I have an extremely short memory. Every time I reach a crisis (large or small) I start grumbling and wringing my hands. It would seem that things never go well, that I am never relieved from sub-optimal circumstances. It would seem that God is never there for me.
And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.
Judges 10:10-16 (ESV)
This resonates with me. You too? We have a tendency to go about our own business. We create our lives based on personal priorities. We worship what our heart wants. We do want we want to do. We think what we want to think based our wisdom. When this doesn’t work, we cry out to God. We ask Him to rescue us from the consequences of our faulty priorities and worship.
There is more than one problem with wrong worship. First, God can honor our choices. It’s not that we choose only bad things. We choose to live independently of him and to value some things above Him. The consequence? He lets us live apart from Him. Second, ideas and actions have outcomes. The path we walk takes us to its destination. We cannot drive on I-90 (from Washington State) and expect to reach Dallas. We can only get to go east to Chicago or Boston.
Why then do we live our lives on our own terms, but expect an outcomes that come from proper worship? We cry out to Him and are surprised to find that He is distant. He is God and we are to seek Him and to worship Him alone.
When I reach the end of myself and am living with the consequences of my rebellion, I am glad for repentance and forgiveness. The cure for our wayward heart is repentance and forgiveness. I am glad He is a God of mercy, aren’t you?
Do you need to return to Him today?