When God is sending a message to you to repent and turn back to Him, take heed. Do not ignore the difficulties he is sending your way or He may simply escalate them. He is calling you to repent. He is calling you to come back humbly to Him. He is calling you to walk away (or run away) from the things in your life that are not of Him.
Do not take the attitude that Israel took with God as recorded in Isaiah 9. They were arrogant and simply kept assuring themselves that they could handle it their own way, without turning back to God. If He loves you, and you are not listening, He will turn up the volume to get your attention. Better to listen early than to wait until full volume.
God’s Anger with Israel’s Arrogance
8The Lord sends a message against Jacob,
And it falls on Israel.
9And all the people know it,
That is, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
Asserting in pride and in arrogance of heart:
10“The bricks have fallen down,
But we will rebuild with smooth stones;
The sycamores have been cut down,
But we will replace them with cedars.”
11Therefore the LORD raises against them adversaries from Rezin
And spurs their enemies on,
12The Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west;
And they devour Israel with gaping jaws.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
13Yet the people do not turn back to Him who struck them,
Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.
14So the LORD cuts off head and tail from Israel,
Both palm branch and bulrush in a single day.
15The head is the elder and honorable man,
And the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.
16For those who guide this people are leading them astray;
And those who are guided by them are brought to confusion.
17Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men,
Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows;
For every one of them is godless and an evildoer,
And every mouth is speaking foolishness.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
18For wickedness burns like a fire;
It consumes briars and thorns;
It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame
And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
19By the fury of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up,
And the people are like fuel for the fire;
No man spares his brother.
20They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,
And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;
Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.
21Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.
Take a few minutes to pray and quietly reflect on your own life. Ask the Spirit to show you specific areas in your life in which you need to repent and turn back to God. He may not answer you directly in your prayer time. He may answer you later. But try to take at least 5 minutes now and perhaps more later in the day and prayerfully reflect on this area of your life.
Shalom. May the grace and peace of our Lord, Yeshua, be with you. Devotion by John in service to Christ
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