My relationship with Christ has not been what it should be. For months, even years, I have gone through long periods where I breathe small prayers of thanks and petition for others when it suits me, avoiding deliberate prayer time and Bible reading. Recently, I have felt a weighty conviction to change this, but I continued to avoid it, siting the busyness of the season, pushing it back, behind all my other 'important' tasks (including, of late, posting here).
Today, I was drawn to my Bible. It was inevitable that I would read it. Why the avoidance? What am I afraid of? What (or who) is making me afraid? I breathed a prayer, requesting forgiveness for my blatant avoidance and randomly opened my Bible to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was called, by God, to warn Judah about it's wickedness, it's idolatry. I started at the beginning of the book and all throughout the first three chapters felt as if I was being spoken to directly.
"I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me..." 2:2
"They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves." 2:5
"But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols, Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord." 2:11 & 12
"Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me, declares the Lord Almighty." 2:19
"Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number." 2:32
"If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers- would you now return to me?" 3:1
My idols have been many. It is easy to say, "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself. It's normal to have hobbies and interests". Yes, but when those hobbies and interests come before my time with the Lord, they become idols. And they have.
So, today I am thankful. Not just for the bounty of our garden or for the rain, but for God's Word that calls me back TODAY, even though it was written long ago. And, I am thankful because Jesus died for me and my sins. Because of this, I am not condemned (by Jeremiah 3:1, above) to a defiled relationship with God. Because of Jesus, I CAN return. Forgiven. And with His grace, start anew. Pin It
Oh, thank you. Thank you for introducing yourself on my blog. This post of yours is EXACTLY how I have been feeling for the last few months. I appreciate your sweet words.
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I think that so many times we get caught up inbusiness that God often gets put on the back burner. Often times he uses our own children to teach us imporrtant lessons. What if our children treated us the same way we treat God? Your post was a blessing to read. I just finished reading Jeremiah. Lots of good lessons in that book.
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