My first blog of the New Year! Hopefully I can keep up the trend this time…going with more of a devotional theme this go round (with a few personal blogs interspersed I suppose). J
My Bible reading this morning was out of Nehemiah, chapters 8-10. In chapter 9, the people confess their sin starting with the history of Israel. Verse 17 really jumped out at me because it’s what we do every day, what I do every day.
“They refused to listen,
And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had
performed among them;
So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their
slavery in Egypt.
But You are a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;
And You did not forsake them.”
Let’s take a look at the first half of that verse:
“They refused to listen” – How often do I refuse to listen to what God is trying to tell me? How often do I ignore the little voice in the back of my head because I just don’t want to hear what He has to say?
“And did not remember Your wondrous deeds…” – And then when I’m in crisis mode, when something doesn’t go my way, I forget all that He has already done for me, all the miraculous things He has done in the past. He is ALWAYS in control, and when I look back, I can see that. But when something goes wrong, that seems to be the first thing we, as humans, tend to forget.
“So they became stubborn…” - Yes, oh yes, I can be stubborn. If I do happen to listen to what He is saying, sometimes I just completely refuse because I don’t want things to change. I plant my feet and I’m not movin! Israel couldn’t see what was good for them because they had their feet planted all the way back in Egypt. Sometimes we can’t see what’s good for us because we have our feet planted in the other direction…
“…and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt…” – Why is it that we always want to run back to our old lives, our old habits. For some crazy reason we think our old lives are better than what we have with God. Initially you look at this and you think, well yeah, but the Israelites were going back to slavery! That’s insane. In John 8:34 says “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” When we run back to our lives before Christ we are running back to slavery JUST LIKE ISRAEL.
Thankfully, there is always a “But God…” because He intervenes even though we are anything but deserving. Looking at the second half of verse 17, you can see just how awesome and wonderful our God is:
“But You are a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;
And You did not forsake them.”
He is forgiving, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, loving, kind – and we don’t deserve any of it! But my favorite part of this verse is the very last part – “And You did not forsake them.” We don’t listen, we forget what He has done in our lives, we’re stubborn, and we run away – BUT GOD never forsakes us, He never leaves us, He never gives up on us! If that isn’t awesome and wonderful, I don’t know what is! Isn’t it beautiful? He loves us so much.
I challenge you today to listen, to remember, and to run TO God. Do your best to keep history from repeating itself (again…).
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” – Galatians 5:1
*All Scripture references are from the NASB
