"They just walked off and left God, quit worshiping Him." (10:7)
Upon reading these verses, my instant thoughts are, "How can anyone just walk off and leave God".
It dumbfounds me how anyone could live life without Him. My mind becomes filled with such self-righteous and unholy thoughts.
And then I recall the years I lived life without Him.
Even today, I know until the day I die I shall struggle with walking off and leaving Him, quit worshiping Him. Although it is only for a short period, it happens each and every time I choose to put "me" before Him.
A sin is a sin. It is only because we are in Christ that we are saved. Made Holy by His Blood. Covered with His Grace and Mercy.
Thankfully, He is continually transforming my heart to not be judgemental and self-righteous to those who choose not to worship our ABBA. To those who attack, belittle, dismiss, reject Him. He is instead causing me to be looking at them with compassion, sorrow, fear for them, and Christlike love. (Confession. Sadly there are still moments instead of praying for them, I slip back into my old habits of not being Christlike.)
And through it all, I rejoice in seeing how He doesn't walk away from me in those backsliding moments. I am thankful in how He starts to work His accountability. Opening my eyes to see it isn't about them and me. It is about Him and them. It is about Him and me.
Am I glorifying Him in all I think, say or do?
So what if they reject me. I need to stop taking rejection personal for it isn't "me" they are rejecting.
Bottom line - am I living for His glory or mine.
I am well aware of the minutes ticking by before I begin to pray for some persons. Minutes ticking by before I take my pride, my defensive nature and squish them beneath my heel. Each and every day I am continually striving to pray for them with an "immediate", reaction not minutes or seconds later. With each encounter, He has me realize what little I know of a persons life.
I look about and recognize how those outside of Christ are in such a self-destructive mode. I can hear God telling the world, ""When they oppressed you and you cried out to me for help, I saved you from them. And now you've gone off and betrayed Me, worshiping other gods. I'm not saving you anymore. Go ahead! Cry out for help to the gods you've chosen—let them get you out of the mess you're in!" (Judges 10:12-14)
And I wonder at what point in today's world is He going to say, "Enough is enough"?
It scares me.
Not for myself - I'm in Christ and covered.
We need to have an urgency to bring those on the outside of His family into Him. Those who are living a life totally focused on "self". How thankful I am our ABBA protects His own under His umbrella, that our souls are shielded from just how dark sin really is. My heart is breaking though, knowing there are persons living in such a dark, empty, sin filled world, motivating me to try and introduce them to Him. To introduce them to a world that is full, safe and pure.
A world that is Him.
So many societies have self-destructed because they have walked away from God. America is a good place to be on this world. We need to be praying for our future leaders, for the media, for people walking down the street. We need to Love all as our ABBA Loves.
I pray we, His own, will choose to reach the masses for Him.
Before our Savior returns.
before "enough".
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