Hiatus.

God has been speaking to me a lot this week. I just finished reading the book of Judges and the recurring theme of the book screamed at me. The Israelites had just been rescued over and over by God and been shown firsthand His love and mercy. Every so many years the Israelites seemed to have a memory lapse and began doing their own thing, worshipping idols and doing things they shouldn't do, etc. Then when their sin had taken them down the inevitable road of destruction, the only thing they could do was cry out to the God they had turned their backs on. God, being the loving God that He is, saved them from themselves and delivered them from whatever trouble they had gotten themselves into. As I was reading I was thinking,
"well now they'll straighten up and listen, since they see what turning away from God does"..but no, a little while down the road, it happens again. Over and over and over and over they keep repeating the same cycle. And over and over God rescues them. Not only does God rescue them, He always used an ordinary person to deliver them.

I know that many of us, especially me, find myself in this same cycle. Most of us come to Christ because we realize that we are broken individuals and we simply cannot make it on our own. We need Him to have purpose in this life and so we that can live in the next. We are so good at making a mess of our lives when we follow our own rules. We cry out to Him and He helps us through to the other side. He's always there, sometimes it just takes a little breaking down to realize His presence. Sometimes we need it everyday.

I don't think the Israelites just woke up one day and said "I think we will forget about the God who saved us and turn to these idols". It was over a period of time and generations, but I think the main thing that happened was they began to compromise. Small compromises here and there that lead to a giant snowball effect and then you have bad stuff going on everywhere..the sin made them weak and vulnerable. Self-destructive as well as vulnerable to other nations because God was no longer with them. They couldn't defeat their enemies. So what happened? They cry out to God yet again. Then there's peace. Crazy but the way we tend to be most of the time.

Here's to breaking the cycle and always giving worship and praise to the One who more than deserves it.