Do these excuses make my but look big?

          I have this issue. It is called soda. I tend to drink it way more than I should. I am doing better. I really am. I know that I need to quit, but it is just so hard sometimes. I mean it is never really a good week to quit drinking it. I will think I am going to quit drinking it, but then I am so tired that I need the caffeine. I also have another issue. It is called going to bed at night. Every night I think I should go to bed, and then I think “but I really want to or should do this”. If I can be real with you, I may also have another issue and that is exercise. I think I will exercise every day, but some days I just can’t seem to make myself cooperate. Looking at this I realize that I have a “but” problem.

          Do you know anyone with a but problem? Maybe you even have one. How often do we say “I know I shouldn’t do this, but” or the opposite “I know I should do this, but”. Those but’s just get in the way! I have been trying to make a concentrated effort to pay attention to the but’s that I use and allow those but’s to be indicators that I may have a problem in my behavior. How many times do we allow the but’s to affect our relationship with God?

          “I know I should go to church, but I am so tired and I worked so hard this week. I think I will just sleep in today” or “I really need to set aside some time to just spend time with my Bible and prayer, but I just have so many things going on today”. It is so easy to justify our behaviors by inserting that but word into our lives.  When we do this in areas that affect our relationship with God it can point out another issue we might have. In Romans 1:21 it says, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.” There is that word again. The people knew God, BUT they wouldn’t worship him as God.

          I think that is pretty common today even among the church. We know of God, we know of His word and what He wants us to do, BUT we don’t really worship Him as God. We don’t worship Him as the one who created us and saved us. You see we want the benefits of a relationship with God. We want to know that when we die we are going to heaven. We want the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can have the peace and comfort He promises us, we even want the health and provision that He talks about in His word, BUT we don’t necessarily want the work that it takes on our part to worship Him as God. We want all the benefit without any of the commitment.

          At the end of Romans 1:21, it said that people began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like and as a result became dark and confused. That happens so much today. People want to separate God from His word and decide what they do and don’t like about God and twist God to conform to their view of what God should be, instead of conforming themselves to what God wants them to be. We cannot just live our lives doing whatever we think pleases us and expect God to be pleased with us. We can’t treat our spouses and families as insignificant and expect that to worship God. We can’t look at anything we want on the internet and lust after other people and expect that to worship God. We can’t gossip about other people and expect our words to be accepted as worship to God. Worship is not just about a time we set aside in a church service on Sunday morning and sing a few songs. We think that we need go to church to really worship, but we are the church and should live a life of worship. To worship God means to revere Him and honor Him. Yes we have times of praise and worship in our services that we set aside to focus on singing words of worship to Him, but to truly worship Him our lives should be a constant state of worship. We should be living our lives to please the One who made us and saved our lives.

          It is so easy to put God on a back burner and try and have a relationship with Him when it is convenient for us, but that is not how it is supposed to be. Our relationship with Him should be how we make every decision in our lives. Are there times it will require a sacrifice? Most definitely, but we can never out sacrifice God. We can never give Him more than He gave to us. Every decision we make, every commitment we agree to, every relationship we have should be centered around our relationship with God. If you think about your relationship with God and realize you have some big “buts” in the way you treat Him, I challenge you to rethink how you worship Him. Let the “buts” be the indicators of when you need to step back and reevaluate what you are doing. This week make a choice to remember that you are the church and everything you do, every single day can be done as an act of worship to the God who loves you and created you.