11/19/2020
Even if our faith should fade away from us, and we find that our prayers are less fervent, or we turn away from our daily walks with our Father, He might scatter us, but will never abandon us. Even in a decrepit state such as this He makes a way home for those who are lost, but we must search after Him like Jesus seeks the one lost sheep. If we look for Him with all our heart and soul we will find that our Lord God never hides from us and waits faithfully for our return.
“But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV
Sometimes there are things that arise in our lives that bring us to our breaking point, and when we reach those places we will look at our faith, and decide if we will stay or go. We stay when God is the center of our life, and we go if we have placed the love for what brought us to this point above our love of God.
““You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Exodus 20:3-6 ESV
Love is the most powerful of all the emotions, and when we love God as we should then nothing can bring us closer to Him, but when we begin to love something, or someone, more than we love Him then we find ourselves at a breaking point of faith. Before we say that this will never happen to us we should consider the love we have for our spouse, parents, and children... how deep is your love for these?
“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
2 Timothy 3:2-5 ESV
We should not only avoid people such as this, but avoid becoming such a person.
A Christian man attended Church every chance He got, and worshiped God mightily, then one day his wife became deathly ill. So this man went to his prayer closet and prayed for her healing. He prayed, wept, and called out to God that she should be spared... but she continued to get sicker each day until at last she died. When she passed away this man tore his clothes, and walked out of his prayer closet... swearing never to return. In his grief he had turned his anger towards God. This went on for years until one of his children became ill, and in desperation he prayed again, but this time the child was healed. In that moment he realized that all those years ago he had been placing the love of his wife above his love for God... he had made her his object of worship; his god. So he fell to his knees, and in complete contrition begged forgiveness, and thanked the Lord for healing his child. It took the loss of his wife, years of self-torment, and nearly the loss of a child for him to learn that God is to be our first and greatest love, and that as we learn such lessons God waits for us, and builds a road for our return to Him. He had reached his breaking point, and it had revealed a fault in him.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 10:37-39 ESV
So before we say that we have no breaking point and that we are like Job in our faith, we should think twice and seek the Lord all the more. If however we are facing God down, and being tempted to walk away from him, and Jesus, we should remember the first commandment, and seek Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In such moments as this we can find our love for something earthly is confronting us, and rather than increasing our faith it can diminish it. Are you facing such a trial in your life where the loss of this thing you have loved is threatening your faith? Well pray in the wake of that loss for Jesus to give you peace, the Holy Spirit to comfort you, and God to meet you on the road home like a prodigal child who was once lost, but is now found. Don’t harbor a grudge that wastes your years in bitterness towards God, who sent His own Son to die for you.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for teaching us the hard lessons of faith, and for providing us a way home when we have wandered from your side in the course of our instruction. Help us to resist loving anything more than you Father, and let nothing of this world capture our love to the point where it breaks our faith in you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who we love above all else, just as your love for us brought you to give your Son Jesus for us.... let our love for you be greater than every other. Praised be your name as we seek you mightily, and find you waiting on our road home. Great is your love that has built a path from where we are to you. We humble ourselves before you and confess our sins as we are washed in the blood of Jesus, and pray that you will that you will find us righteous, and acceptable, and welcome to enter your abode, and dine with the rest of your children at the great table of your grace. Forevermore.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 John 5:3-5 ESV
Rich Forbes