Over the years God has developed in me a passion for the Old Testament stories of captivity and more importantly the return of the exiles to Israel. Throughout scripture we read of imperfect people connecting with a perfect God whose constant cry is “I will be their God and they will be my people”
It’s a simple message and yet time and again we see a pattern of complacency, captivity, resilience and rescue.
Complacency in that when things are going well we tend to go our own way and God many times gets shut out of our lives or at minimum is asked to take the back seat for a while.
Captivity; often a result of complacency, came to the Israelites as their guards came down and they succumbed to their enemies. Many of you know what I’m saying. We become complacent and fall prey to temptations and unhealthy behaviours and while that’s not good, that’s also not necessarily the problem. We all sin but it’s what we do when we sin that places us in bondage. Where do we turn? Who told you that you were naked? Who condemns? The shame game is not a game played by God but by our enemy. When (not if) we sin, we can choose run to where our help comes from or we can play the shame game and think that God; through the power of the cross, still cannot reach us in our greatest hour of need. As a result we allow the enemy control over our mind and situation, thus becoming captive to whatever we were facing.
Resilience, oh how I love resilience. The Israelites are amazingly resilient. They would fall into enemy hands and something within them would say…our God will protect us; our God will deliver us. They were right. There was something in them that said: even though I have been complacent, even though I am now in captivity I can go to my God and receive help. A great example of resilience is the rebuilding of the temple through the leadership of Nehemiah. He and the people of Israel faced opposition the entire time and the work even stopped for a number of years (we will discuss in a later blog) but they kept going. They rebuilt the temple in spite of their fears because they knew that God was with them.
Many in the Body of Christ have been told that God doesn’t love them for various reasons. And yet we remain open, allowing ourselves to be pursued and wooed by our creator. This holding on to our faith creates in us a resilience to continue building our lives and building bridges in community even in the face of opposition.
Rescue, All throughout the Bible from Genesis in the Garden when God provided skins to cover Adam and Eve to the resurrected Christ, God has been our rescuer. When famine was imminent, Joseph was sold into the hands of a country who would later feed Josephs family. Funny thing about God’s rescues, they don’t always look like what we expect.
God is preparing a rescue for the church. Many say that the church is in decline…but God is saying, the church is in “refine” and it’s time for the Bride to get cleaned up. This will come about through unity in the Body of Christ but the ways and means may surprise you. If you feel you have been rejected from the Church, remain faithful. You have not been rejected, simply redirected for such a time as this. This is our leg of the race…let us run with endurance the race marked out for us…….until next time I want to encourage you to pray, ask God to speak to you about your leg of this race…what does it look like for you?
God bless you always and assure you of your value and heritage.
You are loved!
