The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10 NKJV.

The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11.

Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39.

I loved this this morning in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers: “Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside – “put on the new man” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!”

This morning as I was making my coffee, I was remembering times when I turned away from what was harmful in high school, that time when I was taking drugs. When I finally made the decision I didn’t even want to be asked to do them, I felt such a weight lifted off of me and a lightness of my spirit that could see the beauty of life again. And right on the heels of that memory was the shame. Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, brings healing in the reminders of the choices I have made to turn to Him. The thief wants to steal and kill and destroy because that’s all he knows. Shame. God reminded me I needed those experiences to see what was not good. And He had me the whole time. And now, He is helping me see that I can always turn to Him, not in shame, but toward the love He gives that brings healing and hope. Don’t ever feel you need to hide or turn your face away from God. He knows you. He’s not afraid. He is the help you need.

Our chapter, Jeremiah 35, has God giving an object lesson in what faithfulness looks like. A whole family , the Rekabites, have entered into Jerusalem because of the armies of Babylon and Aramea. They were told by their forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab hundreds of years before, this command: “Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.” v. 6-7. They obeyed their forefather. Jeremiah brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper. v. 4. Jeremiah placed wine before them and told them to drink the wine. They refused. They obeyed an ancestor these descendants never even met. The people needed to see what faithful obedience looked like. Then Jeremiah said to the family of the Rekabites, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed the command of your forefather Jehonadab and have followed all his instructions and have done everything he ordered.’ Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Johonadab son of Rekab will never fail to have a descendant to serve me.’” v. 18-19.

If we could come to understand and see how our lives lived in disobedience and disbelief bring us harm, we would recognize each time shame enters our hearts and see it for what it truly is…the thief coming to steal and kill and destroy us. It’s a vicious cycle. We sin by doing the very things God tells us hurts us and hurts others. We feel shame. If we don’t turn to Creator God, the cycle continues and the ruts of despair get deeper. That’s the way of the thief. God never wanted that for us because He knows what our sins do to us. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down….They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Revelation 12:10-12.

Yesterday in church we spent the time given normally to listening to a sermon to listening to those who wanted to give their testimony about what God and His church have done in their lives. It was heart-felt and needed. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. This past year has been especially hard for me personally. I shy away from messiness wanting to appear righteous always. And so many things have blown up my illusion of my own “righteousness”. So, what Oswald said about “once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life…watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power…to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!” It’s not easy watching what I trust in that isn’t God dry up and wither away. But just as I turned away from the oppressive weight of what was harming me in high school over 56 years ago, so too is the lifting of my spirit trusting God’s Spirit at work in me showing me a better way and that way is with Him! And that even in the devastations of this broken world, with God we can see the beauty of life He gives. Thank You, Lord, for so patient and so all-encompassing Your healing love for us!