May this not be said of us, as it was in Daniel 9:13: “all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our Godby turning from our iniquity and giving our attention to Your truth.”
Awake, O sleepers, lift up your heads. Look to Him. Follow hard after Him so that you are not swept away by the torrents, that you can weather any storm. Like a life preserver for the soul is “hope in God alone”. May our hope not be in man, government, reputation, country, or money; allow no other thing to be your god, allow no other idol. He is enough and is holy and is to be treated as holy.
In 1 Samuel 7:3 it says “Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, ‘If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
Consider this: are the steps that need to be taken today so different from these? Could this be what we need to hear and obey to not be overtaken by the enemy (the seen and unseen physical and spiritual enemies):
-Return to the Lord with all your heart.
-Remove the foreign gods and idols from among you.
-Direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone.
In response to Samuel’s instructions, “the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone”(1 Samuel 7:4) and fasted and said, “‘We have sinned against the Lord.’” (v. 6) Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, ‘Do not cease to cry to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.’ . . . and Samuel cried to the LORD for Israel and the LORD answered him (v. 7-9). And as a result, when the Philistines, whom they feared, drew near to battle against Israel, “the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day and confused them so that they were routed before Israel” (v.10).
As we trust in Him alone, obey and do what He instructs, and pray, God can move in and suddenly take care of all that we fear, in ways that we could never even imagine. He is the God of the impossible.
May we seek the favor of the Lord OUR God by 1) turning from our iniquity and 2) giving our attention to His truth, the truth of His Word.
Friend, how will you give your attention to His Word? Do you have a plan? I’d love to hear about it.
A form of this post was originally shared in October of 2014 on my old blogspot writing site. The Daniel 9 verse has been on my heart the last few weeks as I have posted, along with Isaiah 30:15 “‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.’ But you were not willing . . .” May this also not be said of us, that we were not willing to follow the clear instructions of the Lord. If you would like to read further on repentance (and rest and refreshing and fruit) click here. May you have a blessed week!
with love,
Traci
