Righteousness is always right

1 Chronicles 2 "Genealogies are not boring"

Genealogies when you think of them, especially when you read in the first chapters of Chronicles, you most of the time think, "well, this is boring, names here, names there, etc." Well I was reading and the biggest verse which stood out to me was 1 Chronicles 2:30, "Seled died without children". When I read it, it hit me hard because I was thinking, "wow, that would be the worst thing ever" and then I realized how I at times I can be fearful of the dreams and desires of my heart not coming to pass. I know that the Lord has showed me and I'm sure all who are reading this, great things, great dreams, great desires, hopes, and ideas. Yet the enemy always seeks to devour those which are wandering. When we allow our thoughts to wander, to wander into fear, into doubt, or worry, then we become subject to the attacks of the enemy. Yet we must learn to take every thought captive, trust our dreams, our hopes, desires, wants, and all of US down at His feet. When we do so, no matter what happens, we can know that all will work out for HIS GLORY.

Psalm 4:1-8

"Righteousness requires sacrifice"

When you think of the word "sacrifice" usually the first thought to your mind is a loss, losing something, and usually it can be thing which does NOT come natural to us. Yet one thing that the Lord continues to teach me is to lose me to gain more of Him, this requires sacrifice.

In the times of which I find myself at a loss, not sure what to do, angry, frustrated, upset, and needing to simply here His soft, gentle, and loving voice. Always we find relief when we call out to our God, even in the times when we have fallen short of the glory of God. I know that it's in those times which we have fallen short, we sin, that we feel in our hearts so much shame, guilt, and are afraid almost to enter into His presence. Yet we must realize that we find NO RELIEF apart from the PRESENCE OF GOD, because there is where you find LIFE!

One of the verses which hit me hard was verse 2 when the Lord questions, "who turned His glory to shame?" To glorify God means to be CONTINUALLY worship the Lord without ceasing, yet when we stop glorifying Him, we can begin to glorify other things. We make other things priority in our life instead of the Lord and because of it, we become to shame instead of glorifying Him. The Lord asks, "how long will you LOVE worthlessness?" All other things in this life, no matter how much you may love them, WILL fail you at some point, will let you down, will not meet your expectations, will have conflict, and it's because our life was created to have the LOVE OF GOD in our life. In Him do we move, breathe, and have meaning, we find our worth in God.

It's when you find your worth in God that you find out how worthy HE IS.

SET APART: Whenever I read this, it truly gets me excited knowing that God would have set me apart to do His work, to serve Him. Yet one thing that we don't realize at time is that when God sets us apart that means there's a SEPERATION from things. At times that means us being seperated from that which we find comfortable, what we once had and enjoyed, and the things we once used to cling to. Yet we are set apart not for OUR purpose, but for the purposes of God, yet we must allow ourselves to be seperated, to be set apart. The reason God sets us apart is because we are godly, not because we are religious, we go to church, we serve in ministry, but because we have a heart after God! Though the seperation at times causes us to walk through hurts, trials, and isolation, ITS WORTH IT! :D

To wrap up this blog...verse 5, God is asking of us today to offer the sacrifices of righteousness. To walk in righteousness is a sacrifice, it requires laying down what you want, what you've been in the past, and striving to hit the mark or the standard of God, not man, not the world, or not even the standards which YOU have put on yourself. God has created us so uniquely so different, yet so many times we can fight against what we are because in the past it's been despised, it causes us to stand out. For Joseph for him to walk in righteousness caused him to be tossed into a pit, then sold into slavery, tossed into jail, but in the end his sacrifice lead to one thing...TRUST. Through all the trials which Joseph walked through, no matter what, God was perfecting him, in the pursuit of righteousness, the Lord perfects that which is lacking, which is futile, which needs His touch and molding. Yet if we can make the sacrifice of righteousness, then we can truly learn to trust in Him, and in that, is a blessing...