Receiving What You Asked For

We are going to receive what we are due. When we do something wrong in this world, we are accountable to the consequences of our actions. Yes, we may be forgiven for our sin by God, but we are still accountable to punishment according to man. It is about our choice though that leads to our forgiveness by God. We choose Him over man and He continues to provide for and bless us as heirs to heaven.

“¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” – Romans 1:19 (ESV)

We know God because He has revealed Himself to us. He has shown us who He is and what He does and gives us love that we do not deserve. And yet…

“²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” and “²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” – Romans 1:21 & 29-32 (ESV)

Even as we/they know/knew God, the choice is to go against Him. The choice to follow the world and not the LORD runs rampant in the world, even today as before. We are slaves to the instant gratification of the now and continue to do and approve others to do those things that are destructive to ourselves and the relationship we have with the Father.

“²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” – Romans 1:28 (ESV)

As such, The LORD gives us up to our desires and allows for our destruction. We make the choice to follow ourselves and God allows us to follow our choice. Our choice is asking for the consequences and as such we receive just what we ask for. The LORD will be right there with us waiting for our turn to Him and away from the destructive things, but He will allow us to take on the destructive things and the consequences of them until we choose Him.

What are you choosing? Are you choosing today those things that are giving you instant gratification without thought of the consequences? What if you were to choose the LORD and His ways instead, knowing that we will receive what we ask for?

You Will Again Find the LORD

Review my choice of words in the title above. Be aware that it is you that will find the LORD again, and not that He again finds you. If you read my previous study of the word “abandon” you will see that the LORD does not nor will not abandon us. He is there always waiting on us to turn back to Him. And when we do, He is right there ready to pick us up.

“³⁰When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.” – Deuteronomy 4:30-31 (ESV)

The LORD will not leave or destroy us even though we turn away from Him. He gave us free will and He knew that we would act and do the way we act and do. He waits patiently for our return to Him. And, when we turn back to Him, He is there with open arms to receive us and love us and comfort us and protect us.

“²⁸And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.” – Deuteronomy 4:28-29 (ESV)

We will distance ourselves from the LORD and will worship other gods. We will be servants of those gods and will allow them to bring us into despair. And just when things are at their worst. At our tribulation, we will realize the err in our way and we will seek the LORD and we will find Him there waiting for us. We will search for Him with fervor and with conviction.

I again come to the point of who does the searching, we. It is not the LORD searching to find us, as He never abandoned us. It is we who are doing the seeking. It is we who are again turning to the LORD. It is we who are again finding the LORD.

What are you worshiping? Are you hoping for rescue? What if you realize the err in your worship and turn again to seek and find the LORD, knowing that He never did nor never will abandon you?

Remember and Turn Back

Jesus knows the condition of our heart. He knows where we are in our relationship with Him. Regardless of how you may be fooling yourself and/or others, Christ knows.

“⁴But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” – Revelation 2:4 (ESV)

Even as He does know the current condition of our heart, Jesus also knows where we were at one point and that we do have the capacity to get back there. It is however a conscious decision to turn back to Him and get right in our following of the LORD.

“²I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. ³I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” – Revelation 2:2-3 (ESV)

We know where we were. We know that we are sinners and were without salvation at one time. We accepted the gift of salvation that was give by Christ and progressed doing the work the LORD had for us. And then, as noted in verse four above, we see that we have fallen away from that work. We turned away from the LORD, maybe not consciously, but turned away none the less.

“⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” – Revelation 2:5a (ESV)

This is where we are, we need to get back to our communion with the LORD. We need to re-engage with Him and find our way back to Him. We need to get back to where we were at first. Back to endurance, back to calling out evil, back to recognizing and calling our the false, and back to acting and doing the name of Jesus. We have turned away and abandoned the LORD, now is our time to turn back to Him and get back to work spreading His Word, the gospel, to all the world.

Where are you in your relationship with the LORD? Have you turned away and toward yourself? What if you remembered and turn back to Jesus and begin again doing the works you did when you first came to know Him?

Others will See When We Turn Away from God

Disaster will come upon us when we turn away from God. He told us so in Judges as I wrote. But the LORD will not abandon us in that time. He will be with us waiting for our return. He will not make it easy. He may even allow us good things as He has given us free will to choose for ourselves. But He will be there with us waiting on our return to Him because He knows our heart.

It is not just God who will see that we have turned from Him. Others will see it as well. There will be noticed differences in our life and the world around us. In just a first pass, it may not be seen, but the continued separation from God will be noticed as disaster continue to strike day after day.

“⁸And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’” – 1 Kings 9:8 (ESV)

God gives us great things as He did with Solomon and the building of the temple. Those great things will continue to be there as we continue to be with the LORD and are following Him and His commandments in our lives. Yet, when we fall away from Him, those great things will begin to deteriorate. Those things will no longer be great as they were meant for the LORD and His people. As the people fall away the great things do the same.

“⁹Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’” – 1 Kings 9:9 (ESV)

And those passing by will know the reason for the disaster befalling us. Those around us know who we are. They know where we have been and where our allegiance is. They know that we follow the One True God and then will know when our following has waned. They will see our lack of dependence on the LORD. They will see how we have found another to worship. They will see that our allegiance has shifted. And they will see how it has impacted us. They will see the disaster in our lives. They will see that we are struggling. They will see that we are in need. And they will know where we should go to get back.

Remember that the LORD does not abandon us. Even as we have fallen away from Him and disaster has come upon us. He is steady waiting on us to turn back to Him. He has allowed disaster to befall us and yes, things have gotten pretty bad. Our lives may be in ruin, but remember that the LORD delivers His people. Remember the love He has for us. Remember that He gets the most from the least and know that He is just waiting to again get the most out us. Others know, we only need to look at ourselves to see where we are in relation to the LORD.

Where are you in relation to the LORD? Do you see the disaster in your life? What if you were to turn back to the LORD and allow Him to restore you?