Crushing God's Heart
As believers, we have made a total commitment of our lives to the Lord much like we make when we marry another human being. We pledge to be faithful to Him from now on and not to give our love and devotion to other gods. When we fail to honor that commitment, and we turn away from God to worship idols of various forms, we crush the heart of God like Israel did in Ezekiel's time.(Ezekiel 6:9) We commit spiritual adultery. Because of hurting God so badly with our adulterous heart and eyes that play the harlot with the idols, He has to let us know about His displeasure with us. He touches our hearts in conviction of our sins of adultery until we loathe ourselves for our abominations. In other words, we can't live with ourselves for betraying the perfect and complete love of the Lord. We need to consider both of these things briefly.
Are we aware of how much God loves us and how His heart is crushed by our unfaithfulness? If we have not thought about God's feelings and God's reaction to our spiritual adultery, we should take some time to make sure we have the right understanding of God. He is not detatched. He cares deeply. He desires intimate fellowship with each of us, and He is jealous for us, because of His love and His desire to see us have the best life we can. He knows that when we stray after other loves, we are hurting ourselves and ruining our lives.
Have you experienced that personal loathing that comes from being convicted by God for your unfaithfulness? If not, you are not a believer. You are fooling yourself about knowing God, if you can sin by giving yourself to other things besides God, whether it is money, power, possessions, or pleasure of some kind and not feel deep conviction from the Lord.(Hebrews 12:4-11) God will chasten His children, so that we realize our sins and return to Him. That is part of being a Loving Father. The good news is that once we feel that loathing, and we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us, so that our love relationship with Him is restored as it was before.(I John 1:9) Then, we can go on loving only the Lord and experiencing the joy of being His.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 8-11.
Are we aware of how much God loves us and how His heart is crushed by our unfaithfulness? If we have not thought about God's feelings and God's reaction to our spiritual adultery, we should take some time to make sure we have the right understanding of God. He is not detatched. He cares deeply. He desires intimate fellowship with each of us, and He is jealous for us, because of His love and His desire to see us have the best life we can. He knows that when we stray after other loves, we are hurting ourselves and ruining our lives.
Have you experienced that personal loathing that comes from being convicted by God for your unfaithfulness? If not, you are not a believer. You are fooling yourself about knowing God, if you can sin by giving yourself to other things besides God, whether it is money, power, possessions, or pleasure of some kind and not feel deep conviction from the Lord.(Hebrews 12:4-11) God will chasten His children, so that we realize our sins and return to Him. That is part of being a Loving Father. The good news is that once we feel that loathing, and we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us, so that our love relationship with Him is restored as it was before.(I John 1:9) Then, we can go on loving only the Lord and experiencing the joy of being His.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 8-11.