Going deeper…

 

It’s humbling to think about the hardness of my heart and my spiritual blindness before Jesus came into my life. I had started reading the Bible every day when thirteen and read it for seventeen years before understanding what it said. I now realize that this was done as a ritual and habit (copying my mother) yet God not only used that self-centered motivation to keep me reading, but kept on using even this most selfish reason to read it to teach me His will.

For a long time after being saved, even though my sins were confessed and I’ve tried to keep short accounts with God, it wasn’t until recently that He showed me how He has used even my mistakes to teach me His will. I brooded over those mistakes and rued them as if they had ruined my life. But God (two wonderful words) showed me that those mistakes were tools to powerfully change my heart and my attitudes. He waited a long time until I was ready to see that this was a good thing. Not that the sins were good but that in great mercy and love, He used them for good. Seeing this reality brings great joy to my heart.

Today’s reading reminds me how, after a long time of backsliding on the part of the children of Israel during a time when the book of God’s law had been lost, it was found again. These people assembled in the public square of the city to hear it read. At first they wept; but as God enabled them to understand it better, their lives changed from sorrow to rejoicing and then...

All the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them. (Nehemiah 8:12)

For them, it was realizing God is holy and His joy was their strength. They did not have to live as if all was lost because, in their position as God’s people, they were blessed and cared for by a God who is holy and loved them.

This truth is still a blessing to God’s people, even though many of them still are fearful of what God might do if they want only His will and not their own way. Part of this is human pride, as if any of us know better than God what is good for us. The other contributing factor is not knowing God in a factual way, having false ideas about Him. Some of this is motivated by Satan’s lies, including those that come through false teachers. The NT warns me of those who claim to be Christians yet put unbiblical burdens on their followers:

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13–15)

The subtlety of false teaching often urges people to trust God for what we want rather than for what He wants, as if His will is not good for us. However, as today’s reading says, the words “Thy will be done,” when once we understand them, become the dearest words our lips can utter.

PRAY: Jesus, You are teaching me the value of ‘just keep reading’ and how Your Spirit will take care of my burdened heart in the most amazing ways. What You reveal is astonishing and not at all like the false teachers and their messages, and sometime even contradicts sincere but unenlightened ideas that genuine Christians believe, ideas that give us anxiety instead of that peace and joy Your love wants for us. Oh Lord, open my eyes and my heart to a deeper and fuller understanding of the blessedness of Your will.