Remembering the Former Things
11/10/09 22:41
“The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Go and
proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the
devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the desert, through a land
not sown.’” Jer.2:1,2
I have always found it pleasant and somewhat refreshing that the Lord has chosen not to remember the sins of my past and has chosen to remember the love and devotion that I had shown to Him in the beginnings of my walk with Him.
I remember too. I remember the hours upon hours that I would sit with my Bible and kneel in prayer and worship. I would find myself in His Presence and longing more and more for Him to reveal more of Himself to me. It was kind of funny, the closer I drew near, the more I wanted to draw nearer. But I never realized that the closer to God one gets, the bigger the demand is placed on the soul.
His all-consuming fire would burn off delights and desires that I was accustomed to all of my life. Some of these were wrong and needed to be removed from the new heart that He had given me, but some were legitimate and created for man to enjoy while he toiled and labored for the few days of life that God has given him.
Yet, I somehow knew that when I would sacrifice these pleasures, God would be quick to fill in that “empty” spot in my heart that those desires left behind. I filled those spots with worship and prayer and God inhabited them both, thus He filled my heart more and more.
I knew also that I had to hide His Word in my heart as well, for David said, “Lord, I will hide your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.” Jesus told us all that if we loved Him, He and the Father would come and live with us and in us. I have found this Scripture to be true to the uttermost and I continually thank my God for the grace that He has apportioned to me through His precious Son, Jesus Christ.
So, my Christian walk began to become a bigger paradox than ever; on one side I felt so blessed and loved and on the other side, I felt such a need to give myself to His service and ministry of His Church. The problem I had was balancing the emotions that these things afforded. I didn’t handle the problem very well. There were times when I would be truly blessed in my private worship and get nothing out of corporate worship. There were times that I would spend many days in ministry and not enough time in receiving my own daily bread.
I would get weary and in my weariness I would become impatient if the Lord tarried. One of the things about weariness –we often times bring it on ourselves and then we secretly get mad at God for not blessing us as we have labored for Him. I know, I know, I sound like a big baby. But this went on for a couple of years and I’m telling you, there is nothing colder and lonelier than wanting to be in His Presence and He refusing even just a touch. (He does it for our own good.)
If you have found yourself in this sort of lukewarm complacency and it has been years since you have literally fallen on your knees in worship, if the Presence hasn’t brought you to that point of spiritual ecstasy, then I suggest that you return to God in the spirit of repentance and remember your First Love. Since God remembered our first love, we can do the same and remember it as well.
I have heard a number of people longing for the days of their spiritual birth when they were so in love with God and He with them. They tend to think that they have been too cold for too long and Christ will not accept them as before. That’s a lie of the devil. “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more shall we be saved through his life.”
Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim
I have always found it pleasant and somewhat refreshing that the Lord has chosen not to remember the sins of my past and has chosen to remember the love and devotion that I had shown to Him in the beginnings of my walk with Him.
I remember too. I remember the hours upon hours that I would sit with my Bible and kneel in prayer and worship. I would find myself in His Presence and longing more and more for Him to reveal more of Himself to me. It was kind of funny, the closer I drew near, the more I wanted to draw nearer. But I never realized that the closer to God one gets, the bigger the demand is placed on the soul.
His all-consuming fire would burn off delights and desires that I was accustomed to all of my life. Some of these were wrong and needed to be removed from the new heart that He had given me, but some were legitimate and created for man to enjoy while he toiled and labored for the few days of life that God has given him.
Yet, I somehow knew that when I would sacrifice these pleasures, God would be quick to fill in that “empty” spot in my heart that those desires left behind. I filled those spots with worship and prayer and God inhabited them both, thus He filled my heart more and more.
I knew also that I had to hide His Word in my heart as well, for David said, “Lord, I will hide your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.” Jesus told us all that if we loved Him, He and the Father would come and live with us and in us. I have found this Scripture to be true to the uttermost and I continually thank my God for the grace that He has apportioned to me through His precious Son, Jesus Christ.
So, my Christian walk began to become a bigger paradox than ever; on one side I felt so blessed and loved and on the other side, I felt such a need to give myself to His service and ministry of His Church. The problem I had was balancing the emotions that these things afforded. I didn’t handle the problem very well. There were times when I would be truly blessed in my private worship and get nothing out of corporate worship. There were times that I would spend many days in ministry and not enough time in receiving my own daily bread.
I would get weary and in my weariness I would become impatient if the Lord tarried. One of the things about weariness –we often times bring it on ourselves and then we secretly get mad at God for not blessing us as we have labored for Him. I know, I know, I sound like a big baby. But this went on for a couple of years and I’m telling you, there is nothing colder and lonelier than wanting to be in His Presence and He refusing even just a touch. (He does it for our own good.)
If you have found yourself in this sort of lukewarm complacency and it has been years since you have literally fallen on your knees in worship, if the Presence hasn’t brought you to that point of spiritual ecstasy, then I suggest that you return to God in the spirit of repentance and remember your First Love. Since God remembered our first love, we can do the same and remember it as well.
I have heard a number of people longing for the days of their spiritual birth when they were so in love with God and He with them. They tend to think that they have been too cold for too long and Christ will not accept them as before. That’s a lie of the devil. “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more shall we be saved through his life.”
Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim
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