Hebrews 10:35-36 English Standard Version

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

As an insecure person with trust issues, what confidence can I possibly possess?

My confidence is in God.

2 Corinthians 3:3-5 English Standard Version

3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

For some it is difficult to separate our physical lives from our spiritual life because we serve God in a physical world at the bequest of God who is Spirit and communicates to us by faith which is not seen by the natural world. Our actions if directed by God show what faith can do in this world, but it looks to them as if we ourselves are doing it in our own strength.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

We know the Lord and we know what He is asking of us. Whatever strength we have to stand comes from our relationship with Him by faith. We do not seek the credit because we do not deserve it. Praise God that He has called us, changed us and given us the confidence to know His will and the strength to choose rightly.

We do not want to continue without His guidance and His faith in us. Our Lord is the true and rightful righteous One. We are but servants.

The servant is not greater than the Master.

The world would have us say “I am the master of my own house.” 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 English Standard Version

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Joel 2:12-14 English Standard Version

Return to the Lord

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?

The opening verses of Joel 2 are titled “The Day of the Lord”. We can read those words for ourselves but I have to ask this of our God, “yet even now”, is it true for us today?

If it is a way to avoid that which is written about the Day of the Lord, is it nationalistic in nature or just personal?

As a people of God we have our concerns over those we love and we would prefer to avoid such calamities that are avoidable. Our concerns are both individual and national. Perhaps nationalistic concerns are too narrow. We are not as aware of things in areas of the world nearly as much as we are about things at home.

Over the years there have been many calls to repentance that have gone out abroad and have been answered only in some small portion. Nothing has touched our people on such a broad enough scale as to say that a nation is in mourning over their sins.

Will He relent for the sake of fifty good men? If not fifty, then forty, or thirty? Will you relent for the sake of even ten?

Is this our Lot lesson? Will we flee and escape only with our family?

We pray O Lord, what would you have us do?