Many days of our lives we can be accused of making a god after our own image. He study the Bible, learn about Yahweh, worship him but then change small details to suit our own needs. You don't think so? Then I challenge you to read the entire Bible in 90 days (YouVersion has a Bible Reading Plan for 90 days) and come face to face with who is Yahweh, the true Yahweh, Yahweh the just, Yahweh the righteous. There is a reason why Scriptures says it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
One thing that cannot be mistaken in any of the Scriptures is that Yahweh is full of grace, but we are also warned never to allow grace to be an excuse to sin. We do not understand how much grace is already being shown to us every day. Sometimes we do not even consider how our actions will impact our Father. We do not consider how our actions will effect our testimony. We do not consider how our actions and words impact the way the world looks at our God. Yahweh does.
Our Father knows our words even before they are on our lips. He knows the actions we will take even before we take them. He knows the decisions we will make and he knows our motivation. He knows the end from the beginning and he knows the roots. He sees the outcome of the words we speak and the decisions we take today even when we can't. It is no different today than in the days of Moses.
Yahweh knew before he sent Israel into the promised land that they would reject him and take on the gods of the other nations. He knew that they would do this and he knew the actions he would have to take:
Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. (Deuteronomy 31:16-17)
Nothing is hidden from our God, not even our future. Then why does he allow it to happen? If nothing surprises Yahweh, why does he not stop the rebellion before it begins? Let me remind you that anything that is against the will of the Father is rebellion. What kind of rebellion do you and I live in every day as we make decisions with no thought of Jesus, his righteous ways and his will for our lives? How often do we decide against the righteousness of Yahweh without giving it a second thought? Ignorance is no excuse. He is suppose to be our "everything" and we are suppose to be consumed by passion for the Name.
The reason Yahweh does not stop us is two-fold. First, he created us as a creation with a free will. We have the freedom to make our own decisions. Jesus set us free from the slavery of sin so we could have the freedom to decide for him instead of against him, and we still have that freedom today. If Yahweh interferes with that freedom he goes against his own purpose. He desires for us to love him freely.
The second is that our Father uses these times of rebellion for training us. We are his children and he will correct us. He allows us to make mistakes, to rebel but then he brings in the correction to increase us. No punishment is meant as a revenge but as a teaching opportunity. We may not like the correction but it certainly brings us closer to our Father and that is what he is looking for.
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. (Hebrews 12:7-8)
The sad thing is that we usually try to find the short cut out of the correction instead of standing up under it. In this world of self-satisfaction and instant gratification, enduring the correction of our Father is a foreign concept. It could be one reason why there are so many babies running around needing their diapers changed and precious few mature men and women of faith. Sin happens, mistakes will be made, Jesus knows all about it and the Father loves you enough to bring correction. Stand up under it and be increased or slink away into the dark to find your own solutions and lose out. It is your decision, just don't a god after your own image to excuse it away.
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