Abandoned

“They abandoned Yahweh and did not worship Him.” ~Judges 10:6b HCSB

In the book of Judges the Israelites were always worshiping other gods and abandoned the Lord.  This is replayed over and over again.  God than allows an enemy to rise up and attack the Israelites, who in turn cry out to God to save them.  God rises up a judge who rescues the people.  The judge lives a long good life and dies.  As soon as the judge is gone the people turn away from the Lord and it starts all over again.  How does this apply to us today and why should we care?    

We come to Christ and we are excited about knowing Him, growing in Him.  Life is exciting, we are learning new things, we are experiencing something fresh and then something happens.  We soon realize this isn’t as easy as it looks and we abandon God and do not worship Him.  Our own wants and needs become our primary goal.  So we worship at the altar of self.  This might go one for a while and then life happens, a death, cancer, a lost job, or divorce.  We find out how ill equipped we are to handle it all.  It is usually about this time we turn back to the Lord to see us through and most of the time He does.  Then when things calm down, we turn back to the altar of self and repeat the cycle all over again.  But if we stay in fellowship with the Lord things would be so different.  

If we were to give God the chance to grow us in Him, to mature us into His image, life would be different.  We would not be shaken by circumstances. He would teach us how to get through the hard times.  He would use those difficulties to build our faith in Him, so not matter what happens we would know God is in control.  We would have peace that goes beyond understanding in everything.  When we turn from God and do things our own way, we miss out on the greatest opportunities in heaven.  The opportunity of purpose, the opportunity of reaching our full God given potential, God’s plan and purpose for our lives.  We miss the opportunity to a life well lived to the glory of God. 

Lord help us to stay in You.  We are so weak and we find ourselves many times turning to our own hearts and abandoning You.  Lord forgive us of these times and surround us with people who will help us to stay focused in You.  Most of all Lord change our hearts, strengthen us, build us, use us to glorify your name. Amen