Crazy Love

So I've been reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and it has got me thinkin... how often we give God our leftovers.
Now before I go any further I want to share with you why I began reading this. I started reading it because it was the book we picked for our high schoolers to read in their home groups. I thought it was going to be a surface level book about being a Christian and living for God. Now, don't get me wrong I do love those books, but they are not something I would read on my own. But I thought it would be good idea to read Crazy Love along with the students. And honestly, I love it! Sometimes I can't put it down. The way Francis puts things things is so honest, yet so convicting and really makes you think.
So now onto giving God our leftovers. I think we as Christians, want to be blessed by God, want to see God in the things around us, and want to feel His presence. BUT I think in all those wants we forget that God is everything. He doesn't want  us to want Him but He needs us to NEED Him. To need Him in a way that we cannot go through a day without praising Him, without acknowledging Him, without being used by Him. It's a crazy thing to think about. That God loves us so much He needs us to focus all our attention on Him. To walk so closely with Him that we feel Him in us.
God does not want our leftovers. He does not want the end of our problems, money, relationships, life, or attention. He wants it all...from the beginning. NOT so He can boss us around but so we can benefit from His love. God wants every part of our life so that we can love better. After all, He is the creator of love. He is the one who put those feelings inside of us. When we connect with Him we are able to learn how to love better. And honestly, isn't that what we all want? To feel loved and to be loved. In everything we do we are trying to get attention, trying to obtain praise..... so that we can feel loved by others. So why do we give God our leftovers? Why do we only come to Him when we see no other opitions? Why do we try to "fit" God into our days instead of sharing it with Him?
I have been convicted by these thoughts all week. How often I give God the last of my day, the end of my problem. I go to Him with my problems when my ways of fixing them hasn't worked, when my way of problem solving has failed. But I have began thinking, if I bring everything to God from the start, He will be fixing problems before I even know they have started. So I am surrendering it all over to God yet again. I think surrender has to be a daily thing and sometimes an hourly thing because we are stubborn people. Lord pry these things away from us, show us your way. Show us love and help us to love one another deeply.

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command:... "Love your neighbor as yourself." Galatians 5:13-14

Hope you all have a chance to read Crazy Love. It is a fast read and simple enough that you don't need a dictionary beside you as you read :)

Be blessed my friends!