Don't Waste Your Life..

I pulled this book off the book shelf of my husband a few weeks ago for a nice little cozy something to read before sleep. I was W.R.O.N.G. Not only did this book awaken something so deep in me that it made me shudder but it did the complete opposite of what I had intended this book to do. It woke me up!!! Here is an excerpt:

"God's purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God's glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion" (Piper 31)..."God created me-and you-to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion-namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremancy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples" (Piper 31).

YIKES!!!

1. Enjoying & 2. displaying

"his supreme excellence IN ALL spheres of life"

whew..do I do that? Where do I fall short? Where do you fall short?

If that isnt all..I go to church on Sunday (praise the Lord) and this is what I hear:

Matthew 6: 25-34 says,"

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]}?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Our pastor challenged us to think on what we focus most of our attention on. What do we treasure? What dominates your time and attention? You see our treasure should be JESUS! but I fail at this every single day. From what Piper says I should actually be enjoying God and displaying His supreme excellence in All spheres of life. So here is my confession:

After reading Piper and hearing this sermon I was hit over the head with a 2X4 brought to attention that I treasure my parents divorce. I display it actually. I wallow. I abandon when things get hard (or too close). I push away and I actually quite frankly treasure the school debt that was left for me to pay when my parents divorced. It drives me. Motivates me. Entralls me with its chains. I work and strive and don't trust God with this treasure..or do I? After this realization I mourned the divorce of my parents (once more) and sat and soaked in the words of Hillsongs "The Stand" (don't worry I wont type the whole thing)

You stood before creation Eternity within Your hand You spoke the earth into motion My soul now to stand  You stood before my failure Carried the Cross for my shame My sin weighed upon Your shoulders My soul now to stand  So what can I say What can I do But offer this heart O God Completely to You  So I'll walk upon salvation Your Spirit alive in me This life to declare Your promise My soul now to stand

Do you get that?? He stood before creation for me and for you!!! I'm getting preachy but I must! So easy it is to go back to our old self. but Piper states a few chapters later that when Christ died on the cross for our sins we died on that cross with Him. Our old self is gone and the new is come! How much hope is there in that!! Why do we take steps backwards! We were bought with a price from the beginning of time and we should be enjoying and displaying that love for us every single day. So I say NO to wallowing to pushing away and to treasuring things that hinder me. Im striving to not waste my life and to enjoy every single moment. Even those that hurt.