I realize it may not be morning where you are when you read this but it's morning here and I'm trying really hard to enjoy it. See I'm not a morning person by nature but I want to be so bad! I envy you early birds who can hop up whistling at all hours of the morning. Life just seems better from your perspective. From my side of the bed mornings are torture! (Mostly because they interrupt my favorite past time, sleeping.)
So here I am, trying to be a cheery morning person. I thought I would start by adding a new routine to my mornings. (specifically the Friday ones) Posting to you people! No promises, but I plan to have a new "Chapters of His Heart" post up every Friday morning. Hopefully It will be a little pick me up and give you that last push to make it through your workday, as well as something to chew on over the weekend.
So here we go, Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah 2
During this period of Jerusalem's history they had taken on the customs of the pagan Philistines. God's chosen ones were choosing to worship god's of wood and stone and God was letting them know that He would not tolerate that behavior forever. Isaiah prophesied of a future time when nothing on earth will be exalted higher than God. Isaiah also prophesied that when God was exalted, wars would be over and there would be no more fighting. People would actually destroy their weapons because they wouldn't need them.
But, (there's always a but) before this peace-filled future could come to pass there was going to have to be some purging. A 'cleaning out' of God's chosen ones. Isaiah says that God rejected His people because of their pagan worship. Because of their sin God was going to strip them of their pride. He would humble them and tear down everything they had exalted. His power and glory would be unleashed so heavily that His enemies would actually run and hide in holes in the ground because they were so terrified.
In the end, "when the Lord rises to shake the earth" nothing will be left of their idols not even a shadow for they will "completely disappear". Nothing will be left to be said of the Lord's enemies either, their pride has been stripped away. They are left crawling to their hiding places in the aftermath of the God-quake that has shaken their world.
Isaiah finishes chapter two by saying that trusting in humans (and their gods) is ultimately not a good idea. "They are as frail as breath, what good are they?" Our trust and our faith should lie in God alone, not in the strength of a human or the alluring pull of their pagan gods. Yeah, people still worship pagan gods. They just look less like fat, shirtless statues and more like sports cars, or tv shows, or the reflection in the mirror, or the latest tech gadget glued to their palm. God longs for our undivided heart. His love requires all of ours in return. When His children try to fill the God-shaped-void in their hearts with other things it grieves Him.
God's heart is Jealous.
What idols do you see standing between you and God? What is keeping you from tearing them down?
During this period of Jerusalem's history they had taken on the customs of the pagan Philistines. God's chosen ones were choosing to worship god's of wood and stone and God was letting them know that He would not tolerate that behavior forever. Isaiah prophesied of a future time when nothing on earth will be exalted higher than God. Isaiah also prophesied that when God was exalted, wars would be over and there would be no more fighting. People would actually destroy their weapons because they wouldn't need them.
But, (there's always a but) before this peace-filled future could come to pass there was going to have to be some purging. A 'cleaning out' of God's chosen ones. Isaiah says that God rejected His people because of their pagan worship. Because of their sin God was going to strip them of their pride. He would humble them and tear down everything they had exalted. His power and glory would be unleashed so heavily that His enemies would actually run and hide in holes in the ground because they were so terrified.
In the end, "when the Lord rises to shake the earth" nothing will be left of their idols not even a shadow for they will "completely disappear". Nothing will be left to be said of the Lord's enemies either, their pride has been stripped away. They are left crawling to their hiding places in the aftermath of the God-quake that has shaken their world.
Isaiah finishes chapter two by saying that trusting in humans (and their gods) is ultimately not a good idea. "They are as frail as breath, what good are they?" Our trust and our faith should lie in God alone, not in the strength of a human or the alluring pull of their pagan gods. Yeah, people still worship pagan gods. They just look less like fat, shirtless statues and more like sports cars, or tv shows, or the reflection in the mirror, or the latest tech gadget glued to their palm. God longs for our undivided heart. His love requires all of ours in return. When His children try to fill the God-shaped-void in their hearts with other things it grieves Him.
God's heart is Jealous.
What idols do you see standing between you and God? What is keeping you from tearing them down?
Ohhhhh soooooo true! God loves us with an undivided heart. All that He does is just for us, He doesn't have anything else on His mind but us! He gave His all for us, shouldn't we give Him more than we are giving Him now? I don't think anyone can say they are truely doing all they can For Christ. Thanks for the encouragement to give Him more than I give to the tv or other things that just don't matter!
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