Day 17: The Book That Made Me Love Him More

I read a book that made me uncomfortable from the first page.  In a good way.

Listen, everything I’m exploring this 31 days is to move us closer in our walk with Jesus.  It’s not getting uncomfortable for the sake of discomfort.  Not at all.  It’s so we can experience an intimacy with God like we’ve never experienced.  And that is so what He wants.  He simply wants an intimate relationship with each of us.  Often that is acheived when we are willing to leave what feels good.

The book is called Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.  It’s on my bookshelf as a resource book now.  This isn’t one you can read and mark off the list.  You will revisit it.  Well, at least I do 🙂

Reading this book I realized I needed Jesus more than I thought I did.  And that convicted me to the core.  That statement alone might shock you.  It shocks me a bit to write it.  But it’s true.

You see my struggles are the more dangerous ones.  The “respectable” ones.  The ones that can be hidden and ignored.  But in God’s eyes, they are all heinous, and they all will destroy.

Jerry writes “Sin is sin.  Even those sins that I call “the acceptable sins of the saints”- those sins that we tolerate in our lives – are serious in God’s eyes.  Our religious pride, our critical attitudes, our unkind speech about others, our impatience and anger, even our anxiety (see Philippians 4:6); all of these are serious in the sight of God.”

Negative patterns can become a source of comfort to us.  Often we may not even realize they are negative patterns.  We accept that this is who we are.  This is how God made us.  But this is dangerous.  Yes, God made us the way He did, but He is also refining us and never expected us to stay the way we are.  He is sanctifying us moment by moment.

For that I’m eternally grateful.  The fact that He loves me that much leaves me longing for more of Him.  I get tired of myself and my repeated failures.  I want to throw the towel in and just be done with the fight.  He never stops cheering me on.  He continues to allow me to struggle and fail so that I will finally stop and see my deepest needs are in Him.

What a God.  Seriously, what kind of God is that?  I desperately want to love Him so passionately that I will give no thought to my comfort and will just go.

[box] This is Day 17 in a series, 31 Days to Get Uncomfortable With God. Please click here for a listing of all posts in this series. If you would like posts delivered to your inbox, please click here.[/box]

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