The news that 3 year old Cleo had vanished from a tent in Northern WA was very sobering for us. We talked as a family & prayed immediately for this little girl and especially for her parents. It hit me hard: my overactive imagination and empathy brought me to tears as I thought about what they were going through. I used that emotion as many Christians around Australia did to petition Our Loving Father.
As the days turned into weeks, we kept praying as many did – some loving community members even holding prayer vigils for her and her safe return. (A shout out to @churchofchristcarnarvon – and many other churches that supported – just look at their Facebook comments!)
Not ‘just’ thoughtful gestures from a bunch of religious people, these were actual heartfelt cries from people who know Jesus.
“Heard and Answered”
The relief and joy today must have the whole family (and to a lesser degree the community) feeling like they are living a dream.
It got me thinking today – of a few times I have been in desperation in my life. You may relate…
Maybe it was a health issue, intense or chronic pain, injury, financial ruin, depression, death of a loved one…the list is virtually endless. And right in the middle of it, sometimes we ask ‘god’ for help, despite our religious belief or knowledge of ‘him/it’.
The thing is, often this heartfelt cry comes with a promise to God…
“God, if you do this for me, I will…”
I know people who have quit certain activities or substances, finally walked away from the ‘wrong crowd’, given up a job, started to serve God and many other things that were part of a ‘deal’ with God.
And here lies the warning: do not forget or neglect your promise!
For myself, the first time I really did this was when on a trip to end my life. To be honest, I didn’t want ‘god’ to exist and was quite settled with ending my life – I thought it would be an end to my pain & hassles. It was quite a simple promise, to a ‘god’ I didn’t think existed:
“God if you’re there, I think you’re a ^&*$*% @%^^&%, but seeing though I’ve made a mess of my life, if you can do anything with it, you can have it “
Well, God came through. BIG TIME!
To start with, the excitement and joy from Jesus changing me and removing pain / addiction made it very easy to live for Him. A complete change of life – I was willing to do anything for Him. It was an incredible time and I saw many, many miracles happen.
But over the years, as hardship mounted, as pain escalated, as marriage & kids & finances competed for my time, it was easy to forget how much God had done. And, easy to slowly drift from that declaration that my life was now His.
It may seem strange to some, I failed God in many, many ways. But each time, as He has allowed circumstances or reminders to bring me back, He has been faithful despite my failures. Sometimes, what He uses to get my attention hurts. Real bad!
So if you have made a promise to God, I am here to remind you: return to it! Seriously, do it before there has to be something painful – something that may even be worse that the original circumstance…as impossible as that may seem.
For myself, 20 years after God took the pain & addiction, He brought me to me knees again. This time however, I believe there will be no full restoration. My spine has now been fused in two places – the pain from here on in will never be as low as it was 20 years ago. The rest of my spine now vulnerable, but it all serves as a reminder for me to be obedient, to live for Him, not myself.
Please don’t get the wrong idea: this does not indicate God is vindictive or mean: quite the opposite! In His love, He has allowed these things to get my attention and crush my stubborn attitude. My prayer is that my mistakes would be useful to you, before it is too late.
If you listen, learn, take heed…that is wisdom! There is another place you can take a warning from: the Bible…
In John 5, a lame man is healed and Jesus warns Him: ‘stop sinning or else something worse may happen to you’ (paraphrased). 1Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. (John 5:1-15 (NLT))
That’s right something worse than being lame for THIRTY EIGHT YEARS!
Please, please PLEASE – remember your vow to God! Come back to that place of willingness & obedience to God. It is the only place of genuine joy & fulfilment. Seriously, serving God is the most incredible blessing there is.
People may turn against you, use you, abuse you, neglect you – but He will never let you down.
I feel to issue a warning here: serving God does not earn you anything. A Christian’s duty is serving God 2 [Jesus said:] “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.” Luke 17:7-10 (NLT). A Christian is a Christian based on trusting what Jesus has already done not because fo how good they are (thankfully!) or how much do (doubly thankful!).
In fact, it may be news to some, but the fact that people can be forgiven is because of a promise God made about Himself…
Thousands of years ago, the custom for a covenant agreement between two people was (to us) very strange:
They would get a number of animals and cut them in half. Each half of the animal was put on the sides of a small channel or valley. The blood would run down and form a small ‘river’ or creek of blood. Both the people who were entering the agreement then walked through the blood.
Essentially they were saying:
“If I break my end of the agreement, you can do this to me – kill me”
The people who entered the agreement knew it was a serious deal, with death a real possibility. On one particular, powerful occasion, God wanted to make a deal with Abraham. Instead of two people making making a covenant together, God Himself wanted to make a covenant with a man.
Problem!!
This meant that when if Abraham walked through the blood, He was saying to God: “If I break the covenant you can kill me” – NOT a wise thing to say to the all-knowing, holy and righteous God! Abraham, being wise, did not want to walk through the blood! He knew He wail not be able to keep his end of the deal…
Beside the blood he stayed until night – and then when it was dark a very strong thing happened… God Himself walked through the blood by way of a smoking pot and flaming torch. God knew that Abraham would fail as well. He didn’t want Abraham to die – so He walked through on Abrahams behalf. 3And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Then the LORD told him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
The LORD told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day. Genesis 15:6-18 (NLT)
Effectively, God was saying:
“Abraham, I know you will fail, but I don’t want you to die. I want you to get the benefits, so I will die in your place”
And that is exactly what God did…
A couple of thousand years later, Jesus, being God in human form, perfect and sinless, died a criminals death on the cross. He became sin, took the punishment not just for Abraham, but for you and me too!
If you have ever given in to your nature, sinned, even once, you need forgiveness. And there is forgiveness in only One name: Jesus!
There is no religion, no amount of service, no amount of trying, no amount of money – nothing – that can bring forgiveness other than trusting what Jesus has done for you. And when you do, you discover a powerful reality: This God that loved & died for Abraham (and you!), He also rose to life and is available to you here and now.
He guides, protects, empowers, reveals Himself as a good perfect Father. And as our Father, we will have the desire to please Him. But if we have promised Him something and neglected it – it’s time return… Don’t worry – He won’t rub your nose in it He is ever loving & forgiving – He will be happy for your effort, no matter how much you have failed.
He’s used to it!
What is it that you need to return to?
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Romans 12:9-13 (NLT) [emphasis added]
Lord, please help us to return to the joy of serving you and fulfilling our promise(s) to You. Sorry for the way we have neglected you and served ourselves instead of You. ThankYou so much for the safe return of Cleo – please continue to comfort and bless the whole community in Canarvon. May You be glorified up there for this Glorious act, as well as in our own hearts.
#thankYouJesus
Notes:
When you make a vow to the LORD your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the LORD your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin. However, it is not a sin to refrain from making a vow. But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 23:21-23 (NLT)
Footnotes:
- 1Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”
Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. (John 5:1-15 (NLT)) - 2[Jesus said:] “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.” Luke 17:7-10 (NLT)
- 3And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Then the LORD told him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
The LORD told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day. Genesis 15:6-18 (NLT)