“Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
It’s better to be blessed than good. I can only be so good. There’s a ceiling on my goodness. No matter how hard I try to learn, practice, and apply myself, I only achieve a level of personal and professional goodness that falls within the limits of my God-given capacity. I need something more.
I once beheld the most beautiful rainbow I’d ever seen while driving east on Tualatin Valley Highway. The colors were incredible and the arch was complete. It was so vivid I could almost reach out and touch it. I felt compelled to drive to either end and collect a pot of gold. What a blessing that would be!
A blessing is unearned. It supersedes my abilities and picks up where my best leaves off. God’s blessing is a gift. He chooses to bless me for no reason other than… He loves me and chooses to bless me. I could never be good enough to deserve His freely bestowed favor. That’s what makes it a blessing. It’s the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. It’s there and it’s free. I just have to find it.
I try. I try hard to be good at what I do. But it’s not that easy. I am bombarded with options that restrict, rather than expand my pursuit of goodness. I need more. I need God’s blessing of “a new heart and a new spirit.” That’s the pot at the end of His rainbow for me.
I’m there, right there with the prophet Ezekiel. I’m in his audience of Jewish captives five hundred and ninety years before the birth of Christ. He is speaking directly to my tired heart…
“…find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
I must have my pot of gold. I must have the blessing of God. I must “find... a new heart and a new spirit.” Being good is just not good enough. It’s much better to be blessed than good.
“…you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him
if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
God, Deuteronomy 4.29
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Jesus, Matthew 7.7
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3 comments:
"Find Yourselves" Folks sure seem to spend a lot of time trying to Find themselves, odd how so much of that seeking is external. Yet God tells us over and over the blessing is internal. It is all here in this short verse. First make room, by setting aside your own rebellion, it is the part where God's is asking us to be active. If we stay busy "cleaning house" we will find the old (us) replaced with new. A new creation in God, with a built in support system.
YBIC
Larry
Hi Larry,
Good to hear from you again. Are you blogging? I could not find a site for you.
Good comment, by the way. Thanks.
Dave
No I am not blogging. There is just no time. I have started a journal, though I am not as faithful as I would like. I attempt to write down just how I saw God on any given day.
On the bright side I have no fear of the problem idle hands can create.
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