“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”
17After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. 18They abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem. 19Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.
20Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’ ”
21But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. 22King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”(24:17-22)JOHN 16:16-33
25“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
31“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
JOURNAL
You see it time and time again in the Bible. A king will serve God and seek to obey him and then he will have success and abandon his pursuit of God. It happens over and over and over and I see it in this world and I also see it in myself.
Why stop? Why not seek God in obedience every moment of my life? I believe it goes back to a deep core issue of trust. I doubt God, I doubt myself, I doubt my own place in this world. This was the core issue of trust in the garden...the serpent presented the idea that Adam and Eve were not all that they should be...that somehow they were lacking. That sense of doubt, shame, distrust is what we embrace when we believe that God somehow made a mistake when he made us. We listen to the world instead of God. We seek affirmation from things and others and everything but God. In seeking that affirmation we seek things that we are not...therefore we affirm our doubts and surrender to the world rather than God.
Life is lived in the here and now, it is meant to be lived within the confines of God's love and direction. Doing so affirms the person that God created me to be, it affirms the here and now and that is where my focus is to reside.
Why stop? Why not seek God in obedience every moment of my life? I believe it goes back to a deep core issue of trust. I doubt God, I doubt myself, I doubt my own place in this world. This was the core issue of trust in the garden...the serpent presented the idea that Adam and Eve were not all that they should be...that somehow they were lacking. That sense of doubt, shame, distrust is what we embrace when we believe that God somehow made a mistake when he made us. We listen to the world instead of God. We seek affirmation from things and others and everything but God. In seeking that affirmation we seek things that we are not...therefore we affirm our doubts and surrender to the world rather than God.
Life is lived in the here and now, it is meant to be lived within the confines of God's love and direction. Doing so affirms the person that God created me to be, it affirms the here and now and that is where my focus is to reside.
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