Voice of the Orphan Blog

The Foundation of Obedience

But he who hears [My words] and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Luke 6:49
 
I am really struck by the second scripture listed above – found in Luke 6:49.  When I am tempted to disobey the seemingly difficult things which God asks of me, I often do not count the cost of disobedience and as a result I too often choose to disobey.  Today I choose to remind myself that such things result in the "Great" ruin of my house. I am also reminded of the scripture which says,  those who sow in iniquity will reap in sorrow.  The things God is asking of us might seem far too difficult, but we must remember that where He guides, He also provides…and that His grace (which is His empowering presence) will be sufficient for us.  But in order to sense this grace, we must STEP into the obedience.  What obedience costs us will be far less than what disobedience will cost us – one costs us the things we wrongfully hold onto, the other will cost us our entire "house". 
 
Today I will fight to obey and seek to pray for all that concerns me and those whom God has entrusted to me. Today I will seek to obey even those "little things" He may have been whispering all along. Today I will pray for those around me in need and pain; with hope that others will pray for me when I too am in great pain.  We are a family, right?!
 
May the Lord bless you and show up powerfully in your lives as you pray and obey keeping your eyes on the finish line!  And remember God is in the midst, so neglect not to pray to the One who holds your life in His care!

Freedom and Safety through Loving God First

"He who has clean hands and a pure heart, and Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.  He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation." Psalm 24:4-5

Proper order in our lives and proper perspective of people and things are the anecdote to idolatry.  Allowing things just to be things and seeing them as they really are – perishable!  We must allow humans to be just that – humans, as human as we are, flawed.   We want mercy in our failings, so, we first must give mercy.  Proper order means God First! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This [is] the first commandment.  Matthew 12:30.  And if we will love our God and trust Him as our Shepherd first, believing Him to care for our needs, as Psalm 23 so beautifully reminds us, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.

Once we really come to a place of loving others and enjoying these things in proper order and with proper perspective, we find ourselves willing to live in truth. We are even able to speak the truth in love to those whom we are responsible for even if it means that they may reject us for a time?  Idolatry does not speak the truth in love.  In its early stages it does not speak hard truths at all, and once it gets to the latter stages of resentment then it speaks without love at all.  It is only the kind of agape love that comes by the power of the Spirit which can cause us to speak the truth wrapped in love.

I have found that every time I have set up something or someone to help define me and bring worth to my life, God allows that person or thing to fail me.   It seems that when I am holding loosely to someone and their opinion of me, the relationships tends to be more successful and blessed.  When our worth is found in Jesus alone, we will no longer have the need to put our own agendas on those we love because we do not need their actions to define us.  When our worth if found in Jesus alone, we no longer have the need to manipulate and control others and circumstances because the outcomes will not define us and we are free to live humbly and without fear. 

If we really desire pure and lasting relationships with others then we must, as the Word says, FLEE from IDOLATRY. We must not set up other people and things to bring us fulfillment and worth and likewise we must do our best not to allow others to set us up in the same way.  When we hear people praise us saying things like, "I am so glad that you never do this or that" be sure to remind them that you too are flawed and will most assuredly disappoint them at some time because you are not perfect. Only God is perfect and will never disappoint.  We must be willing to remind others that only God is worthy of praise.  As long as we desire such praises from others, we will be setting a trap for ourselves to fall into down the road. 

May we long to hear from God, "Well done good and faithful servant."   I love the following quotes which I found in my daily bread devotional "In God alone will I find true peace and glory.  I must not desire to please men, nor fear to displease them, when there is question of doing what is right.  Only God's judgment is important.  All men will agree with God's opinion of me at the Last Judgment." "God knows what we really are.  What men say about us, will not change what we are nor what God thinks of us."

Living for God Alone

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!" Ezekiel 14:2-6

I used to really misunderstand the concept of idolatry particularly when it was being used to refer to a relationship which had gone awry.  It was not until I realized that idolatry is always about loving ourselves and not the other person whom we have set up.  Mom reminded me, "Kerry, remember that idolatry always starts with "I".  When we set up our children or friends or others as idols, it is really that we are looking for them to praise us for how wonderful we are – looking for them to in turn lift us up, rather than God.  It is not that we necessarily think they deserve to be an idol or a "god" of sorts in our lives; but rather, that we are looking for them and these relationships to help validate our worth and essentially reflect glory upon us. We long too earnestly to hear what good parents we are; how smart, pretty, or athletic we are or our kids are, or what a great friend or worker or wife or husband we are.  And this is not love; this is idolatry and it will lead to resentment, depression, and even hate —destroying the closest of relationships if they are not put in their proper place - in submission to our relationship with God. 

In recent years, I have been astonished by the incredible number of relationships of those in the Church and in believing families that have been severed based on unmet expectations or hurt feelings–from hurt to unforgiveness and back again – and the cycle continues.  I believe if we looked closely enough at the foundation of these relationships, more often than not, we would find that they are based on too much idolatry and not enough on genuine sacrificial, patient, and forgiving love.  The love of the father in the story of the prodigal is a good example of real love!  The love of Jesus Christ for all his disciples, even those who forsook Him, is a good example! What we are seeing among believers surrounding us, and if we were honest in our own lives as well, very often look a lot more like idolatry than true love

How many romantic relationships seem to end this way?  In my opinion, idolatry is more the rule than the exception when it comes to modern day romantic relationships.  Nearly everything in our society cries out "do what makes you feel good and whole."  And yet God tells us that we must mortify our flesh, which includes our fickle feelings, in order to live for Him. It is not that God will not fulfill our desires, but that He will do so in the context of what is safe and will bring long term blessings.  Unfortunately, we believe we know better than God and we are unwilling to wait and trust Him.  But if we really believed that idolatry ultimately will result in embarrassment, pain, hurt, and resentment, we might be more willing to wait on Him and trust Him.   Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Colossians 3:5

How do we make our decisions?  Based on what will please us, what will please others, or what will please God?  Who is on the throne of our lives?  For whom do we live to please? Man-pleasing is an extremely subtle form of idolatry which in the end is very destructive to the body of Christ.  Eli, the priest of the temple of God, who was in charge of taking care of the arc of the covenant, was severely warned and ultimately punished by God for honoring his two wayward sons over honoring God.  Eli chose not to speak to his sons' sin because he valued his relationship with them over his relationship with God.  In the end, he lost both his sons and even his own life.  When we will not speak the harder truths to someone in our life often we are not loving them at all, and we are doing so because we want them to like us more than we want them to be free from their sin which has them in bondage.  Are we willing to be rejected for truly loving others. This is not that we are called to be judge and jury of the sins of others.  Until we are able to see the sin in others in light of our own and to know there is not choice between us, we are not really able to love and forgive them for the sin in their lives and the hurts they may have caused in ours.         
    
We set up our idols and live in fear of them, what they will do and not do for us.  This kind of sin not only puts the other person in bondage but it always puts us into bondage and we find ourselves in relationships which are not free.  The word says that The fear of man lays a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord is safe. Proverbs 29:25 And true safety emotionally, physically, spiritually is hard to come by and yet desperately needed for our souls.  It can not be found in things or in people but only in God!

Idolatry seeks out things, people, and relationships to validate us and has its foundation not in the love of God and the love of others but in the love of "self". And proof of this is found in our negative reactions and responses to those people and things when we find ourselves not validated as we had desired.  We reject; we judge; and we despise those things which did not meet our expectations of giving what we needed and desired from them.  But, if we will take our hearts, broken in disappointment, to God, He will not only restore us and set our worth in Him properly but He will also empower us afresh with His Spirit and in turn give us the ability to love unconditionally the ones which have failed us.  Jesus never expected men to love Him purely; but instead, He clearly recognized the condition of man's heart and loved us nevertheless completely – even unto death.

Each time I find myself holding tightly to something which I believe I can not live without, I find that I no longer am trusting God and believing that He, as my Shepherd, can give me every thing that I need in order to be who he has called me to be – no more and no less. Why is it that just when we stop needing to obtain certain things to increase our worth and define us, this is often the very time when we finally obtain them and are met with success in them?  I believe it is because we are no longer setting up these things to compete with God for the throne of our lives.

When we live for God alone, seeking only His approval, it will be amazing to see how our relationships and work will often succeed in a way that it did not and could not while we were still in idolatry of them (seeking personal worth in them). Because we are no longer setting these things up to compete with our affections towards God, who is jealous for our affection and devotion, God's blessings on them can come because we no longer need them more than we need and desire Him.

Restoring Relationships

Then the word of the LORD came to me:  "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?  Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.' "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!" Ezekiel 14:2-6

My mother has often said that idolatry is not love and always leads to resentment and even hate. It is God who is faithful to us and the One who will love us enough to allow our idols to fail us miserably in order to redirect our focus back to Him.  And once our focus has returned to Him, God will show us that it was not only the sin of other persons involved which caused the "break" and failure in relationship, but our sin of idolatry which set them and these relationships up for failure in the first place.  We must give others the same grace and mercy which God has given to us in our sin.  When we are back in true fellowship with Jesus, He will be faithful to remind us that whatever others have done to us, we too have done either to another, to them, or at least are capable of doing such things in our flesh. 

In order to love, we must be aware of our own sin and how deceitful is our own heart and in this way we will find the road to forgive others.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:13   I recently read some hard truth in from My daily Bread devotional which really put things in right perspective for me…."Never be disturbed when others say things that hurt. If you thought more often of your sins, you might even agree with some of their remarks."   

Let us not forget that our sins shall be forgiven to the degree which we forgive the sins of those who sin against us. "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Matthew 6:15 If you have "cut off" someone who you were formerly in fellowship with, or even someone to whom you are related, I encourage you to go back and ask God to show you if you had a part in the "break" and be willing to look through the lens of the sin of idolatry – asking yourself how your expectations of them and the relationship set them up to be more than human and to ultimately fail you.  And then be willing to restore the relationship if God so directs you.   

This is not to say that all relationships can be restored, but that you are willing to humbly do your part.  The Word says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18   Godly relationships are to be based on sacrificial love which can flow through us when we are humble enough to see our own frailty and our own need of forgiveness and allow the Spirit to have His way in and through us.