What God Really Wants

There is a scripture passage in Psalms that always arrests my attention when I read it.
It in Psalms 50. In this chapter God is summoning all mankind to hear something that he has to say. He is bringing charges against them. The picture is that of a judge in a courtroom. Let me add something here. The reason you need to read the Bible over and over again is because if you don't, you will have some misconceptions of who God really is. You will form your opinion based on other people's opinions or even worse, your own warped ideas of what you think he is like. You need to know the truth about His character.
One of the most vital truths is that he is a perfect judge. In Daniel chapter 7, the Bible speaks of him as the "Ancient of Days," as he sits down to judge. To be the ancient of days is to be a judge that knows the past, present and even future of every person is is to be judged. Just think of that...He is the PERFECT judge. He knows EVERY fact about everything.
Back to Psalms...he begins by stating that he has no complaint about their sacrifices that they regularly bring to the altar. For us the sacrifices may be our regular church attendance, the Bible studies that we have joined or just the sacrifices that we perceive that we have offered up to him when we came to know Christ. However, just as we are getting smug about God's lack of complaint, he blasts us out of the water of our pride. He points out that because he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, he actually does not need their sacrifice. So what in the world does God want from us if not our sacrifices? We have "given up" our habit of gossiping, anger, lust, revenge, 10% of our income if we are tithing, partying with our friends...you name it. So why is he not pleased with that?
Look further to verses 14-15 and you will find that what God really wants is "our true thanks, our promised fulfilled and he wants us to trust him in times of trouble so that he can rescue us and we can give him glory."
First, he wants your true thanks. When I think of people that I like to be around, I usually leave the complainers off the list. There are some people that always complain and never stop to think about all that they have instead of all that they don't have. The best exercise that you can undertake is to exercise your gratitude. Right now just stop, take a deep breath and think about all that God has done for you in the past month. If you start thinking negatively, let me point out why. Satan will bombard you with thoughts like he did Eve in the garden. He whispered doubts about God. He hinted that God may not have her best interests in mind and that he was holding out the best when God commanded them to not eat the fruit. He is good at this...so good because you don't even realize that it is the voice of Satan and not the voice of your heavenly Father. Do not give an audience to this. Instead, back up and start over with that exercise. Name all the incredible things that God has done for you. That is the way God wants you to live...with true thanks, instead of a small miserable, twisted heart that thinks everyone else has a perfect life except you. Singles, do not for a second be listening to the LIAR when he says, "You can't trust him with a potential marriage partner. He is holding out on you. Things aren't working out by waiting on God so you need to manipulate the odds a little."
I want to share about the "keeping our promises" the next time I write. I feel compelled to tell you that I am praying for the readers of this blog. So whether you like it or not, your name is being mentioned to the "Ancient of Days." :):):)