CIRCUMCISED
Today's reading: Ezekiel 43-48

"So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: No foreigners, including those who live among the people of Israel, will enter my sanctuary if they have not been circumcised and do not love the Lord." Ezekiel 44:9 NLT

Lord,

If I am to enter Your presence, whether at my church or here in my prayer chair, I have to have had some things cut away--and love You.

Not one or the other. Both.

I can do all the rituals, know all the lingo, be able to quote all four verses of the hymn and carry a King James version Bible, but if I haven't allowed You to cut away the parts of my heart that are infected and festered by the world, then I am a stranger You cannot let into Your presence.

The thought of that scares me. Sickens me. Brings me to my knees.

What am I holding on to that You are wanting to cut away? What ties of the world am I clinging to? What trinkets and souvenirs from my old life am I hanging on to with both hands?

In what areas of my life am I proving by my actions that I love someone or something more than I love You? What's getting my time? My energy? My affection?

What bitterness am I guarding? What grudges might I be harboring? What hurts am I nursing, not in a healing fashion but in a 'if I keep this wound open and fresh, I'll keep myself from opening up to another in such a way as to allow it again' kind of manner?

You have done a lot of work in me, Lord, but I also see so much more needing done.

Cut away what keeps me from being in Your presence.

Amen.