love love love

I have been reading.. Blue Like Jazz. I am a S..l...o...w reader. I like to read a chapter and ponder it awhile. Anyway, I am on the last two chapters, and I have to say... I LOVE it. It is so so so real. This morning I was reflecting on some converstations I have recently had with some friends. I have realized my joy has been robbed lately b/c I am not all about focusing on God's glory. I am looking inward trying to fine tune some things which inturns means I am trying to control things. Honestly I can say this works for me ... looking upward. Releasing everything and being all about living for my creator. When I am focused on praising God and reaching others for Christ, He takes care of all the details and I am left feeling FREE! I know this isn't realistic to live this way 24/7. I am just saying when I begin to feel myself consumed with all the stuff, problems, and junk in and around me. He wants it. I cannot make myself obey God, I miserably tried for years. It's his love is why I obey. Pastor Scotty Smith in Nashville was used years ago to reveal this to me. In the book, Blue Like Jazz, toward the middle, I was reminded of this quote this morning.

"I will love God b/c he first loved me. I will obey God b/c I love God. But if I cannot accept God's love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean: accepting God's love will. The abillity to accept God's unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return. Accepting God's kindness and free love is something the devil does not want us to do. If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her. This is not the voice of God. God woos us with kindness, He changes our chrarcter with the passion of His love."

I love the way this is stated.

God, I am all about you. Take all of me. Use me how you want. Nothing gives me greater joy than to love you.