Guilty as Charged

7/22/2011 7:51:05 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                                                  Focus:  We are guilty

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                                         Reference:  Ezra 9:13-15

                Message of the verses:  “13  "After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, 14  shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape? 15  "O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.’”

                Ezra knew the Word of God and because he knew the Word of God he knew that they were guilty.  As written in an earlier SD Ezra includes himself in this prayer for he uses the personal pronouns we, and our throughout this short prayer of repentance to the Lord.  In his prayer he tells the Lord that in affect He has shown great mercy for His children, and could have punished them more.  One could ask the question why did not God destroy the people of Israel, after all they had followed the same sinful practices as the people that were judged when Israel came into the land, for we learned yesterday that God was patience for a long time with the Canaanite people, but then because of His attribute of being Judge God destroyed them.  You will not find any Canaanite people around the Middle East today, but you will find Israelites there, for once again Israel is a nation after over 2500 years God has called them back into their land that He has given to them.  So why did He not destroy them?  I know that God loves Israel.  I know that God chose Israel. I know that God made a covenant with Israel.  I know that God is not finished with Israel.  I know that God has a plan for Israel.  I know that God will again discipline Israel again and then cause “all Israel to be saved.”  26  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27  For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins (Romans 11:26-27 NKJV).”

                I wish to conclude this SD with a fairly long quote from Dr. Wiersbe as he sums up this 2^nd main point from his commentary “Be Heroic,” that actually covers Ezra, Nehemiah and Ester.  “Before we try to untangle the problems of life, we must take time to seek God’s face in prayer.  This is not a long prayer.  It can be read aloud very deliberately in only a few minutes, but it has tremendous depth.  Charles Spurgeon used to say that it was the strength of our prayers, not the length of our prayers, that was important; and he was right.  When you pray from a burdened heart, with a mind that’s saturated with God’s Word, then God will hear and answer.”

                I mentioned in yesterday’s SD that this thought about praying Scripture to God for ourselves and for other people in our lives that we are praying for was reinforced a few weeks back by my sister and I am thankful for her prayer life and her guidance in my life about prayer.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is a wonderful verse in Hebrews, a verse that many believers have put to memory that has been going over and over in my mind as I worked my way through the very wonderful, thought provoking, convicting prayer.  “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). 

                As I think of the passage of the Vine and the branches along with the Vine Dresser, something that I have recently studied, I feel like the Vine Dresser (The Father) has been using His knife to cut away some of the unneeded parts that have been getting in the way of producing “fruit” for the glory of the Lord, and this prayer in the ninth chapter of Ezra seems to be part of the using of His knife as spoken of in Hebrews 4:12 along with John 15.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       I know in my heart and believe that even though the use of God’s sharp knife is something that is necessary for me at this time and so I must, by faith submit to its use.

2.       Continue to learn contentment as this too is part of that process.

3.       Trust that the Lord will use my life as He sees fit.

7/22/2011 8:34:43 AM