Near to God

Ezekiel 42-44
Revelation 22

SOAP - Near to God

Scripture: Ezekiel 44:15
But the priests, who are the Levites and descendants of Zadok and who faithfully carried out the duties of my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereigh Lord.

Observation
First, a question, what does God mean by "minister before me"? I looked up this passage in a couple study Bibles trying to figure out what "minister before me" means. I didn't have any luck with that part, but I did learn some about other aspects of this verse. Sounds like Zadok was a priest who kept Gods commands while other priests turned away from God. And he supported God's choice of Soloman to succeed David. Then the descendants of Zadok also stayed in service to God while other priests became corrupt and went astray. So this was a pretty impressive bunch of people. They had been in consistent service to God even through some trying times that caused others to faulter. I think God is saying He wants the best folks in his service and that as one of our study Bibles says "if we keep close to God, God will keep us close to him."

Application
I think it's important for me to want to be the best and try wholeheartedly to keep close to God, to stay in His will. But it's equally as important to recognize that I'm going to fail. I'll fail, God will forgive me, and He'll willingly and happily take me back. I can't set a goal of perfection and then have a giant pity party every time I don't reach it. In life in general I like the thought of "hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst." I want to set my expectations high, high enough that I can't do it on my own, leaving no doubt that I need God help. I want to put my whole heart into being the person God wants me to be. And when I fail, I want to stay close to God, keep doing my best and accept the grace that He offers us. Yay! Sounds like fun. Won't be easy, hasen't been easy so far, but it has been and will be an amazing blessing to serve the Lord. :-)

Prayer
Dear Lord. I don't really know what to say right now. I'm amazed at how you bless me. Lord show me how to use the blessings you give me for your service. Show me how to be the person you want me to be. Help me take all that I learn from reading your word, prayer, sermons, devotionals, conversation, observing other people... all that I learn that helps lead me on your path. Help me take that knowledge and use it to see how I should use your blessings, and who you want me to be. Thank you Lord for using me at all. Thank you so much. Amen.