Wednesday 10/01/14
Topic: God’s Goodness leads to a change of Heart
Series –
Loving Abba, Loving God IX.mp3
For Use a Home – 10-01-14 Worksheet PDF
Ever look at the Israelites as they were miraculously led out of Egyptian slavery and thought, “What is wrong with these people? Why are they complaining? Have they so soon forgotten what it was like to work all day for another man’s profit under an abusive Egyptian whip?”
Well, that’s easy to say 4,500 years later, sitting on your couch in the A/C, sipping on your favorite beverage – but, would we have really responded any better? 1, 2, 3 weeks into the desert. 1, 2 months into the wilderness…all you see is sand and a lot of NO WATER! What do you think would have been going through YOUR mind?
When we see what God did for Israel we see loving-kindness, provision, protection and mercy.
When Israel was living it, what they saw was – sand, no water and manna 3 squares a day EVERYDAY!
Perhaps psalm 107 is one of the greatest encouragements to see life clearly as one could find in the Psalms.
In it we are reminded over and over to praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.
I know by what this chapter clearly says, that if Israel had simply been grateful. If they had simply praised Him for the goodness He had already shown – they’d have been guided to the promise land VERY early on in their journey. As it was – their own self-interests and belligerent attitudes caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and die there. God says of these events, “God was not well pleased with many of them, for their corpses fell in the wilderness….”. So if God didn’t want that first generation of Israelites to die in the wilderness – why did they? Doesn’t God always get what He wants? NO! In fact God rarely gets all He wants.
“For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses? And with whom was He “provoked for 40 years”? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did He “swear that they would not enter His rest,” if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” ~ Heb 3:16-19
So we can clearly see that God does not get all He wants and that what He wants most is our trust!
Why is faith (trust) so important to God? Because it cannot be faked! Trust is a true sign of intimately knowing Him. God wants relationship with you. He does not want you to have relationship with a denomination, a religious code, and set of morals – God wants relationship with YOU!
This and much more is covered in the recording, so if the Lord is speaking to you in what you have read – go ahead and listen tot he recording as well.
I hope you will enjoy the rest of this teaching and as a result be better equipped to co-partner with the Spirit in the work of the ministry!