"Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." -Lamentations 3:40
God showed this verse to me yesterday during a prayer retreat, and it spoke volumes to me. It's a short verse, but full of truth.
We need to slow down our life and take a look at it. It's so easy to get caught up in daily routine; it's definitely something that's happened to me lately. For the past few weeks, my time spent with God was becoming more and more irregular. This was bugging me; I knew something wasn't right. Then God showed me this verse and the importance of examining life.
An important aspect of this life examination is holding it up to eternity. Do the parts of your life have eternal value, or are they merely temporal and not worthwhile? God has been showing areas in my life that don't have eternal value, one of those areas being my conversations. (Did you know the top conversation topic is sports? How temporal and trivial in light of eternity!) God has shown me that my conversations are mostly about temporal things (a predicament I wrote about in a previous post) instead of the stuff that really matters.
A good question to ask yourself if you're not yet a follower of Jesus (or even if you are) is, "Is what I'm doing really worthwhile?" What do you pursue in life? To what end? Do you pursue things because the world tells you it's worthwhile? What has history shown the outcome of these pursuits to be? Life is so short; there's no guarantee we're going to live till we're 80. We need to examine our ways and test them, because wouldn't it be terrible to live this short life only to find out that you've squandered it on trivial things that, in the end, didn't satisfy? Wealth is so uncertain, so why put your hope in it? (see history and 1 Timothy 6:17) What are your ways, and do they amount to anything? What is temporal and what is eternal?
The second part of the verse is the greatest encouragement: "let us return to the Lord." When you truly examine your ways and test them, it's very possible you will find your life lacking in some way. If you are pursuing something in life, that shows that you need something, but what is it? God shows in this verse that the thing that is missing in our lives is himself, and that we can return to him.
We were made to be in relationship with him. God made the whole universe, galaxies and all, but he only gave one thing the choice to obey him: us! He did this because he wants a genuine relationship with us; it wouldn't be real if it were forced. But isn't it terrifying that we have the ability to say no to an infinite God? All of creation completely obeys God without question, except for us. We are the only ones with the audacity to look in the face of the Creator of the universe and say, "No, your way is not as good as my way." This rebellion is evil in God's sight and deserves just punishment: death. An eternal death without God.
But God provided a way back to him. Jesus bore the punishment and eternal wrath due us on the cross. Through Jesus we can "return to the Lord." The Lord of heaven and earth. We can only have a right relationship with God if we turn to Jesus.
So, having examined your life, what will you do? What needs to change? Is something lacking in your life? I submit to you that what your life needs is the Lord. If you never have done it yet, turn to the Lord. If you have wandered from him (which I have, lately), return to the Lord.
God showed this verse to me yesterday during a prayer retreat, and it spoke volumes to me. It's a short verse, but full of truth.
We need to slow down our life and take a look at it. It's so easy to get caught up in daily routine; it's definitely something that's happened to me lately. For the past few weeks, my time spent with God was becoming more and more irregular. This was bugging me; I knew something wasn't right. Then God showed me this verse and the importance of examining life.
An important aspect of this life examination is holding it up to eternity. Do the parts of your life have eternal value, or are they merely temporal and not worthwhile? God has been showing areas in my life that don't have eternal value, one of those areas being my conversations. (Did you know the top conversation topic is sports? How temporal and trivial in light of eternity!) God has shown me that my conversations are mostly about temporal things (a predicament I wrote about in a previous post) instead of the stuff that really matters.
A good question to ask yourself if you're not yet a follower of Jesus (or even if you are) is, "Is what I'm doing really worthwhile?" What do you pursue in life? To what end? Do you pursue things because the world tells you it's worthwhile? What has history shown the outcome of these pursuits to be? Life is so short; there's no guarantee we're going to live till we're 80. We need to examine our ways and test them, because wouldn't it be terrible to live this short life only to find out that you've squandered it on trivial things that, in the end, didn't satisfy? Wealth is so uncertain, so why put your hope in it? (see history and 1 Timothy 6:17) What are your ways, and do they amount to anything? What is temporal and what is eternal?
The second part of the verse is the greatest encouragement: "let us return to the Lord." When you truly examine your ways and test them, it's very possible you will find your life lacking in some way. If you are pursuing something in life, that shows that you need something, but what is it? God shows in this verse that the thing that is missing in our lives is himself, and that we can return to him.
We were made to be in relationship with him. God made the whole universe, galaxies and all, but he only gave one thing the choice to obey him: us! He did this because he wants a genuine relationship with us; it wouldn't be real if it were forced. But isn't it terrifying that we have the ability to say no to an infinite God? All of creation completely obeys God without question, except for us. We are the only ones with the audacity to look in the face of the Creator of the universe and say, "No, your way is not as good as my way." This rebellion is evil in God's sight and deserves just punishment: death. An eternal death without God.
But God provided a way back to him. Jesus bore the punishment and eternal wrath due us on the cross. Through Jesus we can "return to the Lord." The Lord of heaven and earth. We can only have a right relationship with God if we turn to Jesus.
So, having examined your life, what will you do? What needs to change? Is something lacking in your life? I submit to you that what your life needs is the Lord. If you never have done it yet, turn to the Lord. If you have wandered from him (which I have, lately), return to the Lord.