Sacrifice of Praise, God as muse

In my reading, where the Moses speaks about how the children of Israel have been perpetually contrary, I realized I had turned a bit of a deaf ear to the story. The same thing happened in Luke, when Jesus shared with his disciples how the ground upon which the seeds (of the word of God) were dropped determines how much fruit their presence will bear. I have heard the story many, many times, and it didn't stir me as it had in times past.

What do you do when you have read the same scripture many times, can quote it, and it holds no mystery for you? You pray. For the Lord wants you to appreciate and connect with Him on a personal level, and if you are truly at the point where scripture becomes rote in any way, one predominant characteristic of that stance is generally a lack of fellowship with the Lord.

Put yourself in the place of Moses at this point in his life. He has spent his whole life serving God, directing his ever unfaithful peers to a land that he had only heard about, and because he had let them finally get him so angry he broke something, and thus took the glory away from God, the result was to arrive at the promised land and to miss out on what could have been an amazing experience. Imagine how different that part of history could have turned out if Moses could have led the children of Israel into the promised land, it might have set the stage for the arrival of Jesus that much sooner. I can't even begin to imagine the level of changes such an event would incur, but they would be far reaching.

Likewise, when Jesus speaks about the parable of the seeds, one could easily be distracted by the few details provided and delve no further. But look - the seeds and grounds are metaphors for very real things. If you tie in the fact that God's will is sovereign, it must be that in some way, God wills some souls to be fallow ground, some to be briars, and some to be stone. We have several instances where God has made a heart stone (Pharoah figuratively and Nabal literally are two), and so one might be tempted to wonder - how often is our inability to accept the seeds of the word of God a part of His plan?

God's will is revealed, to some degree, in His word. And we see, over and over again, how events happen, often in seemingly random order, that we would not be able to clearly predict. And we see miracles all throughout, some subtle and some glaring and explicit, and we are told that everything God allows is for His glory. And the thoughts he thinks of us are good.

Therefore - if some hearts he allows to lay fallow, some hearts he turns to stone, and some hearts he surrounds with brambles, we can rest assured that, although circumstances may not suggest any kind of order, we can trust in the reality that God's will is being done, and it will be for His glory. And because God knows the thoughts he thinks of us, and that they are for good and not for evil, we can also be assured that His intent for us is for the good.

So please, if you're feeling the least bit cynical, or distant from God, or separate, not really connecting with His glory, His grace, or His marvelous nature, take time out to pray.
Thank Him for all he has done in your life.

And if you have a problem with coming up with praise reports, here are some guidelines:
If you can read this, be thankful for:
the ability to see
the ability to read
the ability and opportunity to access the internet
the opportunity to choose what you read on the internet
the freedom to think for yourself

If you have eaten anything in the last twenty-four hours, be thankful for:
a source of food
a roof over your head
someone who loves you
someone who prays for you
someone to pray for

There are, quite literally, an endless list of things to be thankful for, and the main reason people aren't thankful is that they take one or more of those things for granted.
So if the above list isn't useful to you, then realize you might be better served focusing on someone other than yourself.

Regardless, may God bless you this day and allow your life to be a ministry to others.