One of the lessons God has taught me lately especially reading the Old Testament is God no matter how far we stray from Him longs for us to return to Him. You can see many times over the Israelites disobeyed the Lord. Even thuough He pulled them out of slavery and gave them an abundant life, they still walked away from God. They tried to find satisfaction in meaningless Idols; worshipping foreign gods, the earth, and themselves. In the book of Hosea God asks His people, “Why have you forgotten me?” The Israelites were full of distress, God even says to them in Hosea 7:14 “They do not cry out to Me from their hearts but wail upon their beds.”
God commands us to worship no god accept him. I have to admit when I was younger I thought of idols as a Buddha that I would have to worship at an alter in my living room. But I knew that I believed in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ so worshipping a fat little statue I would never do. However an idol is something we find more satisfaction in other than God Himself. For an example, money being an easy one; do we strive to work and work to fatten our bank accounts, do we love money more than God? Do you long to find a woman or man to love you more than you long for the love of God who is love? Do you have a hobby that you spend more time doing than worshipping the One (Jesus Christ) who has given you life?
If so you have an idol in your life that is hindering you from experiencing the full satisfaction of God. But take heart- God says “Return to Me and I will return to you”, and the best thing in the world is, He takes you back not grudgingly, but with arms wide open!!!
I can promise you, if you are trying to fulfill your life with things other than God, you will never be truly happy. There is no security in the things of this world including people you love. God made me smile when I read what He said in Jeremiah 2: 27-28:
They say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, 'Come and save us! Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.
God is essentially saying to His people, you worship idols and foreign gods, such as the earth, and when times of trouble come you ask for your god to help you it does not deliver you. When we put our faith in people, material securities, it will always fail and so will we. But here is the good news; the Lord God alone saves and is the only security we have who is ALWAYS present in every situation.
Many times before God became my number one, I would pray to Him in my times of distress and I felt like I couldn’t hear Him. I would pray once and expect an answer from Him. Hoping He would just take my situation away from me. But beloveds, that is not how God operates. He so desperately wants us to have relationship with Him.
I can say from personal experience that when I was dealing with a hardship, I told my dad I wish I could be like the woman who touched Jesus’ clothing and she was healed. My dad said, yeah Jess God could do that, but He wants a relationship with Him. If God healed you right away what would you have learned? Good question, you see God allows trials and tribulations to come into our lives, but my hope is 1) I am not alone, EVER! 2) I will be delivered and there is a reason I am going through this, but I must have patience in Him. And when you trust fully in God during the trying times, I promise you, God will give you a joy you have never experienced if you are obedient to Him. 3) God will never let our trials go unused for His kingdom!
God says He wants to redeem us; He wants us to return to Him when we have forgotten Him. Some say they never knew Him, well that’s ok too, because you can know Him. God sent His only son Jesus Christ to die for you. We are deserving of death because of our iniquities, but Christ willingly came in the form of a man to die on the cross (a very gruesome death) so that we may live in eternity with the Creator.
Remember, this life is not all we have. As human beings we have a choice; to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the lover of our soul, heart, and mind or we can reject Him. The consequence of rejecting Him is eternity in hell. But if we accept Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again 3 days later and indeed the Son of the Most High God, we can live in eternity in heaven! Praise God!
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