The notion of this verse is very sobering . For we assume God listens to our prayers and hears us when we call to Him…but this verse shows it can be otherwise. And it’s not the only place in the Bible we read of God repeatedly calling to His people, “Reform your ways and your actions”…calling again and again with the intention of eliciting a very specific response…the response of His people returning back to Him. We find this notion again in Micah 3:4, “They will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.” The bottom line is…God is not obligated to listen to His people when they are habitually rebellious, disobedient, and corrupt… and refuse to listen to Him.
II Chronicles 36:15-16 ” The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through His messengers again and again, because He had pity on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against His people and there was no remedy.”
Mankind has always been a stiff necked and stubborn lot…while in contrast, our Lord has always been the One to try again and again to patiently bring us back. But as Jeremiah 11:7 sadly tells us, “I warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey Me.’ But they didn’t listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts.” But make no mistake, God’s longsuffering has limits…His tolerance for disobedience only to a certain point. And as we see above, when that fateful point is reached, God’s anger will flare without remedy.
Galatians 6:3-4 ” If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.”
Today would be a good time for all of us to examine our actions and conduct under the unyielding light of God’s truth. It starts with a sober assessment of our motives, followed by a solemn soul-searching of where we are faith-wise. It means asking ourselves questions like, “Am I listening to God or man?” or “Am I going along with men’s teachings without reading it for myself in the Bible?” So much deception is swirling around us now a days…we need to be careful, for “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (I Corinthians 8:2) This spirit of deception will cause you to think of yourself more highly than you ought…in other words, that you are beyond being deceived.
Jeremiah 14:7 ” Although our sins testify against us, O Lord, do something for the sake of Your Name. For our backsliding is great; we have sinned against You.”
You don’t hear the word backsliding used much anymore. Backsliding is a moral lapse of judgment and disobedience…a wayward decision, not always openly rebellious, but still falling short of God’s standard. Backsliding can be filled with arrogance such as Isaiah wrote, “The look on their faces testifies against them: they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it.” But regardless of how subtle or brash the backsliding is…it’s still sin, and all misdeeds have consequences. But it’s at that point that we must repent and ask God for forgiveness…and pray, “Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us and forgive our sins for Your Name sake.” (Psalm 79:9)
Luke 24:46-49 ” He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what My Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ “
What Jesus is promising here to His disciples is the Holy Spirit…the Spirit of Truth. (John 14:16) And as Believers, we also have been endowed with the Holy Spirit. (II Corinthians 1:22) Armed with this same Spirit of Truth we must then, as Jesus commanded His disciples, “Preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name to all nations.” Now is the time to take our eyes off the temporal to the eternal, and to heed the higher calling Jesus spoke of here. For Jesus told His disciples in John 15:26-27, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about Me. And you also must testify, for you have been with Me from the beginning.” Lift up your eyes today to this higher calling…for you have been more than equipped with the Holy Spirit who bears witness and glorifies Jesus Christ with the redemptive and saving truth of the Gospel.
II Chronicles 6:19-20 ” Yet give attention to Your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying in Your Presence. May Your eyes be open towards this temple day and night, this place of which You said You would put Your Name there.”
These verses are part of the Prayer of Dedication for the Temple Solomon built for the Lord. But I want to apply this prayer to another Temple…that Temple is you and the Body of Believers – the Church universal. I Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” And then I Corinthians 6:19 tells us, “Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, whom you have received from God?” Finally in II Corinthians 6:16 we read, “We are the Temple of the living God.” We are the dwelling place of the Lord…both individually, and collectively as the Body of Believers. And despite what we may see around us…God has not abdicated, or relinquished His Temple, Throne, power, or authority to anyone or thing. Remember, you have been chosen as a dwelling place for His Name…and as part of the Church Body, you all have been joined together to become a holy Temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:21-22)
I Thessalonians 1:6-7 ” You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.”
Think about this for a moment…to the world, as a Believer in Christ, you are either a good or bad example. You are either imitating Christ-like behaviors, or acting like the rest of the unsaved world. You are either allowing yourself to be crushed by the weight of trouble and affliction, or embracing with heart and mind the Good News of the Gospel Message. We are to be imitators of Christ and model Him to all we come in contact with…Believers and unbelievers alike, or as Paul exhorted Timothy, “Set an example for the Believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” (I Timothy 4:12) The world is watching you and how you react to tribulation. Is your conduct worthy of the Gospel?
Job 7:17 ” What is man that You make so much of him, that You give him so much attention…”
Have you ever asked the Lord the same question Job did here? Why are You even mindful of me Lord? Why do You even care for me? Can I really be of any use to You…considering that I’m just a weak, frail human being living in a house of clay that can be crushed more readily than a moth? (Job 4:19 & Job 22:2) The answer is a resounding Yes! That’s because God loves you, looks on you with mercy and favor, and shows His tremendous love for you when He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to save your soul.
Romans 3:22 ” This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Faith is the instrument God gives us in order for us to receive His gift of salvation. This saving faith is the initial step we take when placing our trust and confidence in His Son, Jesus Christ. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Ephesians 2:11-12 ” Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcised’ (that done in the body by the hands of men) – remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”
These verses deal with the idea of exclusion and inclusion…of belonging or being unattached…of being an insider or an outsider. Gentiles, or unbelievers, lacked the covenantal physical sign of circumcision and thus were excluded. But then Jesus Christ came teaching the New Covenant concept of circumcision of the heart. Romans 2:29 tells us, “Circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.” So those of us once far away from God have been brought near through the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)…so we who were once outsiders have now been reconciled and become members of God’s family.
Safetypinlove 