THE LORD OUR REDEEMER
Joel 2:13 “Rend your heart and
not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is
gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,
and He relents from sending calamity.”
I Samuel 7:3 And Samuel said to the whole house
of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your
hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods. . . and commit
yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only and He will deliver
you . . . .”
I have found that it really doesn’t matter how
wealthy we are, how fine of a home we live in, the flashy car we
might drive, how perfect we feel our children are, the great
education we might have, or the super job we may have, we will
never be happy if we are spiritually away from our Heavenly
Father. There is nothing to compare with the peace and the joy
we can know when the Spirit of the Lord is allowed to live and
dwell within us.
Have you ever stopped and wondered how the “gods”
of this world seem to ease their way into our lives and
homes? Those “gods” seem to creep in and corrupt our minds and
can even take over our time. You might be wondering what I am
talking about as far as how I have used the word “god.”
Webster’s dictionary describes this form of “god” as “a person
or thing excessively honored and admired” or “an idol.” Notice
this form of the word is not being used in the form of a proper
noun as we would our Heavenly Father “God” who is indeed worthy
of honor and admiration.
The strange thing is that our culture seems to
“accept” these gods! We may not like to even think of worshiping
any other “god” but the Great I Am, but there are many “things”
in this world which can become “gods” to us. Those “gods” can
even include our jobs, family, money, clothes, or any number of
things.
I Cor. 8:6 (GWT)
tells us: “There is only one God, the
Father. Everything came from Him, and we live for Him.
There is only one Lord, Jesus Christ. Everything came into
being through Him, and we live because of Him.”
Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before
me.”
In other words, we are to have one God and He
alone.
With our busy lives it can be very easy to become
complacent about the things of the Lord. This “busyness” can
totally engulf us. Once complacency sets in it can be so easy
to fall into a lukewarm condition and eventually to turn our
backs on God completely. Needless to say, all of this leads to
having a prayerless life. It may not even be intentional at
first, but ever so subtle in the beginning. Before long an ache
so deep inside will begin to gnaw. That ache can
eventually lead to depression, which is another problem all in
itself. After that it won’t be long before that search for
“something else” comes and we begin to try to fill the void with
anything and everything. If we are not careful we can allow any
number of things to get us “over the hump,” but still it will
not be enough to fill the void.
BUT . . . there is HOPE for us if we will turn
our eyes straight ahead! The search will be over when we RETURN
to Jesus Christ who has been waiting ever so patiently for us
all along and who has never given up on us to start with! Isn’t
He wonderful!
Late last year I had a dream
that left a lasting impression on me. I have to say that it was
the most surreal dream I have ever had in my life and it was all
in vivid living color! A lot of times my dreams make no sense
to me, but this one left me thinking. In my dream it was
nighttime and I was in a car driving on a very straight road.
The road reminded me of the straight roads in Illinois. Since
it was dark, I could see vividly what was up ahead of me and far
up in the sky was our earth which was very bright and very
blue. As I drove, I kept my eyes on the road and was doing
really well. But finally after driving along, I decided to take
my eyes off of the road and go to the back of the vehicle.
(Dreams can be strange.) Almost immediately, I noticed the
vehicle was heading towards a ditch.
When I woke up I felt I understood what the dream
meant. I believe it meant that life itself was the road I was
traveling on. The earth ahead was just a symbol of my life here
below. As long as I stayed on the straight and narrow road I
was doing fine. As long as I looked straight ahead I was okay,
but as soon as I took my eyes off of that straight road, I was
in big trouble.
It was a warning to me to keep my eyes fixed on
what was ahead. It was a warning that if I veered to the right
or to the left or even took my eyes off of the path of this life
for an instant; I was going to head down the road to
destruction.
I’m reminded of a passage from
Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the
gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many
enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the
road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Also,
Isaiah 30:18
tells us:
“the Lord longs to
be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion.”
Think
about that! The Lord longs for us to return to Him just
so He can be gracious to us. Imagine it! Almighty God, Creator
and King of the Universe actually longing for you and me!
What an awesome thought and what intense love He has for us.
There is no sin too great for Him not to forget.
No deed that He will not cast into the sea of forgetfulness.
What an awesome God we have and He is there at our every
beckoning cry for help and mercy just waiting to remove every
transgression and cleanse and purify us. Our Redeemer is
actually ready to forgive and forget!
Psalm 107 is a chapter I have gone to many times
because it ministered to me personally when I was going through
a deep valley. Actually, I consider myself a “Psalm girl”
because I love the Psalms so much.
Let’s look at
Psalm 107:19-21
together: “Then they cried to the Lord
in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. (20) He
sent forth His Word and healed them; He rescued them from the
grave. (21) Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing
love and His wonderful deeds for men.”
As we look at verse 27
we see how God came to the rescue of those who were “at their
wit’s end.” Have you ever been there? I sure have!
But look at the relief which came to them in verse
28: “They cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He
brought them out of their distress.”
What is this saying to you and me? This is saying
that our God will do the same for us and I’m a living testimony
to that fact. Whatever you need, He will be there to help you,
because Jesus Christ is the LORD OUR REDEEMER.
I have found that when everyone else lets you
down, Jesus Christ, our faithful and true Friend, will not. When
our children hurt us, our parents let us down, or when our
closest friend hurts us so badly that it leaves us feeling like
a knife has been stabbed into our hearts, Jesus Christ will
ALWAYS be there. He is the faithful Friend who never fails us
and who will never turn His back on His Beloved . . . that’s
you and that’s me. Our REDEEMER is waiting with open arms.
A PRECIOUS PROMISE:
Isaiah 19:22(b): “They will turn to
the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.
PRAYER:
A prayer taken from 2 Samuel 22:
Dear Father, You are my rock, my Fortress and my
Deliverer; my God who is my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my
Shield and the strength of my salvation. You are my stronghold
and my Savior. I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise.
Lord, the waves of spiritual death have swirled about me and the
torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave
coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. But in my
distress I call to You Oh Lord; I call out to my God. From Your
temple You hear my voice; my cry will come to Your ears. Father
I pray that You will reach down from on high and take hold of me
and draw me out of the deep waters. Father, I have faith that
You will rescue me from my powerful enemy. He confronts me in
the day of my disaster, but You oh Lord are my support. I know
that You will bring me out into a spacious place and that You
will rescue me because You delight in me. Renew and restore me
oh Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Go forward in FAITH my brothers and sisters!
