Monday Reflection – May 18, 2020 Faithfully Following a Faithful God

Monday Reflection – May 18, 2020
Faithfully Following a Faithful God

Lord, you gave your good spirit to instruct our ancestors. Nehemiah 9:20

Following the completion of the walls around Jerusalem in record time, the people turn their focus to God who has been on the journey with them. They spend time in his word and respond in praise, confession and acts of love. They also celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. In today’s chapter, they gather for a time of fasting where they confess their sins and that of their ancestors, read from the Book of the Law, and worship God. The seven Levites cry out with a loud voice declaring God’s glorious name and recounting the gracious acts of God from the beginning of time. They also recall God’s leadership of the Israelites for forty years through the wilderness and into the Promised Land against all sorts of enemies.

The Levites anchor God’s journey with his people on God’s compassion. Such compassion is not just lingering about in small doses, but abounding in its nature and work. Notice how verse 19 says how the Lord ‘in his great compassion, did not forsake them in the wilderness.’ Indeed, God could easily have turned things against them. Yahweh could have moved the pillar of cloud so that it no long guided them during the day, or he could have simply shut down the special pillar of fire by night. The Lord continued to miraculously provide water and manna for that generation who did not trust him fully. Their clothes did not wear out; their feet didn’t swell. It is amazing how God continued to work in their lives. We need to remember that God had greater plans in mind for he was guiding the new generation to trust him and follow his lead. Such guidance was both through God’s marvellous work and his instructions to them.

We all are beneficiaries of God’s gracious acts in our lives as he summons us to follow him all the way. Many claim to be seeking God’s will; however, more often than not we are seeking our will rather than his. Many times we have diminished his will to, ‘Okay, I’ll still go to church if you get me that good job or deliver me from this problem.’ We need to step back and see God’s great purposes for those who dare trust him.

God still offers his gifts of grace to us even when we have left him to pursue the world. He is inviting us to return to him. This is not time to refuse God, but to return to him, the source of peace and joy. Many live off the hard work of the generations before us while we refuse God, adopt ungodly morals and do our own thing. Let’s fix our hearts and eyes on God, receive his good spirit and faithfully follow his instructions. God desires to raise us up to accomplish his work.

Jermaine Gibson