compromise

is our worst enemy.

we initially aim high, to complete a project at a certain standard, an assignment, or to become better friends with someone or to help someone out.

Then when the going gets tough, often we take what we convince ourselves to be the 'realistic' approach, and accept the job, the effort and work, at half rate rather than persevering and striving for the fullest.

We compromise our goals, and what we initially had planned, dreamed and strived to achieve, for something far less.

Often we think:
"They won't die if I don't do it to that higher standard"
"They weren't expecting it"
"I don't need it that much anyway"
"I passed, thats all that matters - I don't need to go any higher"

Sometimes we this often even leads to us believing that people don't deserve, or did not expect anything more than we gave.

This is pretty common with God. Sometimes we'll think that one quiet time a week is what he expects or deserves.
Or sometimes we'll say "Here God, $10 bucks is how much you deserve" (not directly saying that, but our actions sometimes ultimately actually spell exactly that)
Or attend church once a week and make the call that its enough.
Or "Hey God, I'm going to marry this person and then try and bring them to you"

When we have fallen into this trap of offering a compromise of different areas of our lives to God, we have forgotten two things:
1) We've taken the situation into our own hands and decided that we know what He deserves, when He actually deserves our ALL.
2) We've forgotten to begin each of our decisions with Him at the very foundation and base.

Pray first!
God, help me spend more time with you.
God, show me how much I should give to you, so that I am humbled and you are magnified and pleased.
God, allow me to give more than just my Sunday's to you.
God, show me the best way to approach this relationship, that would please you.

I realised, that despite saying "I Surrender All", to God, or asking Him to "Take All Of Me", I have so many areas that I haven't actually offered for the taking in the first place.

My point is simply this:
It is easy to give my Sunday, 9.00am's to God - I've been doing it all my life.
So in some sense, I give my time to God.
But I don't spend enough time in the Word, or in prayer.
COMPROMISE
The voice in the back of my head says 'its okay, you've got lots of time to work on that'

It is easy to pray for my career, or education, or relationships, after I've made a decision based on my own feelings.
So I do give my career and relationships to God in some sense.
But in having made the first step, of selecting Commerce, or pursuing a girl, were they God driven and based on Biblical guidance?
Kind of not.
COMPROMISE
The voice in the back of my head says 'your education and career is all about what you enjoy. Girlfriends are about who you like, go for it!'

its all based on the I.

at the end of the day, we should aim to PLEASE GOD.


Consult Him about everything.
Wait on Him.
Wait on Him some more.
Confirm with Him.
and Do what he wants you to do, to the fullest.


I've compromised what I thought would be enough for God, all over my life. Reading the Word and listening to others has helped me realised that a truly God centred life means EVERY aspect is worked to the highest point, and that we have to look at each situation and assess whether we've done what He's commanded to do in the Bible.

YEP!
Merry Christmas all!

We all fall short

When you are caught up in the hype of hearing God and having a revelation, it builds us up for (sometimes) a bigger fall.

Other times, we just forget that we are human and we make mistakes and will always fall short of the glory of God. None of us are perfect, and none of us will ever reach a place of perfect spirituality and Christlikeness.

HOWEVER, it is no excuse, and when we do trip up and put God down a few notches and give Him a compromise of our lives, rather than the full thing, we need to recognise this and genuinely ask for His forgiveness, and that we be refined by this shortfall.

That is why we never surrender just once to God, but we constantly need to keep surrendering parts of our lives to Him, and constantly give more and more to Him.

We're self-centred, but that doesn't get us out of the fact that God deserves our all. When we do forget about our Creator and how much He deserves - and we realise that we get distracted - we've got to time, and time again come back to Him and ask for a more persevering, faithful spirit and attitude, constantly seeking self control and discipline, and revolving around an attitude to please Him.

God, if I failed you today, I pray that You'll forgive me, help me get up and move ahead, stronger and with a more determined and faithful heart.

On a lighter note,

I'm pretty proud of this photo :D