Prone to Wander

 



Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love

Wander.....
          to the world and it's ways
          to the self
                  self seeking, self gratifying.

              to cherished sin...."It's not so bad."

Each wandering step away from God takes me closer to myself....
          where I am comfortable
             where I am self reliant.

Isaiah 1:13 (NIV)

 ¹³ Stop bringing meaningless offerings! 

Meaningless offerings.
God spoke through Isaiah, telling his people they were far from him in their hearts. They were going through the motions,
the ceremony; yet they were rebellious and corrupt, loaded with guilt.

      Could we say?
unrepentant,
    full of excuses,
       avoiding  and blaming?

Isaiah 1:15

 ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer,
       I will hide my eyes from you;
       even if you offer many prayers,
       I will not listen. 

God will not listen?
God hears everything....nothing escapes him.
Yet sin keeps us from being close, when we wander.......we wander away from him, that distance is created by us, not him.
 The callous builds up
        the will grows stronger
               the heart harder
                   the neck more stiff.

Here's my heart O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Psalm 51

  ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

 The wanderer must stop 

                repent- turn from sin and self toward God and his grace

                refocus- toward him and others

Give up that which has mastered us, lay down that which has become an idol

Romans 6:14

¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Isaiah 1:18

 ¹⁸ "Come now, let us reason together,"
       says the LORD.
       "Though your sins are like scarlet,
       they shall be as white as snow;
       though they are red as crimson,
       they shall be like wool.

Believers- you are a child of God, saved by his grace, his grace will sustain you. His mercy is bestowed upon you. You are sealed, you are his. Live in this way.

              Wander no more.

To those who do not believe in Christ, the risen savior and Lord,

Isaiah 1:19-20

 ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
       you will eat the best from the land;

 ²⁰ but if you resist and rebel,
       you will be devoured by the sword."
       For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Romans 2:5

 ⁵But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

             

Not perfect just Forgiven

         This morning I read a blog, what it was about wasn't as important as the comment afterward. The blog objected to the use of scripture in a particular publication, the comment that followed is one every Christian should read. 
She referenced a person that was just  mean, and a gossip, yet had a bumper sticker on her car that said                    "Not Perfect, Just Forgiven."
  Well, that doesn't surprise me. Anyone could unfortunately say something similar about me. It proves that those of us who profess Christ are always being watched. First to see if we really are different and second to see if we really are not. What we as Christians do, effects our testimony, and by the world's standards, our Christ. He does not need us to show his glory, but he has chosen us to do so and we should be overwhelmed by that!
  It is the next part of the woman's statement that is so very important. She said "When did being a Christian become and excuse instead of a motivation?"
  She is right! Just because we are sinners forgiven is no excuse to continue to sin. Now.....we will. We will never be perfect in this life, in this world, that comes with Christ's return.

Now- the world is full of sin, dying from it.
We, trapped in tents of flesh are serving ourselves. Sin.
Ephesians 4:17-32 talks of how a sinner, saved by grace must put off the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires because we have been made new, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness. No longer to be like those who are lost, darkened in their understanding because of ignorance and hardness of heart.

 The unbeliever does not have this battle. The old self rules, there is no new creation to battle with. Believers must daily  put down the old ways, the anger, gossip, lust and sinful desires. It is battle! The flesh is strong, the will of man is strong, evil is strong.
          Christ is stronger.

There is the story, perhaps you have heard it in one form or another.

An old Indian man, as a new believer in Christ speaks of the raging battle inside of him. He says, it is like two dogs fighting within me, both trying to win. One is good, it is those things like prayer and Bible reading, kindness to others, forgiveness. The other, it is my old life, spirituality, drugs, lust and anger. They fight all day, all day, all day. Someone asks the old man, "Which one wins?" He replyed, "The one that I feed."

Believers in Christ sin. Believers are forgiven. Believers do not have license to sin freely.
We have the gift of God's grace, his mercy, his guidance and power of his Holy Spirit, his restraint.
We have repentance granted by him.
Repentance in the Greek means to think differently to reconsider.
Maybe it means to feed the right dog.