I want my life to exhibit God’s power working, not my own.  All too often, though, I get in His way.  I was reflecting on some ways that this happens.  Here are a few of them:

1.  My service to God concerns me more than His presence.  Imagine a spouse that just ran around frantically cooking and cleaning and serving the other spouse, but was never intimate.  Sounds like a pretty awful arrangement.

2.  I assume that since I’m called, I’m spiritually mature.  I suppose Judas is the best example of this.  But the examples are endless.  I need to come to Him like a child every day.

3.  I don’t seek Him in the small things.  It’s become sort of fashionable to denigrate those who petition God for seemingly petty things.  The temptation is to pray for things we think we should pray for instead of what’s really on our hearts.  But it’s better to be vulnerable with God than eloquent.  Abraham, David, Jeremiah, Elijah, and others all knew this.  After all, not a single sparrow falls to the ground without our Father’s care.  The hairs on our heads are numbered, so it seems that God cares about the details.  I want my life to be in God’s hands from top to bottom.

4.  I want to know God’s will for my life more than I want to know God.  It’s safe to say that the better we know God, the less of an issue discerning His will is going to be.

These are just a few of the ways that I can easily quench the Spirit in my life.  I wonder if anyone has any more?