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On that day when the Law of Moses was read aloud to everyone, it was discovered that Ammonites and Moabites were forbidden to belong to the people of God. Nehemiah 13:1 (CEV)
For those who think there is no hope; who feel that you’ve messed up too bad, that your rebellion has exhausted God’s ability or desire to forgive; who have resigned yourself to the ‘fact’ that the bad choices of your past have will plague you for the rest of your life, take a look behind the scenes of Nehemiah 13:1.
It had been years since the Law of Moses had been read to the people of God. At that time there were no dusty scrolls sitting on the coffee table. The only way to know the word of God was to go to the priest and have them read it to you. With the Israelite exile, and rebuilding the wall, there had been little time for reading.
When the scrolls were opened, the people were awakened to God’s demands for purity among his people. The Israelites had defiled themselves by associating with Moabites and Ammonites. This was a great issue for all those who wanted to follow God.
When the people found out they were living against God they removed all the ammonites and Moabites. Cruel, you say? Perhaps. But God didn’t forget the Moabites. Turn the clock back a few hundred years.
Picture a young Moabite woman in a strange land. She’s still mourning the death of her young husband. He’d died way too soon. He left no son, no legacy to be remembered by. Now, all she has was memories, the challenges of being a Moabite woman in a strange culture, and a mother-in-law who gave her love, but no guarantees of a future.
Ah, yes, Ruth. Remember her? Young, alone and widowed in a foreign land. Looked down upon by most, pitied by few…that is until Boaz came along. Then her world changed Fear turned to confidence. Loneliness melted into hope. Poverty gave way to wealth. Separation from God dissolved in grace.
The result? A place in the lineage of the Messiah, the son of the Living God! There was nothing she could do to deserve her position of grace. She was unworthy of any sort of blessing or privilege. But God sought her out and blessed her richly.
God sees hope in us regardless of our actions or our past. No matter how alone you feel; how deeply you have been hurt; how forgotten you feel; how hopeless the situation you find yourself in, the God of Heaven has provided a path through the wilderness to bring you home.
PRAYER: Father, I worship you today for the reminder that I am never far from your loving, merciful and guiding hand. I thank you for the provision of Jesus and the hope we have through your grace. Amen.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord! Psalm 31:24 (AMP)
The amount of courage we have is dependent on what we put our hope in.
If I put my hope in my own ability to follow God I’ll be frustrated. I’m weak. I follow my own desires far too often. Selfishness sneaks up on me at the least likely time. I’m full of lust. My past haunts me.
If I put my hope in relationships I’ll be lonely. People fail us. The promise things, but fail to honor that promise. They all too often put demands on me that I can’t fulfill, or if I do fulfill them to the best of my ability, expect more.
If I put my hope in finances I fall short. Too many times that I have way too much month at the end of the money and if I do have the finances to get what I want, it’s often outdated by the end of the week.
Putting hope in religion is demoralizing. Religion puts far more expectations and demands on me than God would ever do. Churches seem to be ivory palaces full of dead man’s bones. Pretty on the outside but full of politics, judgmental attitudes and hypocritical leaders on the inside.
If I put my hope in living healthy, you know, doing the diet thing, exercising, and all the rest, someone else always seems to be trimmer or enjoying life more than I. And I still get sick. Some of the ‘healthiest people I know’ have suffered from debilitating illnesses or accidents that have robbed them of life.
Maybe you have felt some of the feelings listed above. Your strength to go on seems to have left you. Increased effort has only brought increased frustration and feelings of failure. It doesn’t have to be that way.
If we put our hope in God’s hands our frustration turns to a realization that our success has never been dependent on our ability. God has never put much hope in our ability to follow his rules, that’s why he offers me Jesus. That’s why he offers me forgiveness and grace.
He’s never measured our success by the amount of money in our bank account or the number of friends we have on social networking sites. He’s never demanded anything that he doesn’t first give us the ability to follow through on. He knows your heart. He knows your deepest fears. He knows your past and wants to walk with you into the future.
Losing hope? Frustrated? Worried? Tired of losing sleep. Have courage based on a loving forgiving God. Worship and praise him for fact that he has reached down to give you peace through his son Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: Father God, there are many things that scare me today. I have lots of worries; lots of fears; failure seems to follow me wherever I go. Thank you that I can find my hope and rest in you. Help me have courage through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.
Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; Psalm 26:2 (NIV)
When we aren’t feeling right the proper thing to do may be to go to the doctor. We sit in the exam room and he checks our ‘vitals’ and may do a surface examination, checking our posture, ears, nose, throat, reflexes and the like. We’ll be asked about symptoms and changes in energy and bodily functions.
If no problem is detected the doctor will order tests, like blood work or perhaps an x-ray or CT scan. Until the problem is discovered a good doctor will, in a sense peel away at surface issues until he gets to the root of the problem. Until he can do that, a solution can’t be found and treatment won’t be able to happen.
Once the issue is diagnosed a treatment will be prescribed which will solve whatever our problem is. If you want to feel better, you will follow the doctor’s advice, take your medication and allow your body to heal.
What’s true in the physical realm is also true in the realm of our emotional and spiritual health. Sometimes when people are feeling poorly physically they will try to ‘heal’ themselves by asking friends what they think, or going onto the internet. Sometimes this can lead to deeper more serious problems or simply treat the symptoms without getting to the real cause. The best thing to do when you are feeling physically sick is to go to the doctor because the doctor is trained to know where and how to look for the problem.
When you are struggling emotionally or spiritually the best place to go is to your Heavenly Father. Unlike the doctor who makes an educated guess about your condition, your Heavenly Father made you. He knows everything about you. He watched your hands, your feet, and your personality form while you were still in the womb. He knows every fear you’ve ever had, every mistake you’ve ever made, every thought, word or deed you’ve ever done. He knows the things everyone sees on the outside, but he also sees the most secret, intimate, hidden things in your soul.
The Psalmist asks God to examine him. He uses three words to describe that examination: ‘Test me, try me, examine me’. Those three words describe an intense, thorough examination deep inside your soul. Those kinds of examinations are scary whether they be physical or spiritual/emotional because they may reveal some things we don’t want to know about ourselves. But in order to be healthy we need to look into every part of our lives and deal with the issues we find. Otherwise we are only treating symptoms. When God examines us it may be painful, like purifying gold needs intense heat, so our lives must go through some fire to purify and heal our inner wounds.
The good news is we don’t need to fear what God finds and what he shows us about ourselves. God doesn’t examine us to find fault, he examines us to find areas where we can grow stronger. He doesn’t show us our faults to shame us, he shows them to us so we know what to work on to be better. Don’t be afraid to do some self examination of your heart. Ask the maker to look deep within your soul and reveal areas that he can help change to make you better. It’s the best medicine you’ll ever take.
PRAYER: Father, I’m afraid to look at myself too deeply. But I know I must in order to be healthy. Like the psalmist, I ask that you would go with me as I travel deep inside myself. Show me where I need to change and empower me with your Holy Spirit to make those changes. I’m done treating symptoms; I want to be spiritually and emotionally healthy. Amen.
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Psalm 139:8
Adam and Eve tried it. Right after they ate the forbidden fruit. Put a couple fig leaves on to cover up their nakedness and hid in the bushes. It didn’t work of course. Right on schedule he came walking down the garden path looking for them. I wonder what look he had on his face when he saw the new clothes?
David tried it too. Right after his one night fling with the girl next door. He was a little more creative in his attempt of course. He attempted to sweep the whole thing under the rug of secrecy. God showed he could play the same game however and came up with a nice little story, delivered by the prophet to show David the same lesson Adam and Eve learned. You can’t hide from God.
Years later, Jonah tried the more direct approach. He didn’t hide. He didn’t go in secret. He made no bones about the fact that he wasn’t happy with God’s decision and he would have no part of it. God, of course, wasn’t about to be strong-armed by the renegade prophets tactics. Through the use of a fish and a scraggly vine Jonah learned you can’t hide from God, you can’t run from God and his purpose will be fulfilled in spite of our rebellion.
In each situation the lesson each person learned was that you can’t run from God or hide from him. Usually we run or hide from something that scares us or endangers us. Not so with our Heavenly Father. He will seek us out. He will find us. But his search for us isn’t based on anger or revenge. His purpose isn’t for punishment or judgment. God seeks out his children to bring them home.
Your Heavenly Father is more concerned about showing you grace than showing your faults. He’s more interested in revealing his love than he is about revealing your sin. His actions are directed more towards showing you forgiveness through his grace than loading up the guilt for your failures.
When you find yourself on the mountaintops of life, remember that God is there with you, celebrating with you and enjoying the moment. When you find yourself in the depths, when the darkness seems overwhelming and you can’t find your way, remember that he walks with you along the darkened path of despair.
He’s not a hunter seeking to destroy some enemy. He’s a loving Father seeking to show you the fullest extent of his love and forgiveness. You are never really out of God’s sight. When you stray, he’ll seek you out for all the right reasons.
PRAYER: Father there are times I feel removed from you either due to my wanderings or due to other things that darken my path. I praise you for the fact that no matter where I am, whether on the mountaintop or in the darkest valley, I’m not lost. You will seek my out. Amen.
“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:10
We’ve all been misunderstood from time to time. Our actions, while well-intentioned go awry, the outcomes we hoped to achieve fall short of expectations or even accomplish exactly the opposite of what we’d hoped.
Some of those actions can be real relationship breakers. In our homes we do what we think best of our kids only to realize we were way too harsh, or too easy. It happens at work when we make a business decision that, even when well thought out, and looking like it will benefit everyone, ends up hurting everyone instead. We try to help that person of the opposite sex and end up in a relationship that we never intended that destroys our reputation and shatters the faith and trust others had in us.
Great motives in no way guarantee great results.
So what do you do when you find yourself miles from where you’d hoped to be? When those who once stood by you and believed in you turn their backs on you. When the well intentioned decisions of your life have left your situation looking like a jig-saw puzzle scattered on the ground with no hope that all the pieces will be there or that you can ever put it together again.
You can ask for forgiveness. God will forgive instantly, people may never do so. Time heals lots of wounds so you can pick up where you left off and rebuild. Reality is, the consequences of your actions may change things forever.
But in the midst of your pain and struggle here’s a word of encouragement from the one that knows you better than you know yourself. Your heavenly Father knows. When others question your intentions, when others doubt your sincerity. He looks to the most inward parts of your soul, to the very depths of your heart and sees whether your motives are hypocritical or sincere. One author writes, “[the Lord sees] the most inward and remote parts, covered with fat, and out of sight: these are the seat of the affections; and the Lord tries these, whether they are towards him or not; and whether sincere or hypocritical.”
It works both ways of course. Eventually the lies and motives of those who have hurt you, or the hypocritical motives we’ve had, will come to light. But take comfort in the fact that even though your best intentioned plans may fail and the results accomplish the exact opposite of your intentions. Even when others refuse to believe you. Your Father knows. He knows you better than you know yourself and he’ll stand by you when others won’t. You can come to him for forgiveness and he’ll walk with you through the rebuilding that may be necessary.
PRAYER: Father, some days it seems like no matter what I try to do I’m misunderstood or mistrusted. Some of the things I’ve don have destroyed my relationship with others and damaged it with you. Forgive me for the time I’ve hurt you or others, Help me to rebuild where I can and learn from the rest. In your name, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 