I Had Set Myself Up.

I had been recognizing some snippy responses and selfish attitudes in myself, and I was ready to be done with them, so I prescribed myself more verses to meditate on, more time alone with God, more passages to study.

I couldn't have set myself up better for the next day's devotional reading if I had tried.
Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest says:

"Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer-- "O Lord God, You know" (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, "Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done. 

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God...We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do?"

I have gotten caught up with my actions rather than staying focused on my relationship with God. The next day's reading said:

"Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, "No, by nothing," but all of us are obsessed by something-- usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God."

Being obsessed by thoughts about God doesn't seem to be that different than being obsessed by God himself, but that is why it is more dangerous. Either way, we are doing a lot of the same things, but the intentions-- the heart-- are different. And God looks at the heart.