No wandering off

DEVOTION

ROMANS

NO WANDERING OFF

Rom 11:7-12

7 What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, 8 as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day."   9 And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. 10 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."   11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

NIV

It would seem we have a choice to make regarding the condition of our heart toward God. No doubt in this verse Paul is saying many of the people in Israel tried to find justification in the law, and thus not in God. Their hearts were bend on ways other the God’s way. The lesson is exactly the same for us, in the sense of finding any justification from our good works. We cannot, and the condition of our heart should be toward God, and his method of our justification, which is in Christ Jesus. If we allow ourselves to search in other areas, other than God, our hearts will become dull towards God and in a sense our heart will enter a state of stupor. If we continue to move away from God in our thinking or our behavior, we soon become blind to his ways, and we cannot here his still small voice giving us direction. This moving away from God can even be trying to live by the law, or rules and regulations. We can move away from God trying to be religious, trying to do good works. If we allow this to happen, this moving away from God, the condition of our heart would be in a spiritual stupor, blinded by our own desires and hearing the call of the world rather than the call of our Lord, the result would even be a physical one. Our bodies would wither, our backs bent over, illness and pain throughout our bones. We would grow old before our time. No, we certainly must stay the course we are on, walking with our Lord. We cannot wander off on our own and become one of those with darken eyes, not being able to see the greatness of our Lord. The one thing we can have control of and have a part of, so to speak, is in our salvation and justification. It is up to us to stay the course, it is our choice, our decision to stay on the journey with Jesus. There can be no wandering.  It seems the Israelites wandered off into religiosity, but they can return, they can be recovered. If we do wander off, we can be assured God will find a way to bring us back. But let us not put him to that task. Let us stay the course, no wandering off.