A Quickened Faith and a Quick Fix
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”- Isaiah 58:8
We live in a present culture that embodies the message from a pop queen icon, Janet Jackson, who released the song, “What Have You Done For Me Lately”. This title that topped the charts over thirty years ago reverberates with a Nostradamus type eeriness…a mantra which is still very much how people think, act, and live. Like the recent flu epidemic, people have become increasingly susceptible to being self-absorbed to the degree that nothing can satisfy what they feel they need, deserve, crave, and have coming to them. How many people sabotage their marriage, throwing away years of love and commitment due to the rough or icy patch they are currently facing? How many people become disgruntled and ungrateful at a job when, after first time in five years, they do not receive a salary increase? How many kids throw a tantrum at Target when their parent(s) won’t get them a treat, even though they just had ice cream two hours earlier? How many friendships end when someone is unable to do a favor, despite having a track record of saying “yes” 90% of the time? How many people forget or struggle to trust the Lord for an answer, even though He came through “big time” for them the last time a storm hit?
Just like the culture of the world, the people of faith, have had breakdowns with their believing (or better put short-term memories). As the God Story unfolds in the Scriptures, we keep finding His treasure, the children of Israel, getting in the way as they look to edit the creativity, mercy, generosity, and sovereignty of the Author of Life! Rather, than living in the continuum of the Father’s goodness, they choose to go nowhere on the carousel of forgetting, murmuring, and following their own paths and pleasures. Here are just a few of the examples we find in the Bible of how quickly Israel turned away:
Numbers 14:2-3- “All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”
Psalm 106:21- “They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things for them in Egypt.” Hebrews 3:7-9- “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried Me, though for forty years they saw what I did.”
Despite the mighty strength the Lord performed in Egypt, Israel operated out of fear whenever they came across opposition from an enemy. Despite the constant provision the Lord offered in manna from heaven and water from a rock, Israel demonstrated a lack of faith and gratitude in the Lord. Despite the abiding presence of the Lord in leading His people and revealing His ways throughout the journey to the promise land, Israel ignored the voice from heaven. Before attempting to comprehend how this could be or condemn them for such pride, doubt, and short-sightedness, perhaps the Holy Spirit is using their example to remind us of something eternally true and critically important. That we need to remember the Lord’s workings in our lives and readily submit to the One who has always been good, has always been strong, has always been loving, and has always been with us.
The word of the Lord that I feel so strongly in my Spirit as it relates to this idea of “QUICKLY”, is this:
The same faith that BROUGHT YOU to Jesus in the FIRST PLACE, is BIG ENOUGH to overcome what you are facing today!
As we keep our eyes looking “UP” for our redemption and as we continue on His “RIGHT” path, may 2018 be the year you begin to see the QUICKLY that Heaven quickens! If you have waited months for a job, finding a home, or wanting to start a family, may there be an open door and favor released even now! If you have a family member who has rejected your invitation to church the last twenty times and shows no pulse for anything about God, may there be a softening of their heart even now! If the doctor has failed to diagnose a physical problem or an illness/disease has resurfaced, may there be a complete healing and strengthening even now! If there has been a series of negative events in your life, may there be a fresh start and good gift even now! If you have been battling a sense of emptiness, loneliness, and hopelessness, may there be a renewing of your mind and an uplifting of your countenance even now! May the Lord move on your behalf in such a quick, unique, and complete manner, that you are both surprised and satisfied by the chapter He is writing today!