Now That I Have Your Attention

It has been a while since I have blogged (over a year), but I had something to happen that gave me some motivation. Yesterday, I went to my normal fish market and had the opportunity to talk to the owner.  Nothing special about that (you would think) except this man had been gone for a long time.  He had a heart attack last year and had died.  Yes, dead. No pulse.  The paramedics would eventually bring him back to life, but needless to say he spent a while in the hospital and at home resting.

So, yesterday when I talked to him it was a pleasant surprise.  We talked for a while after he rung-me-up and his overall message to me was, “God is Good”.  I just shook my head yes and said, “Yes, He is.”  He went on to tell me that God definitely got his attention and he had made some serious lifestyle changes.  Things that use to be important to him have been replaced by areas where Yahweh wants him to focus.  Yep, Yahweh got his attention.

We often plow through life with our heads down working, raising kids, making life work to the best of our abilities.  In the midst of all of this, we tend to forget that Yahweh is in the mix and that He has plans for our lives.  When we ignore the leading of the Holy Spirit and His many attempts to get us submit to obedience, we eventually stir up God’s wrath.  Sometimes, He has to grab our attention; you know, shake us to the core before we realize what He wants from us.

The funny thing is that Yahweh has been consistent throughout the existence of man.  Throughout the Old Testament, you can see how the Israelites waffle on the Lord.  For one period of time, they follow Him to a “T”.  For another period of time, they do all the things that would invoke God’s wrath, but yet He responds, corrects them and get them back on track. 

Let’s look at Jeremiah 29:10-14:

(10) For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. (11) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (12) Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (13) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (14) I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Yahweh sent the Prophet Jeremiah to warn His people of the coming wrath.  There had come a time when He needed to jolt the Israelites for them to realize their wrong.  However, through all of this, He still had plans for them to prosper after they would spend 70 years in Babylon.

The same with us today. He loves us. In fact He loves us so much that He sent His son to die for our sins, so that we may have everlasting life.  But yet, even in a time where the Comforter (Holy Spirit) keeps us, we still find ways to ignore His will for our lives. Unfortunately, sometimes Yahweh has to do something radical to gain our attentions. If only we could just slow down and realize what He desires for us rather than putting our own plans before His. It has to just make you wonder, how different would our lives be?

Antoine