It’s definitely that time of year when the weather can’t stop changing, or it is in Texas at least. If you haven’t heard much about Texas weather, we can basically cover all four seasons in one day. It’s the craziest and most unpredictable thing sometimes, but for most people is just sets off a lot of allergies.
For the past week or so, like a lot of Texans, I’ve been experiencing the typical allergies, which definitely threw me off schedule a bit. I was especially thrown off schedule when it comes to my quiet time.
Most days I felt pretty sick and didn’t exactly feel like reading my Bible. I wasn’t super happy about it, but through that, God was still teaching me something.
God reminded me how different we are apart from Him than with Him.
For about the past month or so, I’ve gotten so used to clothing myself with His righteousness before I see anyone that I think I forgot Who’s righteousness it was.
I had gotten used to certain acts of kindness and holding my tongue being easier than normal that I began to think it was God’s doing, not mine.
‘Cause while God can change us and shape our hearts, without Him we go right back to our old self, and we fall into the traps our flesh sets for us.
Without being filled with Jesus, we’re left empty, so it’s pretty darn easy for the world to creep in and fill the spot normally held by God. And as I’m sure you’re aware, the world doesn’t exactly value the same kindness that Jesus came to show.
The world sure doesn’t see the importance in purity, not just in body but in mind and heart, either. The world doesn’t care about any of these things because it doesn’t know them.
Apart from God none of these things exist, and modern culture isn’t exactly filled with Jesus, so our hearts (apart from God) will just gravitate right towards whatever is near and able to “fill” it.
But this definitely is not a new problem! A whole civilization of people fell into being filled by the world and culture, what’s quick, easy, and new. That people was Israel.
They were the ones chosen by God when they were few in number, and they were led out of Egypt by God. The Bible says that God performed many miracles in front of their eyes, but once they were surrounded by other nations, they left Him. Israel went right to what every other civilization was doing at that time.
Why? Well, even though God set them apart to be different, they forsook the customs, feasts, and offerings He set up for reverence and remembrance.
Israel thought they could do it on their own. They thought they could remember God without having to remind themselves. In other words, their so very short-term memories couldn’t fail them, but they were oh so wrong.
When they got so used to being with God and doing the right thing, they thought they could do the same and act the same without Him. A whole entire nation fell into a trap we fall into everyday.
‘Cause once we do something right, we (I) think we have it all down, like we don’t need Jesus. That’s basically like saying we don’t need love to love.
But we can’t pour out what we’re not filled with, neither can we reflect Light when we’re dressed from head to toe in all black.
Before the Israelites went into the land God led them to, Moses gave a speech to them, which takes us a whole book of the Bible. Throughout it, the words remind and teach are repeated so many time. I can’t even count them.
Moses knew the culture they were about to enter, and he wanted them to be prepared for what was coming. He wanted them to remember, so when they were surrounded by everything that was against God, it wouldn’t have a place to creep in.
He told them with God they would be blessed and honored, but without Him they would pretty much be every evil thing known to the earth.
If you haven’t caught the theme yet, without God they couldn’t act anything or look anything like Him, and neither can we. Jesus died, so that we could take on His righteousness, not anything that we can come up with.
So give glory to Him, the One who made it possible for us to be love and praise Him because He’s the reason we are able to be something better than ourselves.