"If thou hadst known . . . in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." Luke 19:42
This is the verse for the day in Oswald Chamber's devotion "My Utmost for His Highest". (Web site at http://www.myutmost.org/ ) Sometimes I read online devotions and his is one of my favorites. Not always optimistic or lighthearted, but to the point and piercing. The quote is from when Jesus was approaching Jerusalem and wept over the city. To me, the passage talks about Jesus will for these people to repent and experience his peace, but they would not accept him.
Oswald Chambers goes on to say,
"What is it that blinds me in this "my day"? Have I a strange god - not a disgusting monster, but a disposition that rules me? More than once God has brought me face to face with the strange god and I thought I should have to yield, but I did not do it. I got through the crisis by the skin of my teeth and I find myself in the possession of the strange god still; I am blind to the things which belong to my peace."
Good question. How many people do you really know that are truly content and at peace most of the time? It is so easy to allow the things of this world to rush in and become like God's to us. To rob us of our time with God and with those who we most love. To rob us of focusing on what truly is important. People put all kinds of things before God, bass boats, money, power, jobs, hobbies. I knew a family in West Virginia that put camping ahead of God. I remember another lady who was a sunday school teacher who put hunting deer ahead of God. Still others lust for things of this world and they become an idol or pride does, an unwillingness to admit wrong.
It is good to take a step back and look at our lives and priorities sometimes and ask ourselves if God is truly the center and on the throne of our lives. Or as something else creep up on God's throne and taken that spot? If so, then it is time to kick it off the throne and put God back where he belongs. It isn't that God moved, but that our hearts have moved. We are to be a living sacrifice, daily taking up our crosses and following him. If Jesus did not put his own will first, but submitted to the Father, then he gave us an example to follow. Not my will, but yours be done. Accept that we must be humble enough to realize that God knows what is best. A sinful heart disagrees with this and thinks that it knows what is best more than our Creator.
Have you allowed anything else to creep up on the throne and take control?
How has the world influenced what you think is most important?
Are you taking up your cross daily and following him?
What is keeping you from experiencing His peace?
