What do you love?

I love my guitar. To reference Brad Paisley, one's guitar will always be there for him in the best and the worst times. After hearing him make that statement, I dismissed it as some cute thing that a popular musician would say, but I didn't realize how true it is. I pictured selling my guitar or giving it away, and I'm sure there would be a part of me that would actually miss it though it's really not that nice at all. I love it so much because, especially as of late, my guitar (or music in general) has been one of the things that I most readily turn to when life gets hard.

I never thought that I would hear myself say this, but I think I have a deep emotional connection with an inanimate object.

Before I get too weird, here is why I bring that up: do I have a deep emotional connection to my personal copy of the Word of God? Have I used it enough to warrant such a relationship? Granted, I haven't had my current Bible nearly as long as I've had my guitar; but still, where do I go in the times of the most pain, anger, disappointment, bitterness, and all other intensely negative emotions? I would like to say that I go to the Bible. But quite honestly, the Bible isn't always the first place I run to when the walls of my security crumble around me.

Do you know what that means? I know what it DOESN'T mean- it doesn't mean that I need to buckle down and make sure I read the Bible more. It DOES mean that I have a hard, deceitful, and desperately wicked heart. It's SO DUMB to think that there is something else other than hearing the Voice of God that will somehow make my life better. That makes no sense at all. Satan is good at deceiving, and I'm good loving other things more than I love God.

I encourage you to look at the things in your life that you love the most, and actually be honest with yourself. Don't say, "This seems kind of spiritual, but without it I'd get really upset" and think that everything is ok. Ask God to show if His presence is found in the things that you love the most! If He's not, then we shouldn't put our time into those things!

I was just confronted today by someone that graciously shined the light of the Gospel in the deep recesses of my heart which wants to make ungodly justifications for satiating my emotions through means other than Jesus. It's really hard when we think we know what we want, and we really do love God (with a lot of our heart), but we know that there's just that one little bit that we don't want to give up.

Like my guitar, I want to have such a deep connection with Jesus that when the unhappy part of life happens, my default mode is to run to Him without thinking. Idealistic? Maybe.

All I can do is pray that Jesus changes mine and your heart to want Him more.

Psalm 34:9, "Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!"

.DSN.