"I remember the loyalty (undying devotion) of your youth, your love as a bride--how you followed Me in the wilderness in a land not sown..." (Jeremiah 2:2)
Looking back and remembering the past can be a very good thing. Even very recently when we met up with a man we had known well so long ago, we remembered together how very wonderful those 'days of our youth' were. The 'good old days' have a strange draw to them, days that we were more innocent, more excited, and we delight in looking back at them with smiles. But sometimes when God looks back and remembers, it often brings sorrow to His heart.
It happened that way to Israel. They had been loyal in their youth, they had loved Him like a young bride loves her husband, and they had followed their God in their early journeys with Him through the wilderness. But as more and more time passed, they became disloyal to God, loving other gods instead of Him, and beginning to follow the paths that they chose instead of His. And I am sorry to say that I have been guilty of the same things. God looks back and remembers my past walk with Him and compares it to my 'now', and when He does, He often sees something better in my past than He sees in my now.
Time, age, and experience has a way of hardening you when you are not looking, slowly over time. Then one day you realize that, while in some ways you have grown closer to the Lord, in other ways you have stepped further away from Him. What was once your unfailing devotion and loyalty has cooled to lukewarm; your love for God and others can turn to irritation and frustration while other things in your life take on a greater and greater priority; and you may make decisions based on your own desires instead of seeking God and His will.
But I don't want to be deceived any longer into thinking that the 'good old days' of my deeper loyalty to God can never be the 'good new days' today! With God all things are possible; therefore, I can enjoy an even deeper intimacy with my Lord and Savior, my Father God, and my Helper Friend than I have ever known before. Israel never turned back. I do not want that to be my testimony.
PRAYER
Daddy Father, I have let the coals in some of the chambers of my heart become dying embers of smoke and ash. Breathe on my Holy Spirit the fire of loyalty, love, and desire to follow. Fan the cold coals in me until there is a roaring fire blazing through my whole heart. Let me burn for Your glory! facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment