TRACTORS

TRACTORS

Now is that an interesting title for a devotional? I just spent the last week with our grandson, Tanner, who is year and a half. He lives in Minnesota (soon to be New Hampshire) on the family farm. This little guy is obsessed with tractors. He has several videos/dvds about tractors, books, and of course, numerous toy tractors. For his age, he has a great vocabulary (proud grandpa, hey?) and one word that he says constantly is . . . You guessed it -- TRACTOR.

Everywhere we went this week, that is all he talked about. He would see a tractor and just flip. He'd get the biggest smile on his face just talking about a tractor. And when he saw one, well forget it ... he'd just about climb out of your arms to hop on board.

I thought about Tanner's enthusiasm for tractors and pray that one day he will have that same awe, wonder and enthusiasm for God. Think about it as we prepare our hearts for worship. We get obsessed with so many things. I did a quick search this morning using the word "obsessed" in THE MESSAGE. Here's what I found:
Job 36:17 And here you are laden with the guilt of the wicked, obsessed with putting the blame on God!
Psalm 37:12 - Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in.
Psalm 64:1 - Listen and help, O God. I'm reduced to a whine And a whimper, obsessed with feelings of doomsday.
Ec. 9:3 - I find this outrageous - the worst thing about living on this earth - that everyone's lumped together in one fate. Is it any wonder that so many people are obsessed with evil? Is it any wonder that people go crazy right and left? Life leads to death. That's it.
Eze. 22:3 - Tell her, 'This is what God, the Master, says: You're a city murderous at the core, just asking for punishment. You're a city obsessed with no-god idols, making yourself filthy.
Eze. 23:9 - "So I left her to her Assyrian lovers, for whom she was so obsessed with lust.
Hosea 12:1- Ephraim, obsessed with god-fantasies, chases ghosts and phantoms. He tells lies nonstop, soul-destroying lies. Both Ephraim and Judah made deals with Assyria and tried to get an inside track with Egypt.
Am. 6:6 - Woe to those addicted to feeling good - life without pain! those obsessed with looking good - life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin.
Luke 16:14 - When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch.
Act. 22: 19 - "At first I objected: 'Who has better credentials? They all know how obsessed I was with hunting out those who believed in you, beating them up in the meeting places and throwing them in jail.
Acts. 26:11 - I stormed through their meeting places, bullying them into cursing Jesus, a one-man terror obsessed with obliterating these people. And then I started on the towns outside Jerusalem.
Romans 8:5 - Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God!
Phil. 2:4 - Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
2 Th 2:11 - And since they're so obsessed with evil, God rubs their noses in it - gives them what they want.
1 Tim 5:11 - Don't put young widows on this list. No sooner will they get on than they'll want to get off, obsessed with wanting to get a husband rather than serving Christ in this way.
1 Tim 6:17 -Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage -
I want to do a deeper search, but what amazed me is that there is no references to someone being obsessed with God. We get obsessed with TV shows, sports, food, cars, computers, and all kinds of things -- but there is ONE who desires that we become obsessed with Him and Him alone.

One thing for sure -- it isn't going to happen if we wait to Sunday to focus on HIM. Worship needs to be a part of the fabric of your life and mine each and every day. Kids do learn from us. The shoe is one the other foot though -- Tanner is teaching me a good lesson -- I want to be obsessed by God in the same way he is obsessed with tractors. Thanks, Tanner.
Now how about you?