Our Own Doing

Photo credit to Amado Roberto Jimenez Abreu, Jr.

 

“And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face.” Hosea 7:2

 
Truly, there is nothing new under the sun. “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) These stories of the ancients aren’t just stories of them and times long past. These stories are repeats of the hearts of mankind. Read Hosea 7. It’s a story of yesterdays. It’s a story of today. Why? Because the heart of man is unchanging unless it’s made new by surrendering to the Lord who made us.

 
It’s sad. You would have healed Israel. It’s what You wanted to do and were waiting for the opportunity to do. You were inviting them into healing. Imagine that. But they refused to accept that healing Your way. They wanted to do things their own way. They refused healing. Who would do that? Who would refuse healing until it’s too late?

 
I think of some people. I think of my grandfather, my Opa. He had an infection in his leg. He didn’t trust doctors and hospitals. He was told to go to the doctor but he wouldn’t go. Finally, gangrene started to set in. Then he HAD to go. And so did his leg below his knee. Part of his leg had to be amputated because he refused to seek help and healing when he first needed it.

 
He’s not the only one I think of. Jim Henson, that talented puppet maker and puppeteer. He was much more than that to many and well loved. Mr. Henson was sick. Same story in a way as my Opa. Was sick but never went to the doctor for help. By the time he did, his pneumonia was so bad, he couldn’t be helped. He died.

 
Well, this is the story today. It’s a story of letting our sickness keep baking in the oven. But it’s not a story of physical illness. It’s a story about spiritual sickness. It’s a story of iniquity. What does iniquity mean? It’s the Hebrew word avon here. It’s about perversity. It’s taking what God has said is right and good and twisting it into what it is not, and that’s evil. Tied into the word is the understanding that this “perversifying” of God’s ways will receive punishment.

 
But this sad and twisted story continues. It’s about falsehood, sheqer, about living a sham, being caught up in deceit and emptiness. It’s about being robbed and spoiled and letting yourself be. And it’s a problem easily fixed except no one will stop to consider their own hearts and consider that God sees and knows what’s going on. No one will stop and consider and say, “Hey, this is wrong. This isn’t what I was created for! This is twisted and warped. This is not what our Creator envisioned for us.”

 
With their mind, will, and emotions; what we call the heart, they only consider their own ways and not the God of their creation. They forget that God has never stopped watching and waiting and inviting them into His healing. But they refuse. Like the song, “I’ll have it my way,” they will find out that if that is their choice, they will have it their way. And if that’s my choice, I WILL have it my way too. Only, having it my way means that my own doings will beset me about. My own doings will surround me and encompass me on every side instead of having healing surround me and encompass me on every side. But yes, it is every man’s choice.
I can choose to make myself temporarily glad, or to make people glad. I can choose to run after whatever I think gives me pleasure. My heart can be like a burning oven. I can pile things into it and wait. I can let the baker who is over me sleep and wake up to this burning, flaming fire in the morning. I can let it get so hot that everything good is burned up in flames. I can be an oven where I don’t follow the baking directions and food doesn’t get turned and burns on one side or just gets scorched altogether. I can let this baker who has no knowledge of baking lead my baking if I want. But then I’m nothing more than a silly dove without heart.

 
I’ve had doves before. They are beautiful birds. I can hear them cooing. But they have no defense. Except by the grace of God, I have no idea how they survive in the wild. They don’t bite or scratch. In self-defense they run and flap their wings. And maybe, when we run to our own strength, we are like that beautiful but silly and defenseless bird. How can something defenseless run to itself or others like it for defense?

 
There is One who could defend His people. That same One can defend any who would turn to Him. Don’t flee from Him. Run to Him. Fly to Him. Destruction is everywhere where He is not. When God says that destruction comes to us because we have transgressed against Him, He’s not cursing us, He’s warning us about the consequences of our choice. When we choose to break away from His authority and His protection and His safety and His presence, we get what lies outside the walls of our Safe Tower. Inside the castle and it’s walls you have the protection of the King, but outside is a different story.

 
God had redeemed Israel and invited them into the castle walls. But they were choosing to delight themselves outside the walls where the enemy lurks. Are we choosing the same? Are lies being spoken about God today? I wonder if even “believers” are spreading some lies about You today by the way we live our lives and act out our faith or rather lack of faith. Do we really cry out unto You with our heart, with our mind, will, emotions, and every part of us? Do we really honor Your ways? Do we live in the strength that You give us or in our own strength?  And when I return, am I really returning to You or just to some of the ways I agree with? And am I getting caught up in rage instead of being caught up in You? What is my joy, who is my driving force, what is my life running after? Is it You and Your delight alone? Or is it something else?

 
You offered healing. You still offer healing today. If you want to know the secret to healing let me share Psalm 37. It starts with trusting in the Lord and following Him in His ways. Trusting in Him means delighting yourself in Him and you’ll see that what He desires becomes your desires and they’ll come to pass before your very eyes. When we trust in Him and delight in Him we also willingly commit our ways to Him. His righteousness starts to shine forth through us. Here we are, trusting and delighting and committing even in the tough stuff and yet we find rest in Him and wait patiently for Him no matter what. We don’t have to be angry, or rage, or fret because we know the experience of being kept in His care, so closely in His castle, that we are no strangers to the King.

 
There is still time to consider with our our will, emotions, and thoughts. There is time to consider You, God. There’s time to consider our own actions and wickedness. There is time to consider and remember, to consider and open our eyes to the truth and act upon it. There is time to consider life outside Your gates versus life in Your presence. And there is time to act. There is time to return. But there will come a day when that time has passed. Let us consider and respond rightly before our healing passes by and we are left where we chose to be, on the side of total destruction, not by Your choice, but by ours.

 
God has always offered healing in Himself. He still does today. He went to the extremes to get us to understand by sending Jesus to show what His desire translated into in a way that we mere humans could grasp. Jesus claimed the words of the prophet Isaiah because He could. Standing in the synagogue He proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”  Go on, look back at the heart of God in Isaiah. Compare it to the heart of Jesus. Hear His cry for your healing. Come to the One who would choose to pay the price of your rebellion for you. Come to the One who would rescue someone who owed everything to Him, when He owed nothing to us. This is the love of God demonstrated for us in Christ Jesus. This is the glory of God. Let Him heal you. Return to your Maker. Live in relationship to Him who is the Author of relationship and the Author of life. Or die alone. It’s each man’s choice. May we each choose wisely by choosing life and healing in You, Lord.