room of God to check on "something else" I in effect placed that "something else" above GOD.


Now if you want to get technical,  No I didn't actually break one of the 10 Commandments.
-No Graven Images.
-I did NOT bow down before an idol.


But it was still a form of mental idolatry.
It happened in my mind the minute I let "something else" become more important than my time with God.


There are a million ways I could try to overlook, justify, or minimalize what I did this morning...but the bottom line is that I let something else get between God and me this morning. 


I gave something else too much importance.


I gave it a slice of the precious time that I set aside with to be with God


So What Happened Next?


As soon as I opened the blog I became uncomfortable.


I discovered that Yes there had been readers through the night


...but suddenly that didn't matter to me anymore.


I felt guilty and knew that I was doing something wrong.


And I went back to my prayers and asked for forgiveness.


When those prayers were finished, I did come back here.
But I came with the purpose of telling this story and of sharing this scripture:


"For The Lord is the great God, the Great King above all gods." Psalms 95:3


In Reflection, I have to ask:


-How many times have I done this?
-How many times have I casually stepped way from what 
 I know is right and tried to justify it?
-How many times have I mentally lost my focus on God?
-Or worse, how many times have I deliberately stepped 
 away from what I know is right because I was angry or 
 defiant?


Perhaps the lesson today is this:


Q:  What Could Possibly Be More Important Than Sharing Time With The One Who Created The Heavens and The Earth?
A:  NOTHING.


Yet the evil one used a blog that was created to talk about The Christian Experience as the bait to lure me away from my time with God this morning.


Scripture says:
"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8


The Lesson is yours now.


Let me leave you with this prayer:


God, please help me to stay focused and aware of my own motivations and actions.
God help me to discern when the evil one is present in my own mind.
God, please help me to choose YOU above everything else.


In Him
Grace