Before I had children, I was the kind of person who would judge those who
did have children. I would look at those moms with their screaming, out of control
kids and think, "My child will never...(fill in the blank).." Even
after we had our oldest son, I still had those thoughts because he was so easy,
and I honestly couldn't understand why some mothers just couldn't handle it.
God has a way of breaking us in our judgments, and I learned a big lesson
when Micah was born. I have talked about Micah's unique personality in earlier
posts, but here's the recap: he was the most difficult child to ever grace this
earth (in my biased opinion). When God blesses us with stubborn, strong-willed
children all of our judgment of others flies out the window, and we are left
wrestling a screaming, thrashing child as we silently pray for God to deliver
us from whatever situation we are facing at that moment.
When Micah was younger I left so many places with him tucked under my arm,
screaming away; many times tears where rolling down my cheeks as time after
time my strength was tested both physically and emotionally. I never gave up
trying to do fun things, but more often than not we spent our days at home
having left a friend's house or the park early because of a meltdown.
That was the way I chose to handle it; when he melted down down, we picked
up and left...there was no reward of the park, or playing with friends if there
was disobedience. Did that mean that my older son and I missed out on some things?
Yes, but that's what it took to teach Micah, so that's what we did.
As time passed, Micah learned that the good things disappeared when his
behavior was bad, and slowly, we were able to do more and more outside of our
home. Today, he is an amazing boy, still stubborn and still loud, but kind and
generous with his love and encouragement; there are days you can find him
sitting in his bed pouting because he lost control of himself and is in time
out, but overall he has learned that rewards come when he is obedient.
The journey was long, but the boy that he is today proves that the
sacrifices, the tears, and my trusting in God's peace and patience was well
worth it.
My journey through Leviticus is winding down, and this morning as I started
on chapter 26 I knew that I would have to share it with you. The title of the
first part of the chapter is "Reward for Obedience". I loved it, and
I am continually amazed at what God is teaching me about himself through His
word.
"Do not make idols or set up an image
or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land
to bow down before it. I am the Lord, your God.
Observe my Sabbaths and have
reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
If you follow my decrees and are
careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground
will yield its crops and the tress of the field their fruit. Your threshing
will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until
planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your
land.
I will grant peace in the land, and
you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts
from the land, and the sword will not pass through you country. You will pursue
your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will
chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies
will fall by the sword before you.
I will look on you with favor and
make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with
you. You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it
out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I
will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my
people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would
no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and
enabled you to walk with heads held high."
So what does that have to do with us or my strong-willed child? God spoke
these words to the Israelites, and they were very literal; when they obeyed Him
he sent rain, He fought battles for them, the fruit of their trees and the
crops in their fields were abundant. God rescued them from slavery in Egypt and
literally broke them free from their bars; they were His people whom He called
to live for Him within the frame work of His laws.
Because God can see the big picture at all times, there should be no
surprise that He spoke these words for us as well. Many of us don't build
alters and bow down to stones, but we do have idols, don't we? We don't always
respect His church and we've allowed our sinful nature to invade our worship of
Him...we do these things, and more; we struggle within ourselves between this
world and His word...we all do.
We break
his commandments time after time after time… But...if we choose Him, if we take
our stand in this world for His glory, He promises to bring rain when we need
it, and He promises that our lives will be fruitful, and that He will give us
more than enough to meet our needs. Following Him doesn't mean we won't face
trouble in this world, but when we obey His commands He will go before us and
fight the battles that are impossible for us to fight on our own. When we chose
Him, He dwells in us; as our obedience increases His presence in our life
increases. We will never be empty; we will all have our fill when we choose
Him. I love, I love, I love the last part of verse 12: "I broke the bars
of your yoke, and enabled you to walk with heads held high." That's what
Jesus did for us. He broke our bond with sin; we are no longer slaves of this
world, and we can walk with our heads held high praising Him and giving glory
to Him through every blessing and every trial because it all works together for
our good when we choose Him.
There is punishment for disobedience; there is separation from His goodness
when we choose to turn from Him. Chapter 26 goes on to talk about this, and
about what that looked like in the lives of the Israelites; the punishment is the
direct opposite of the rewards, but here's the good part: it says that if we
confess our sins He will remember the covenant He has made with us.
There will be consequences of our sin, but
because of Jesus, and through His death and resurrection, our punishment has
been paid. Consequences can be difficult, and confession is so hard to do
sometimes, but we will miss out on His blessing if we choose disobedience.
He promises to love us and forgive us, and
little by little when we begin to choose Him again we can start to see His
rewards, and see that He is good.
We are all strong-willed, stubborn children at times; we all kick and scream
and fight with the Father who loves us so much. We want our way, and we want it
on our own terms; little by little we learn that life just doesn't work that
way. We are called, just like little children, to a life of obedience; many of
us learn the consequences of disobedience over and over again, but God calls to
us and says, "Choose Me! ... My yoke is easy, and burden is light!"
With Him we can hold our heads up high, knowing that He dwells with us, and that
we are more than conquerors with Him by our side.
As I think back on the early years of hardship, training and raising Micah, I see
myself as a child of God.
I’ve been
stubborn, and I have turned from Him in the past;
in those moments the lessons were hard, and
the reward was not there.
Choosing Him
is a choice, and the more we buck His commandments, the farther we get from
Him; choosing the world is deliberately not choosing Him.
I was thinking about how this lesson can be applied individually and
collectively in our lives.
It really speaks
to every level of life.
God is the Maker
and Creator of all; individually we are to choose Him, as families we are to
choose Him, and as a nation we are to choose Him.
Disobedience on any level has consequences
for us all.
I am so saddened by the
condition of our nation…a nation who at its core was founded on Biblical
principles.
That’s another blog for
another day, but as our leaders kick and scream and turn their faces from our
Creator in the name of protecting rights that were made up by men and abhorred by
our Lord, we shouldn’t be surprised that the reward has left us, and that we
are missing out on the great blessings that are set aside for those that
choose Him.
If we choose obedience as individuals, maybe we can start to change the
disobedience in our nation, and maybe, just maybe, as our obedience increases
His presence will increase as well.
