‘Following’ has a different definition today because of social media. But it still refers to our choice of people that we are letting have an influence on our lives.
These are the people we are giving permission to enter our minds and thoughts because we’re reading and listening to what they are sharing. We are ‘following’ their lives.
Who are these people in your life? Are they the right people to help you grow where you want to grow?
Who are these people in my life? Are they leading me to places I should go? Are they helping me grow my integrity? Are they helping me become more wise? More caring?
The Israelites were not careful about who they followed. “They rejected his (God’s) decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statues he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. ” 2 Kings 17: 15 – 16.
Wow – worthless.
They picked the wrong things to follow. They imitated the wrong things and ended up on a very bad path.
That is not a path I want to be on.
Please give me wisdom in deciding who to follow, Abba Father
Isaiah tells us that when God comes, “he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Isaiah 35:4.
“And a highway will be there.” vs 8.
This highway is called the Way of Holiness. I can see it stretching all the way up to heaven. Only those of us who walk in the Way of our Savior will use it.
Those who don’t believe will not be able to travel on it. The wicked and the foolish will not go on it.
There will be no danger when we – the redeemed – walk home on this highway. As we return to the LORD, we will be singing praises. There will be no sorrow or sighing – only everlasting joy.
Where do I want to be next year? What do I want to have achieved?
Where do I want to grow in my life?
One of the most important things I’ve learned in my years on this planet is that I need to feed what I want to grow. I can’t just wish it. I can’t sit frustrated because nothing is changing if I’m not doing something to change it.
I need to take action. There must be forward movement – one step at a time – towards my goal.
I need to feed what I want to grow.
And I am encouraged as I read King Hezekiah’s story in 2 Chronicles of his vast and successful religious reformation of his nation. One step at a time, working with the priests, he took his people who were far from God and led them back into obedience. This is a great role model for us if our goal is to grow closer to God and grow in faithfulness.
Hezekiah’s first step was to cleanse the temple. They purified everything in the temple and consecrated it. What would this look like for you and I? We need to stop habits that are not good for our minds and souls. Stop reading articles, magazines, books that don’t feed what we want to grow. Change our favorite channels on TV, our favorite music channels and our most visited websites. Cleanse our minds and souls by using discernment in what we’re feeding them.
Then Hezekiah had the people gather together to use the temple as it was meant to be used – sacrificing to God and worshiping him. For us, this means committing to meet with God’s people regularly – studying God’s word and growing together. It also means making sure we are in line with God’s directions on tithing and giving of our time. The Israelites gave so much back to God that they had plenty to share with their neighbors who needed help.
Next, Hezekiah invited Israel and Judah to come to the temple together to celebrate the Passover. He invited his neighbors – just like God wants us to ask our neighbors to come with us to church or our small group or watch the worship on line together.
Then Hezekiah told his people, “Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the LORD…” 2 Chronicles 30: 7.
Do you and I have any people in our lives that aren’t good influences? Do we need to pick different friends? Different role models?
They attacked their idols – destroying them and getting rid of the distraction. What are our idols? What things in our lives make us too busy to spend time with God personally and with other believers?
We need to feed what we want to grow.
We read that God blessed Hezekiah and his people as they grew more and more obedient. God gave them unity of mind as they all looked to him for wisdom and guidance.
I know I want God’s blessings in my life. I want unity of mind, wisdom and guidance. One of my main motivations for reading the entire Bible every year for these last 11 years is making sure I’m on a steady path of knowing and loving God more.
I know that I need to feed my relationship with God in order for those things to grow. And God will be faithful in helping me – he always is.
We ask that the people who walk in darkness today would see your great light. Shine your light of love and grace on all those who are now living in the land of deep darkness.
Enlarge your kingdom on earth, Father. We rejoice before you for you have broken the yoke of our slavery to sin. You have lifted the heavy burden of guilt and shame from our shoulders through the death and resurrection of your son. You have removed the oppression brought into our lives by our disobedience and rebellion.
For a Child was born to us, you gave us your son, Jesus.
We call him Wonderful,
Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
Those of us who have accepted your ‘saving grace’ have placed Jesus on the throne of our lives where he rules with justice and peace for all eternity.
What if our sin and rebellion showed on the outside?
I’m reading in 2 Chronicles that King Uzziah became unfaithful to God and there was a visual consequence. “King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house – leprous and banned from the temple of the Lord.” verse 21. Everyone could see result of the king’s sin.
On second thought, I think many of our sins also show on the outside. We don’t have leprosy but some of us have broken relationships that are easy to see. Did these relationships break because of our lack of forgiveness and patience?
Others of us have very difficult financial situations on our lives that are no secret to those around us and are direct consequences of putting ‘things’ in front of God on our list of priorities.
Many of us struggle with very visible anger and frustration because of our selfishness and lack of self-control.
Those of us who ignore God and fail to live our life by faith, can be filled with fear because we trust other things like money, careers and relationships to give us security. This stress is visible in our lives because we know – deep inside – that none of these things are secure.
Yep – all of this shows on the outside.
But it begins on the inside – with our heart. That’s why God starts his transformation on the inside.
God has brought his love and light and truth and grace into my heart – transforming me one step at a time. And I’ve noticed that- gradually – the change happening on the inside starts to show on the outside.
God wants to do the same transformation for you –
will you let him?
Thank you for your transforming love and grace, Abba Father.
Our desire is to be faithful to you today and every day. We want to be anchored to you so that we don’t drift away.
Please help us understand your wisdom and directions. Reveal the truth to us. Make the lies and traps that surround us clear to us so we can avoid their snares.
Your’s is the only voice we want to follow – please make us deaf to all others.
Your prophet Hosea reminds us that it is wrong to make other things more important in our lives that you, Father. “My people consult a wooden idol, a diviner’s rod speaks to them. The spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.” Hosea 4:12.
We don’t consult wooden idols or diviner’s rods anymore but we regularly give large amounts of our time and energy to things in our world which have no eternal value – making money, buying things, building our careers, looking for a good time.
Why do we so easily let these things take a higher priority in our lives than you do, dear God?
We’re disappointed when our children follow our lead and get drawn into the mess of our culture. They are simply following our example. They see all of the ‘gods’ in our lives so they develop their own.
I need to know the truth. You need to know the truth.
And we won’t know the truth by listening to our culture – it is full of lies and half-truths and rationalizations.
Where’s the only place we can find real truth?
God’s Word. The Bible.
I have a huge thirst to know the real truth. I don’t need to hear what he thinks or she thinks or they think or even what you think.
What God thinks – that’s what is important to me.
This thirst has taken me on an 11 year journey of reading through the Bible every year. Somewhere in the middle – like year 4 or 5 – I started saying things like “that’s not in the Bible’ when people quoted things that just aren’t there. One of these things you and I hear often is not true – “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle”. Not in there. That’s one of the most misquoted scriptures we hear.
I know if what someone is saying is in the Bible about 90% of the time. If anyone says something new, I always look it up. Sometimes I learn something new and other times I realize that what they were telling everyone was not true.
What’s also important is that I know what’s missing when listening to a preacher or teacher teach from the Bible. One of the reasons I read the entire Bible is to get a big picture of God, an overall understanding. So I can tell when someone is leaving something out because its too controversial or maybe they don’t agree with it.
I don’t care if its controversial or you don’t like it. It’s in the Bible. That’s the truth. God calls us to adjust our lives to his truth – not the other way around
Unfortunately, I’m hearing about more and more pastors who are adjusting God’s truth to make people happy. They leave out the tough parts because, well, maybe people won’t like it and they will leave the church.
I’ve talked to several good Christian people I know who have left their church because the pastor started veering away from the truth. A denomination that I was a part of for many years is currently deciding whether they are going to take the Bible literally or change what they preach to fit what people ‘think’ is right. What??
The prophet Amos predicated times like these. “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” Amos 8: 11&12.
We don’t have to stagger around searching for the Word of the Lord. His Word is in the Bible if we make sure we have a credible Bible. People have actually changed words in the Bible to fit what they think as well.
Any doubt that there is a famine?
Our Bible can be and should be in our hands and entering our minds every day as we read and apply God’s truth to our lives. You can’t count on anyone else to make sure you know the truth.
God has given my husband and I an awesome new church in Denver with a pastor who preaches the Word unapologetically. When he gets on a controversial subject and boldly proclaims what God says about it, my church family erupts in clapping and ‘Amens’ because we know we would not be hearing this truth in some other churches.
We are in a famine but we have what we need to feed ourselves – God’s Word.
Thank you for your truth in your Word, Abba Father.
Who is wise and discerning? They will understand that God’s path is the right path and they will walk in it.
The book of Hosea ends with this truth – But those who rebel stumble.
How do they stumble? They spend many hours on things with little or no ultimate value. They spend a lot of money on things that provide little or no satisfaction. They spend much energy looking for something that will complete them and give them a purpose when the Provider of these does not live on this earth.
Those who refuse to acknowledge God as Creator and Savior will stumble. And they will continue to stumble until they submit to God and get on his path.
Meanwhile, God opens the eyes of the wise so they can walk with him. There are still small stumbles but they know how to get back on the right path.
How do we walk right with God? By loving God with our whole heart, mind and soul and loving others. Simple….yet profound. When we do this, we are transformed, we make a difference.
When we walk with God, he completes us and gives us a purpose.
I only have so much time here on this planet – I shouldn’t waste it. If there is one lesson that has been engraved on my mind these last few years, it’s ‘Life is short”.
I truly never knew how extremely short life can be until my son was killed. One moment he was here and the next he was gone.
My life flipped upside down in that one moment.
Life is short – I have no time to waste.
Just like Jonah – he had no time to waste. So it’s a little frustrating to read about Jonah going through his big drama of disobeying God’s direction to go to Ninevah. Jonah decided to go the other direction, got caught on a ship in a big storm, was thrown overboard by sailors and spent 3 days in a huge fish at the bottom of the ocean. It was there that he repented and reached out to God. (bottom of the ocean, end of our rope – sound familiar?)
Jonah used a bunch of time running from God before finally deciding to obey him by going to Ninevah. “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” Jonah 2:2. When Jonah turned back to him, God ordered the fish to spit Jonah out on the beach so Jonah could go ahead and do what God asked him to do in the first place.
That whole first whale trip was just a big waste of time and energy!
Wait a minute – do I do this?
Do you do this?
I have to admit that I’ve wasted a lot of time in the past disobeying God. I ignored what I knew was right. I did what I wanted to do and gained nothing from it. It was useless – a waste of time.
One of my life goals now is to obey God the first time. I want to stop wasting time and energy while disobeying.
I want to avoid getting hit by the 2×4 that eventually comes our way when we ignore the lessons God is trying to teach us. God. The issue or problem doesn’t go away when we disobey – it grows. And it continues to grow until it’s too big and bad to ignore any longer.
Have you ever been hit by God’s 2×4 as a consequence for avoiding his directions? Have you found yourself at the end of your rope? Or stuck at the bottom of the sea like Jonah?
I have. It’s a wake up call. An enormous red flag pops up and starts whipping through my life. It seems like everything starts going wrong at the same time but, in reality, this issue has been gradually building steam while I prioritized other things. Because he is a good Father, God doesn’t ignore me when I’m trying to ignore him. He lets the consequences of my own actions grow until it’s just like getting hit by a 2×4. By then, the issue has become too enormous and too awful – I cannot continue to look the other way. Newsflash from God – attitudes and behaviors and priorities need to change – and they need to change NOW!
I got it, God! I have learned my lesson and I intend to obey right away from now on. No more 2×4’s in my life if I can help it!
I have also learned that obedience up front, the first time, brings additional blessings of peace and strength that come from being in line with God and in step with the Spirit.
Obeying right away is never a waste of time.
Thank you for teaching me this important lesson, Abba Father.
You call them coincidences. Situations come together and there’s an unexpected check or a conflict resolves itself without you doing anything or you get an awesome yet much needed surprise at just the right time. How great! Wow! What a coincidence!
But it’s not a coincidence. It’s a God-incidence. It didn’t just happen – God made it happen. Every day God goes ahead of me, working things out for my good. When I get to tomorrow, he has already been there, taking care of the details and organizing blessings for me.
So I can relate to King Jehoshaphat’s story when the people of Judah were being attacked by a huge combined army made up of several of their enemies. A prophet of God had just told Jehoshaphat, “This is what the Lord says to you; ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not your’s, but God’s.” 2 Chronicles 20: 15. Jehoshaphat believed this message from God and told his people to “Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” verse 20.
Then he appointed a group of men to go in front of his army singing praises to the LORD.
This creates a vivid picture in my mind of this army of tough, armor-clad soldiers carrying their swords and shields while men lifting praises to God marched in front of them, leading the way.
While the army of Judah was marching toward battle, God set ambushes against the enemy army. The individual armies within that enormous army started fighting amongst themselves and totally destroyed each other.
When the army of Judah got to the top of the hill that overlooked the desert where they were going to fight, all they saw were dead bodies. The battle was over and they were victorious!
A God-incident. He took care of it before they ever got there.
God often does this in my life. When I have my spiritual eyes open, I see God-incidences happening all through my life. I have learned that, when I am unsure of my next step in a situation, I need to pray to God. I trust that he’s going ahead of me – either taking care of the situation or creating an opportunity for me to say or do what I’m thinking about. So I pray….and watch…and wait…. until he moves. It’s amazing! He either works it all out for my good without me doing anything or he opens up a door for me to do or say what he’s prompting me to say. Sometimes it takes a while for it all to come together but timing is everything.
God-incidences are always the perfect thing at the perfect time.
Next time you think something is a coincidence, open your spiritual eyes and take another look.
