Day 118: Doing it Anyway

Acts 21:37-22:29; Judges 17-18; Psalm 43

Paul speaks his testimony beautifully.  And?  The crowd hurls threats and insults at him.  Wait a second, I thought that if we were faithful to share how God saves, then people would be saved!  The reality is, people have a choice:  you can choose to share the gospel or not, and people can choose to accept it or not.  If that is frustrating sometimes, imagine how God feels about our freedom to choose sometimes.  He may give us the perfect opportunity to serve or love on someone and we choose to be selfish; he may give us the exact thing we need to stay out of sin, but we choose to ignore it.  Of course it is disheartening!  Imagine how Paul must have felt, knowing that this crowd may be the one that kills him, even though he spoke his testimony.  We are called to obedience, not success.  God will worry about the outcome, we just need to have the discipline to follow his lead.

Micah's story is an interesting one.  He steals from his mother, then stands by while she makes an idol.  Then he allows it in his house, accepting the compromise of faith in God, even though he hires a priest. Then, when something good happens (The tribe takes the idols) he rushes to get them back.  Micah and his priest were so misguided.  They thought they were worshipping The Lord, they even went to church to prove it, but the reality was, something else was more important than God.  Even the priest, who should have destroyed Micah's idols, runs off the the tribe because he wants to pastor a bigger church, thinking it will bring him more glory.  This story is so similar to what happens today.  People think they are worshipping God, or they pretend to do so, but in their whole life there is compromise which leads to sin.  People want bigger and better stuff, they want more recognition, but none of that is about God.  I know that I need to work on humbling myself before The Lord, truly worshipping him and nothing or no one else.  I need to stop chasing the recognition my sin nature thinks I need.  May we all learn to focus on the one true God and remain true in our worship and love.