Sunday
So, I seem to have fallen behind in my blogging. There is no good reason for doing so. I could make several great excuses, but the truth is that I have let distractions get the better of me.
So I heard yesterday in a sermon (i’m posting this on August 1) that I know was for me, about distractions, and I have to agree, I think in our world today, distractions are probably one of Satan’s favorite tool to use against us, to keep us from developing a deeper and more personal relationship with Jesus. I am convinced that we (I) find way too many reasons to neglect our (my) daily devotions for the sake of doing busy work (even if it is doing work for the Lord) and it causes me great pain to know that I choose to do other things over spending time in prayer and devotions. I don’t think I am alone in this but it is an eye opener when we read a passage of scripture like in today’s reading. God is pronouncing judgment on several of the nations surrounding Israel. Isaiah prophecies these terrible woes against Babylon, Moab, Philistia, and Damascus sometime during the reign of either King Ahaz or his son Hezekiah. Hezekiah as we will learn, was a good king, but he had one major flaw, he wanted to make treaties with the neighboring countries to fight against Assyria. When you read the pronouncements against these nations, you can see why God would not want Israel aligning themselves with these countries. We should never put our trust in man’s strength and knowledge. We should never try to do things in our own power, instead our help and our strength should come from the Lord. Psalm 20:7 says
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God
.” Who do you want fighting your battles for you?
When we look around and see what a terrible shape our country is in, it is obvious the source of our troubles always start when we leave God out. We should never act and then ask for God to bless our actions, we should never think that we can maintain power and control in the world, when we take Jesus out of our schools and military. I fear that the judgments that have been passed on these nations that we read about today, will be our future too.
Unless we turn back to Christ, unless we put Him first in our life and remove the distractions from our homes and work, then I fear we are destined to fall into the same problems that plagued the Israelites and although God’s love and grace and mercy goes way beyond our ability to understand, I do believe their will come a time when we will experience as a country these same judgments. I pray that we will be solidly grounded in our faith and belief of Christ Jesus, that he will save us.
Holding to the strength found in Jesus,
PK