I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last post. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been spending time with the Lord. We have had some precious moments. Life just got the best of me … and He had me focus on other activities.
However, I always yearned to make it back here. I’ve been feeling the “words” welling up in me … so, now I know it’s time to put pen to paper … so to speak. I think I’ll take up where we left off … in the book of Hosea, chapter 9.
My Bible has entitled this chapter, “Punishment for Israel.” It’s basically saying that Israel shouldn’t rejoice because their sacrifices won’t be acceptable to the Lord … “…nor will their sacrifices please Him.” (v. 4b) In v17, we read, “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him…“
Of course, the Israelites could argue that yes, they were most assuredly obeying God. He gave specific rules on offering sacrifices and they were doing them. How could God say they weren’t obeying Him?
Because they’re hearts weren’t involved. They were going through the motions. It’s almost as if they were looking at a list entitled: “How to be a Good Israelite” and then picking and choosing which of those steps they wanted to take and ignoring the rest.
God never said they could pick and choose … He said “Obey … obey Me in everything!“
I need to be careful that I don’t fall into the same complacency. It’s all too easy to obey God in the things I like: spending time alone with Him, studying His Word, speaking with Him. It can be more difficult, though, with other aspects: freely loving, forgiving when I’ve been hurt for the “gazillionth” time, showing mercy instead of anger and revenge, serving with a “basin and a towel” when I’m tired, living with joy — when sometimes I just want to curl up and cry.
Yeah … sometimes I want to pick and choose. But the Lord says “Obey.“
And obeying — in the hard things — doesn’t seem to be too a hard a pill to swallow when I read about how much God loves.
“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.” (v.10)
I don’t know about you, but I get such a warm glow in my heart when I read those words. I can’t help but smile. I think because God must have burst into a smile when He thought about seeing Israel for the first time. I imagine His face just lights up!
I’ve never been in the desert, but, here in Iowa, we can have some pretty hot, humid days. I think back to some of those days in August when the heat index was in the triple digits. If I was outside on such a day, and someone brought me a bowl of ice-cold grapes … all I would be able to say was … “Ahhhhhh!” The coolness of the grape, the thirst-quenching of the juice … “manna from Heaven.”
I don’t have a garden here, but I come from a family of farmers … even Momma and Daddy had a pretty nice vegetable garden in the backyard when I was growing up. So, I’ve been around around enough farmers to know how eagerly they await and look for for that first indication of a good harvest. The anticipation of seeing that first bud on a plant and the joy of seeing it grow and ripen.
Both of those scenarios just bring a smile … and that’s exactly how God think of us … of me. I’m His grape in the desert … His early fruit.
While I may sometimes cause Him to cry … I’m also what causes Him to smile. And, I want to Him to smile so much more than cry.
I don’t want to obey to “get on His good side” … to go down a checklist of what it takes to be a “good Christian.” I don’t want to “pick and choose” how to serve my Lord.
I just want to joyously follow and serve. I want to come to end of my life and hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
Will I mess up? Yeah. Will I still make Him cry? Yeah, I will.
But I will pray for His strength and guidance everyday. I will pray for joy to cover me and everything that I do. I will pray for the Holy Spirit to infill me to serve and love more. I’ll be praying the Holy Spirit will do the same for you.
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