(Zechariah 10v1-2)"Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime, and he will answer with lightning and showers. Every field will become a lush pasture. How foolish to ask the idols for anything like that!"
Oh LORD, I thank you that you are a GOD who answers our prayers, who provides in abundance. You don't just water the land but you bring it so much water it becomes lush. LORD I ask you to rein in my life. Fill it with your abundance and glory.
LORD, I have been led astray, like your people Israel, I too have sought provision and comfort from idols; food, books, matching games, work, my husband. None of these things are inherently wrong. But oh my LORD, it was so wrong to let them come between you and I.
You are the only true God, the only one whose promise are true, the satisfaction of the world's promises are empty. I spent my time focusing on those things, seeking the answers to my questions, the peace to quiet my restless hurting soul. Even though they didn't satisfy I thought "oh, I'm not trying hard enough, I need more"
So instead of turning my back on them and seeking you with whole hearted abandon like before I worked harder, I spent more time escaping to books, trying to numb my pain with food, expecting my husband fill me, trying to derive some sense of satisfaction from a high score or bigger paycheque, hiding behind fixing other people's problems.
Yet, God you never gave up on me! You continued to call my name! Alleluia! God you are amazing you restored my life from the grave you brought me hope and life.
In Zechariah it says (10v6&7) " I will strengthen Judah, yes, and Israel too; I will re-establish them because I love them. It will be as though I had never cast them all away, for I, the LORD their God , will hear their cries. They shall be like mighty warriors. They shall be happy as with wine. Their children, too shall see the mercies of the LORD and be glad. Their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.
YES LORD! Though I have lost sight of my first love you, you have heard my cries. God you have shown great mercy and filled me with joy as I experience the grace of your mercy. Everyday LORD you cover me in your forgiveness you give me a new day, a new opportunity to glorify you with the choices I make. LORD, may I be a wise steward of the many second chances you have given me. Help me to avoid the quick fixes and temporary highs and rather seek a deeper relationship with you and the lasting satisfaction of dwelling daily in your presence.
LORD, help me to remember when I make my decisions that I'm living for you. Help me to plan my life for success and growth. LORD, I have really missed you and missed our quality time, painting, running, singing, dancing, just you and me, Jesus.
LORD, as I have started spending more time with you again you have filled me. My relationship with my husband is far more satisfying and fulfilling as I am not having unrealistic expectations for him. As I allow you to fill my life I am able to pour into his and receive the love he offers me as a delight. Thank you God for filling our lives with JOY and SATISFACTION as we grow individually and collectively with you and with each other. Help me to love and support him better each day.
LORD, thank you for your promises that are true. I love what you say to the Israelites (10v12) "I will make my people strong with power from me! They will go wherever they wish, and wherever they go, they will be under my personal care"
God, I thank you that is by your strength I am healed, by your strength I am perfected, by your strength I can love and serve. LORD, on my own I am weak but through your power I am made strong. LORD, thank you for loving me and putting me under your personal care. Thank you for loving me enough to know my name, to know my innermost thoughts and feelings, my guilt and fear, my longings and vices. Yet still you love me!!! Oh how you love me Jesus! I am so blessed, LORD help me to share your love with others, because this love is not just for me but for every person on this earth.
What a beautiful testimony God! You are so faithful.
I was reading Malachi
(1v1-3)""I have loved you very deeply," says the LORD. But you retort, "Really? When was this?" And the LORD replies, "I showed my love for you by loving your father, Jacob. I didn't need to. I even rejected his very own brother, Esau."" (LORD, I don't understand why some people are called "Those Whom God Does Not Forgive")
(1v6-9) ""A son honours his father, a servant honours his master. I am your Father and Master, yet you don't honour me, O priests, but you despise my name."
"Who? Us?" you say. "When did we ever despise your name?"
"When you offer polluted sacrifices on my altar."
"Polluted sacrifices? When have we ever done a thing like that?"
"Every time you say, 'Don't bother bringing anything very valuable to offer to God!' You tell the people, 'Lame animals are all right to offer on the altar of the Lord--yes, even the sick and the blind ons.' And you claim this isn't evil? Try it on your governor sometime--give him gifts like that --and see how pleased he is! 'God have mercy on us,' you recite; 'God be gracious to us!' But when you bring that kind of gift, why should he show you any favour at all?"
Father God, I am guilty. LORD, you have loved me so much you sent Jesus your one and only son to suffer and die in order to free me from my bondage to sin and give me eternal life in your presence and I have rejected you I have said like the Israelites (1v13) "'Oh, it's too difficult to serve the LORD and do what he asks.' And [I] turn up [my] nose[s] at the rules he has given [me] to obey. Think of it!" leftover minutes after I have sought satisfaction in cookies or chocolate or after hours of hiding in the lives of fictional characters or whiling away hours on pintrest or facebook. Why should the holy God accept such empty sacrifices as these? (my paraphrase)
This behaviour makes God so mad, it hurts him so deeply and yet he offers forgiveness. I have rejected him and despised him making a mockery of his greatness by offering him leftovers and praying earnestly only in crisis.
God says of his laws "The purpose of these laws was to give [] life and peace, to be a means of showing [your] respect and awe for me, by keeping them. He [Levi] passed on to the people all the truth he got from me. He did not lie or cheat; he walked with me, living a good and righteous life, and turned many from their lives of sin. Priest's lips should flow with the knowledge of God so the people will learn God's laws. The priest are the messengers of the LORD of Hosts, and men should come to them for guidance"
Since we are God's priests (1Peter 2:9)But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
These are our responsibilities, not only am I responsible for my own actions but for how my life impacts those around me. My highest calling is to walk with God so that my life can bring others to Christ. We are to be Christ's messengers, his hands and feet showing love to everyone around us.
Oh, how patient you are Father, like the Israelites I give you my leftovers and then in crisis I turn to you in tears (2v13) Yet you cover the altar with your tears because the LORD doesn't pay attention to your offerings anymore, and you receive no blessing from him. "Why has God abandoned us?" you cry. I'll tell you why it is because the LORD has seen your treachery" (2v17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. "Wearied him? you ask in fake surprise. "How have we wearied him?" By saying the evil is good, that it please the LORD! Or by saying that God won't punish us--he doesn't care.
I think it is awesome that God's messenger is so passionate, He knows that God cares about his people, that is why he, the messenger, has been sent. God loves his people (us) and want to bless them (us) yet they (we) are rebelling and it pains him so he needs to discipline them (us) in order to bring them (us) back into rightful relationship with him. I thank God for his just and loving discipline that restores me to a life-giving relationship with him. Without God's discipline, I would live in sin, caught up in its snares and blinded by momentary pleasure to its disastrous consequences.
God says of his messenger (3v3-7) Like a refiner of silver he (the messenger) will sit and closely watch as the [waste] is burned away. He will purify the Levites [us], the ministers of God, refining them like gold or silver, so that they will do their work for God with pure hearts. Then once more the LORD will enjoy the offering brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did before.
"At that time my punishments will be quick and certain; I will move swiftly against wicked men who trick the innocent, against adulterers, and liars, agains all those who cheat their hired hands, or oppress widows and orphans, or defraud strangers and do not fear me," says the LORD of Hosts. "For I am the LORD--I do not change. This is why you are not already utterly destroyed {for my mercy endures forever}. Though you have scorned my laws from earliest time, yet you may still return to me." says the LORD of Hosts. "Come and I will forgive you".
I think it is awesome how God emphasizes how important it is that we love and protect the most vulnerable people in society. The sins he lists are those against widows, orphans, strangers, hired hands, those who are looked down on, easily overlooked, or taken advantage of. And did you catch God's infinite mercy? "Though you have scorned my laws from earliest time, yet you may still return to me... Come and I will forgive you" (3v7).
WOW WOW WOW!!! How truly awesome is our God, can you imagine someone; a friend, a coworker, a family member, or perhaps you don't need to imagine because you have some one like this in your life but no matter what you do, they scorn your kindness, they abuse your forgiveness, they take and take and never give back, they gossip about you behind your back, they steal your most valued possessions, they make snide comments about what you are wearing, the way you talk, the ideas you share at work. Are you starting to feel a little angry? Imagine they've stolen the affections of your spouse or best friend. Are you starting to feel a tempest of fiery hail burning within your heart?
This is how we treat God. He gives us everything; love, blessings, provisions, forgiveness, food, shelter. We reject him, we give our affection to other things and we don't just do it once or twice but over and over again. Still he says "yet you may still return to me...come and I will forgive you" Do I hear an AMEN! Cause I'm shouting one with all my heart! Truly, we serve an awesome merciful God. In Lamentations 3:22-23 after the author lists the sufferings they have experienced by the hand of God he says Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. God's love for us is so great that though he punishes us he never destroys us because he wants us to return to him. Thank you Jesus!
I am guilty as the Israelites of being proud and arrogant (3v14-15) Listen; you have said, 'It is foolish to worship God and obey him. What good does it do to obey his laws, and to sorrow and mourn for our sins? From now on, as far as we're concerned, "Blessed are the arrogant." For those who do evil shall prosper, and those who dare God to punish them shall get off scot-free.' I may not have said that explicitly but my actions shouted it.
If we are able to find our way back to God confess our sin and receive his grace we will be like (3v16-18)those who feared and loved the LORD spoke often of him to each other. And he had a Book of Remembrance drawn up in which he recorded the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him. "They shall be mine," says the LORD of Hosts, "in that day when I make up my jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares an obedient and dutiful son. Then you will see the difference between God's treatment of good men and bad, between those who serve him and those who don't. (4v2) But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.
God is just waiting to pour out his blessings on our lives, so what is stopping us from turning from our sin and wholeheartedly entering into the life-long pursuit of God
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