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Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They’ll lose interest in all the stuff they’ve made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is. Isaiah 17:7-8 (The Message)
Isaiah gives the people of Israel hope for the future. As usual, it seems, God’s people had once more strayed from the relationship they had with God. They had become distracted with making money, building for the future and making life as comfortable as possible.
God was ‘in their lives’ but He was just a part of many other things going on. He was a safety net. God, or in this case religion had become an activity, not a relationship. They believed that everything would be okay as long as they did all the rituals of ‘church’ and said the right things.
The Israelites hadn’t gotten to that point overnight. It was a slow gradual process like the frog in a boiling pot of water. Put a frog in hot water he jumps immediately to safety. Put him in cool water and turn on the heat he will boil to death as his body adjusts to the heat to a deadly level. When death comes it comes quickly.
Jesus doesn’t ask for 99% of our lives. He wants all of us, 100% or more! When we harbor sin, ignore our spiritual food or make our relationship a ritual, we will lose touch with what the spiritual life, the Christ-life’ is all about. It’s easy to do. We seek after houses and toys and ‘respect’ and power. Even under the name of ministry or serving God. But beware of making our actions and our accomplishments the basis of our spiritual being. Just as with Israel, the walls of our accomplishments can come crashing down.
Sometimes, it takes the destruction of the ‘walls of our accomplishments’ to see Jesus in all His fullness. It’s when we reach bottom that we can renew our life in Him and restore that relationship. Fortunately that is JUST what He wants. Jesus isn’t impressed with the church you attend (or lead) or the number of Bible Studies you attend, or the fact that you’ve read the Bible through every year for 50 years, or that you have remained faithful to your spouse for 75 years, or that you sing worship songs (add your own activities to this list).
These are all things, activities, actions. Some are very valuable. But it’s the heart that matters. It’s about relationship. Jesus spent more time reaching out to those of us that had failed, that struggled with our faith, our family, our kids and our jobs than He did the ‘nice clean religious folks of his day’.
Forget your past. Forget the accomplishments you’ve made for whatever the reason. Where is your heart?
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. Thank you for the many things you have given me. Thank you for all of my gifts, my talents and my accomplishments. Forgive me for the times when I’ve made those accomplishments into idols that displace the relationship you want with me. Empower me through your Spirit to have a heart that is right with you. Amen
Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.” Hosea 6:3
The nations of the world were in turmoil. Marriages were free falling along with the moral fiber of society. Religion had become a meaningless set of rules and rituals that no longer seemed relevant to the people. Fear and despair were the most common characteristics of people’s minds.
Thus was the world that the prophet Hosea lived in 8 centuries before Jesus was born, as he attempted to call the people of Israel back to belief in God. His very name meant salvation, or good news and his message was one of hope if people would come back to a right relationship with God. A relationship built on following God’s ways.
The words Hosea was given for the people involved a promise based on action. If the people sought after God and lived in right relationship with Him, He would be as the spring rains which revived the dormant ground, resulting in new beauty and fruitfulness.
The promise is the same today. When we live in relationship with Jesus Christ the mistakes of our past are forgiven. Just as a spring rain freshens the air and brings new life to the soil, Jesus Christ brings new life to our soul. If we seek relationship with Him, He will come to us just as surely as the sun will rise in the morning!
When we say, “I can’t because” we limit the work God can do in our lives. We put Him in a box. Rather that saying ‘I can’t’ to the dreams we have it is better to seek His plan for us. It could very well be the plans He has include your dreams or even better ones! God desires to give you a new beginning. The dreams we have will never take place until we realize that God can make those dreams come true if we seek Him for direction.
As you grow in relationship with Christ He will show you the desires of YOUR heart. But you must act on that revelation. Fulfillment in life begins on the inside and overflows into your actions.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I ask today that you will come into my life anew and afresh like a spring rain. Penetrate the hard soil of my failures so that new life may spring from the soil of my soul. Empower me to walk with you with a clear heart and a clear mind for you. Amen.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
The difference between a winner and a loser is often a matter of inches or moments. A slip on the ice for figure skater, a missed assignment in a ball game, a moment of distraction for anyone and victory can slip from your hands. Everyone loses. Champions are people who use losses as stepping stones to victory.
It’s no wonder then that the apostle Paul used this analogy when he wrote to the Philippians from a dark, cold and damp prison cell. In the most unlikely place and the most uncomfortable circumstances Paul gives us a glimpse of his life philosophy. He admits to failure. He is not proud or his past. But he puts that aside and looks forward to what God has for him in the future.
Each of us has things on our past that we are ashamed of. We’ve made decisions that have hurt the people we love the most. We have been hurt by trusted friends and lovers. We have been the victims of other’s abusive and vindictive attacks.
Like Paul we need to look ahead. God didn’t allow you to go through what you are going through to make you feel defeated. He has no intention of putting you on a shelf somewhere because you’ve made such a mess of your life. He put you here on earth because he can use you and wants to see you succeed. That success may not be as the world measures success: money, fame, power, etc. The success He has for you is on the inside.
Don’t let your past defeats keep you from being a champion. Your relationship with Jesus Christ it your best avenue to achieving all God has for you and He has promised you His very best.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. You know the weight of my past mistakes. You know my feelings of defeat and weakness. Help me to pick myself up from this despair and move forward. Help me to be the champion you made me to be. Empower me with your Holy Spirit to live like a winner today. Amen.
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:11
The people of God were in exile in a far off land. They’d been separated from family, their homes and most importantly the ability to worship God freely. Psalm42 is a song that was written during this time of hopelessness. They longed for way things used to be. For the ability to sing their songs, to meet with family and hear God’s word.
Now, all that was gone. They were taunted and harassed by people who didn’t believe as they did. They were constantly reminded by the people in this new land that their God was weak and perhaps even dead. They were called fools for the way they desired to worship. Lies were told about them. It was a very terrible and lonely time.
The ‘prison’ the Israelites found themselves in was a real one. They were slaves and told what to do, where to go, what to eat. They had very little say in any part of their lives. Some even died as a result of the hardship.
Even though we may not be in a prison with walls, sometimes we can find ourselves in a prison without walls. We look back to times in our lives when life was good. We had a family, we had a good job, and the kids listened to us. Now, we long for those times.
There are lots of things that can put us in a prison without walls. Divorce, illness, financial disaster, job loss, rebellious kids or any other number of issues can make us long for the ‘good ole’ days’. They bring pain and despair into our lives. But those issues aren’t the walls. The walls are how we react to the issues.
The issues of life cause us to feel ashamed, lonely, guilty, and angry and any number of other emotions. The way we react to the struggles of life builds walls around us that keep us from experiencing all the good that our loving Heavenly Father has for us.
No matter what is going on in your life God loves you. It doesn’t matter if the things happening to you are a result of your own poor choices or the evil inflicted by other, abusive people. Jesus loves you. It doesn’t matter if you once ‘were a good Christian’ and now have walked away from the faith. Jesus wants to welcome you back with open arms.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. Right now you know the struggle I’m going through. You know my pain, my shame, my guilt. My enemy attacks me. My finances are a disaster. I feel completely defeated. Please tear down these walls that keep me from experiencing all that you have for me. Help me to live by the measurement of your standards and not the standards others seek to force on me. Amen.
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
There aren’t very many things that we can count on any more. Relationships fail; jobs go away, friends and family members move, or worse yet die. Change happens more and more frequently. Faith tells us that we can be sure of the hopes and dreams we have. All we have ever wanted can come true if we just have the faith. That all sounds good, but is it really true?
But in the real world ‘dreams’ don’t always come true. So is God wrong? Is faith worth it? Was this verse put in these pages just to mess with our minds? Why don’t dreams come true?
There are a lot of reasons our dreams don’t come true. We lose faith in ourselves. We stop believing in ourselves when failure follows failure. We set goals for ourselves and fail to meet them. Soon the wounds overtake us and we give up. We lose faith in others when relationships go sour and love dies. We lose faith in God when our prayers go unanswered and it seems like disaster follows disaster. We lose faith when we listen to the lies of those around us.
Having faith means we believe in the unbelievable, we trust what we can’t see, we accept what we can’t change.
Faith is only as strong as the item we put our faith in. That’s why we often get discouraged. We put our faith in finite, mortal things such as money, other people or ourselves. When those things fail despair sets in. There are no options.
Just saying we put our faith in God isn’t enough. Faith in God depends on our concept of God. If we see God as being some aloof, uncaring old man, and trouble comes what good is our faith. If we see God as being a weak wishy-washy coward and we are attacked where will he be then? If we see God as a vengeful, angry father we cower in fear when we think we may have displeased him. When we see God as a jolly, old Santa Clause type God we expect to get all of our dreams and wishes fulfilled whether they are really best for us or not.
But if we see God as a loving, caring, all-powerful daddy we realize that He will be exactly what we need at the time. That means that when we need to be challenged he’ll bring situations into our lives to make us strong. When we need to be comforted he sends healing. When we are lonely he reminds us that he is always there. He has given us the gifts we need to accomplish all He has intended.
Never, ever stop believing in the God of the Bible.
PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father. There are so many times when I struggle with this thing called faith. I desperately want to believe in you. I want to believe in myself and to believe that you have great things planned for me. Help me to see you for who you are so that I can pursue the dreams you have given me. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 