Too often we profess God but look to everything else to function as him. Even perfectly good things. Things that in and of themselves are pure and right and gifts from God but have become a problem simply because of the placement they have in our lives.

But you look for life in lesser things than me all the time, every day.

After many stabs at this I found out – probably a hundred years after everyone else – that this is actually impossible when it comes to people or things. No matter how virtuous or overflowing with integrity and love a friend or spouse may be, no person can possibly always be there for you.

It’s much easier to blow our moral police horns on all those transgressors running around than it is to live penetrating lives of holiness.

God Himself met my needs, which freed me up from looking for “life” from people. I was free to serve, pray, and give in my relationships.

I wonder if Leah ever grasped within her lifetime that though Jacob had chosen Rachel, God had chosen her.

If you are loved less, he is the Great Provider. If you are loved more but are still hungry, he is the only One who can suffice.

For so much of my life I worshipped God: showing up for church, singing hymns, helping in the nursery, reading my Bible, confessing my belief in him. Yet if you could have witnessed what I was controlled by, what motivated and moved me, you would have seen that in many cases it was not God at all, but my idols. Not carved images, but people, career paths, materialism, acceptance, and more. God was getting my worship on some level, but my gods were getting my service.

Open-mindedness is celebrated as the ultimate virtue, though it’s imperative to note that the only time you can’t be open-minded is if you’re open to the possibility of there being only one God with one gospel. That.

So much of what draws us to our personal gods has to do with where our needs are, where we hurt, why we hurt, and how we desire that pain to be satiated.