Corona Devo 3220
How fresh is our faith today?
How fake is our faith today?
Do we even know the difference? Maybe we need to get-honest with ourselves...and with our Lord about the authenticity of our faith and our actions for Him.
What we do for the Lord...is it really for Him? Or have we grown so accustomed to the routine-of-faith, or even the idea of it...that we have lost our true lustre for the Lord lately?
On the surface, it might sound silly, but God knows our hearts. And it wouldn't be the first time that His people had gotten used to "acting" in faith instead of actually experiencing/living/thriving in their faith and their love of the Lord.
Have we gotten stale in our zeal for the Lord?
If yes, then we probably have an inkling about it.
In the Biblical Book of Zechariah, God's people (the Israelites) had been holding yearly festivals to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction (Zechariah 7:3).
"The Temple" was God's holy place, and its destruction was a devastating event and a spiritual-injury to God's people. Therefore, each Summer the Israelites would honor God by honoring the fallen Temple.
But His people had lost their fire for God, and they knew it. That's why they sent two representatives (Sharezer and Regemmelech) to ask the prophets and the priests if they should still keep-it-up with the yearly Temple-anniversary festival?
Why would they ask about continuing this, unless they knew/feared/acknowledged that they needed to take their faith temperature?
I would argue that the Israelites knew they were half-hearting their Heavenly Father. That is why they asked His servants if they should continue the Temple festivals.
And do you know what God said?
He said (essentially), "What's the point of any of it...if you are not all-in for Me".
On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the Lord. (2) The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their attendants, to seek the Lord’s favor. (3) They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”
(4) The Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply: (5) “Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?
(6) And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?
(7) Isn’t this the same message the Lord proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?’” ~Zechariah 7:1-7
Our great and mighty God does not mince His words. And why should He?
His people did not have their hearts in the ceremonies that they were reveling in, and they had lost their spiritual fervor for their Heavenly Father. And He knew it.
Have we been fooling ourselves in any area of our faith lately? Is it time to take our faith-temperature today?
The Lord's advice to His people is specific and slightly surprising. God does not re-align His people in reference to their worship of Him. Instead, God gives instruction for how His people should care for His (less fortunate) people.
God goes on to tell them the importance of this assignment, and the Lord even goes so far as to say that He hopes this current generation of His people will do better than their ancestors in following this Godly advice.
Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: (9) “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. (10) Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.
(11) “Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. (12) They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.
(13) “Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. (14) As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.” ~Zechariah 7:7-14
~~~
How is our faith fervor today?
The Lord uses the Bible to speak into our lives, and today He is monitoring the authenticity of our admiration and worship of Him. Do we walk in and out of church on Sundays unphased?
Are we (even) attending church?
~~~
What is our response in knowing God's holiness? Are we responding to Him?
These are good questions. And the Lord is pressing in to inquire as to whether we are living-out good responses to Him.
...was it really for me that you were fasting? (6) And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? ~Zechariah 7:5-6
Brothers and Sisters in Christ--are we eating/drinking/living just to please ourselves?
Maybe we need to get-honest with ourselves...and with our Lord about the authenticity of our faith and our actions for Him. And our Lord allows us the opportunity to love and serve Him today via the ways that we love and serve others.
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. (10) Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other. ~Zechariah 7:9-10
sarah
https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com
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