Thoughts for another day

July 8, 2011

Today's verse: Judges 2:22. That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.  (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Why, you must have wondered, do you suddenly face problem after problem when you've turned your life to God?  Why do things you used to so easily get, now seem so difficult to lay hands on?  This line of thought belongs to many Christians who've turned from their old ways of life and surrendered their lives to the Lord for suddenly life seems to move into the 'pain' arena.

The clue to this is in our Scripture today.  God has a test for everyone who renounces the world, so to say, and embraces Him ready to live a life for Him and in the process maybe die also for Him, if He desires.  God's test is continuous, it never ceases, but it keeps our lives of sin in check.  In the context of our Scripture, the Israelites, despite God telling them to entirely wipe out the nations they were to occupy, didn't do that and as a result succumbed to worshipping the gods of those nations and adopting their practices.  If you read the verses before our verse, you will also know that the generation to whom this verse is addressed, made themselves more corrupt than those which had passed away because of their wanton practice of emulating the nations they now lived with.

God is a faithful God and He wants us to be with and live with Him.  Sometimes the attractions of the world cling to us and we crave them in our spirit and in the process lose our connect with God.  But then He intervenes and sends us a test so we'll again remember and come to Him.  You may say God is unjust and instead of helping us, makes our test even more difficult.  But all of us who've gone thorough God's test have realized that God does it for our own good.  When we don't listen to His voice of reason, He has to pull us back to Him via a trial even if it is painful.  For God knows that only in that way will we gain eternal life and mind you, the pains of this life are nothing compared to the pleasures of that one and it is eternal.  Accept God's trial and learn from them.  He has a truth in it that could transform your life into something pleasing to Him.