Friday, September 19th, 2014
PROVOKING THE LORD
Yesterday morning, I was taking in the beauty of Table Rock Lake in Kimberling City, Missouri, and reading from Jeremiah, when the Holy Spirit highlighted the 7th verse of Chapter 25 in my mind. “You have provoked me with WHAT YOUR HANDS HAVE MADE, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”
God’s anger was fierce toward His chosen people for making idols with their own hands, so fierce in fact that He sent them into exile for seventy years. Yesterday, I read the highlighted verse as if it was directed toward this present generation.
I will speak of my own graven images, and you may perchance recollect a few of your own. God wants my life to be full of Him and what HIS HANDS HAVE MADE. When there is more-of-me in my life than more-of-God, I produce inedible figs. There are times I become upset with people who are not doing what I want…and times I defend my own self-centered ways…and even times I desire the things of this world instead of the things of God.
I have asked the Holy Spirit to let me know when I’ve provoked God to my own harm, and He has been faithful to do so.