This week, the scene we worked on illustrates how we can love the "things" of this world more than we love God.
coming from the picture painted in Hosea, a harsh but effective picture, from chapter 2:5-8...and later in chapter 9, God talking about how we love the things the world gives us...we seek them and try so hard to get to them...but God says while we will pursue them...we will never overtake them. never. and we will eventually realize that God is the one who gives us everything we want and need in the first place. and we could have avoided all the pain from the beginning. we could have spared GOD the pain of having to watch us walk away from Him over and over again.
the world makes money and relationships and jewelry and houses and fame look SO good, so satsifying...and while they are not necessarily bad things...when we choose either them or the pursuit of them OVER God...that is when it is bad.
When i read Hosea, i get this picture of God saying "i offer you peace, joy, love, satisfaction, life, dreams - everything you could ever want...its right here for the taking. but you go everywhere else to find it...what more can i do? why don't you want me?" and then because He has chosen to give us the choice...He has to sit and watch as we struggle and seek and fall and hurt and break - and all the while KNOWING that it could have all been avoided. knowing that no matter how much we struggle and break and hurt, unless we go to Him for what we are looking for - its all in vain. and it will be until we go to Him.
In Hosea, the picture He uses is the prostitute who has a faithful husband who provides everything she needs...and instead of staying with Him and just enjoying that - she sees everything else and goes after it. and even though it hurts her husband, she only sees the "things", the prostitutes wages (9:1). she spends her time seeking after more and more, and all the while her husband has to watch, knowing he committed his life to her...and she doesnt care. and if she does, its not enough to put aside her own desires.
as i am writing this, God is just bringing tears to my eyes - and if you know me, you know i dont cry easily - but knowing that i do this and knowing that it breaks God's heart like its the first time, every time...He gave everything for us. His Son died for us...what do we do with that? does knowing that impact us enough to drop everything and turn our focus to Him once and for all?
it should!
so why doesnt it? why can i choose, knowingly, over and over again to put "things" whether it be time, money, security, love, pride or so many other things before Him in my life?
why can i know what it will do to Him and not care enough to stop?!?
this is the message God has put together. this is what God is trying to speak through us in this show and on this trip.
so whether He gets it out in front of a group or on this blog...He will not be silenced. praise Him for that!!!
He is asking these questions...and they will not go away. i PRAY that they dont go away. i PRAY that they stay stirred up until they affect real change.
in me as well as you, and that together, as the body of Christ, as His betrothed...that we can encourage and pray with each other to choose Him. to fall in love with Him in a way that is forever, that He is all that matters.
He already has everything we need ready for us...why are we looking everywhere else? do we have to be hurt by everything BUT Him in order to go to Him?
something i shared with the team last night...i can keep going forward, keep trusting Him in the crazy things for one reason.
He hasnt failed me yet. He's gotten me through things i never should have...and He hasn't failed me yet.
so lets drop everything. lets stop looking everywhere else and focus on God. Lets find out what He has and let Him satisfy us...and if we end up unsatisfied or unhappy - then we can go elsewhere. but see what He has, really try what He is offering, live the words of Deut 6:4-5 and LOVE the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might...
and just see what happens.
i really believe that we will not ever have to look elsewhere ever again...
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