I wonder if we sometimes think that God's reputation is at stake and we need to make the Christian life look really super inviting. Make life intriguing, interesting, invigorating. Don't complicate things and, for sure, don't make things way-too-serious or people won't want to read your stuff, they won't want to know your life. Be positive. It's all good. No, not at all like that. Sometimes I feel like I am from another planet as I observe how others approach life.
In the context of these verses, the Israelites had just been numbered and pointed in the direction of the Promised Land. Well, go! No brainer, right? Wrong. They were invited to step into this new land flowing with God's Goodness but FIRST, Numb 33:52, "When they pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then they shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it." Maybe God gave them the Land, but they still had to fight for it. They were hungry and God promises to fill them up.
Luke 1:53 "God fills the hungry with good things."
What am I really hungry for in my life at this point?
Am I hungry enough that I'm willing to suffer?
I must be on the planet that you are on, for I totally understand where you are coming from Bev.
ReplyDeleteThe verse in today's reading was my mother's mother's favorite....or one she quoted a lot..."be sure your sins will find you out"....it is so true. Seeing it lived out before me, not by someone related to me but none the less...seeing it lived out and her lies are telling on her and exposing her for who she really is. A Wild Young woman in a world gone wild instead of a wise young woman in a world gone wild. Breaking my heart. God can so fill us up if we allow Him to. He is ready, willing and able to feed us. We have to submit and allow Him to do so. His Word is true and amen. It is such a blessing to see this lived out, every day as I grow older. To know He is Truth and keeps His Word and NEVER EVER fails me. What a blessedness, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.
I smiled during today's reading in Numbers 32. I used that verse too, "Be sure your sins will find you out" with my kids. God in his great mercy used it when my kids needed it the most. It is something they still talk about as young adults and I hope teach to their own kids.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your prayers. I do have an issue in my neck that thankfully will respond to treatment, any I pray it will be a complete healing, it may not be, but I will continue to trust in Him.
Yes, Prasie Him! Mary Lou, He will NEVER EVER fail us.
Praising Him for your report, Nise'. I will join you in prayer for complete healing of your neck. Thanks for the update.
ReplyDeleteMary Lou, now I'm singing with you, loving that song. He is so faithful.
Bev, it does seem people want to advertise Christianity as the easy street, just sign up here...but it's so much more. I've thought about how in my own life, the things that don't look like I thought they would at this point, and how it has grown my heart, my love in that area. So like God to be about heart change rather than ease of circumstance.
The verse in Numbers that caught my eye today was about driving out the inhabitants lest they come back and trouble you. Sin is like that--we must purge it from our heart, drive it out with His holy Blood that cleanses us from all unrighteousness, or it will surely come back to cause us grief. It's not about the easy life, not even solely about making us holy before a holy God, but for our own good as well, to keep us healthy physically and spiritually.
"But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”