Make God a Spiritual Necessity!

"The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance." - Billy Graham

There seems to be a lack of taking our "walk with God" seriously in the world today. This may be the result of seeing Him as something of a convenience rather than a necessity in life.

There can be no proper relationship with God if it is fashioned or cobbled together in a hit-or-miss fashion. And unless we change this attitude we fail to grasp the true meaning and purpose of it.

During the time of the Jewish exile to Babylon Israel's relationship with God had deteriorated badly. The people were heavily into idol worship and pagan religion. So much so, that God had become an afterthought to them.

Some rebellious, religious elders approached Ezekiel, a prophet living in Babylon during the exile, to seek information from the Lord. He was quite familiar with the corruption and sin of the people (Ezekiel 20).

However, the elder's relationship with God was so corrupt that they showed no remorse or guilt for their sins before entering the temple. Ezekiel, at God's command and being His ambassador, refused to help them (Ezekiel 20:3).

There are a couple of things to point out here. First, the people were aware they had a legitimate prophet of God living among them, but only sought him out when things became so bad they had no other options.

Secondly, sin had such control over their lives that they had no guilt or shame about it. They walked around proudly with it comfortably entrenched in their lives. It became as normal to them as eating and drinking.

Ezekiel was ordered by God not to help them because of their sporadic faith. They showed no respect or honor toward God prior to entering the temple. There impenitence demonstrated their complete lack of devotion to Him.

Neither can we expect God to answer our supplications if we do not leave our sins at the door. The importance of earnest self-examination and self-condemnation prior to our asking God for anything cannot be stressed enough.

In addition, we must demonstrate to God that He means much more to us than a trifle convenience to be used whenever the severity of a situation leaves us no other choice. We must make Him a spiritual necessity, and not a supplement.

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:9; Acts 17:30; 1 John 5:4; Psalm 34:4; Psalm 9:10

Prayer: Dear God, help me walk in Your light, and never steer away from Your path. Keep me steady always, that no sin may overcome me, amen.

Stay blessed,

Becky Lynn