Who am I? My relationship with God through prayer (part 17)

It is only God’s voice that can make me as part of God’s family truly joyful. And this is demonstrated in Isaiah 35:1-10. Only He can make me peaceful. Salvation is only found through Him in His Son. God provides me with one road and God is a great Father leading me through the wilderness of my human existence in which His is the only way. In this way Isaiah describes the church, His people, and God in His heaven, not just the nation of Israel. The old nation of Israel, before Roman occupation and ultimate destruction, is not under consideration in Isaiah. As described here, His people are the Church, not the children of Israel. If His people were in Israel then what would be the purpose of bringing Christ into the picture? And why would so many Jews in the New Testament accept Jesus’ words as those of truth when they already had the words of truth? And therefore undergo the change involved in the acceptance of God’s word? God’s word is clear, and while the Jews may be my spiritual ancestors, for me to want to go back to Jewish ways would be denying there was a sacrifice (Hebrews 10) Those are strong words, but those are the Words Paul, a devote Jew and later a devote Jewish Christian, proclaimed. With the coming of Christ, the die was cast. Either I accept His words or I believe the tenet that everyone is alright in God’s eyes.

 

In Exodus 21:17-21 as well as in I John, a very good subject is brought up. How do I treat God? More importantly how does God see that I am treating Him and His people? What does God expect of me? How does He expect me to treat people, not just those that profess His Name but those who are lost as well? God expects me to behave according to what His Son taught, if I want to take my place in that mansion He prepared for me. It is nice to think of Jesus as being loving and kind and having His Father’s Spirit of Grace and Love. But let’s not forget about the obedience that God expects and that this message was delivered through Christ. We must be obedient, we must walk as He walked, we must treat each other the way Christ would treat us. It is not my will that is important, but the will of my Father. And while it is true He gave me a free will, it was not to take advantage of God but to understand that His is a glorious, wonderful will and in fact the only purposeful will.