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Don't Get Too Comfortable

by Dennis Miranda  
11/20/2014 / Devotionals

"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning," Luke 12:35

Reading: Ezra 1-3; Haggai 1-2

When I served in the Marines, about every 3 years or so, my family and I would have to leave the comfort of one duty station and the fellowship with friends there only to start all over again in another locale. There was an unspoken rule that we ought not to get too comfortable with our surroundings but be prepared to transfer once the time had come. Though we certainly grew in those places in which we were planted it was only a matter of time before we were uprooted and embedded elsewhere.

When God prophesied to the Israelites through the prophet Jeremiah about their return to Jerusalem after a 70 year period of exile, He was letting the people know in advance that they would come back home someday. During their deportation many of the Israelites prospered in Babylonian captivity and grew very cozy in their current digs. So much so that when the proverbial trumpet had sounded and King Cyrus decreed that it was OK for the people to go back and rebuild Gods temple, some Israelites suddenly became tone deaf and unapologetically remained in the security of their foreign domiciles.

But even the folks who did make the trek back, full of religious zeal and fervor as they were, soon withdrew from their work after being issued a prohibition by the Persian king to cease and desist due to some protests made against them by a group of displaced and disgruntled squatters.

Gods priority had been to restore the spiritual life of His people; however, as time went on the Israelites grew apathetic to their calling and the peoples main concerns became fixated instead on the establishment of their temporal lives. Much like the Israelites during this time we too can get a little too comfortable in our surroundings. We can become so entrenched in this world and in our way of thinking; what with making a living, raising a family, pursuing our dreams, and so on, that we tend to forget and neglect the primacies of God.

God had fulfilled His end of the bargain by bringing His people out of captivity then and centuries later had also satisfied His world reaching strategic plan of redemption and salvation through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, before we are inclined to question the Israelites level of commitment in completing Gods call to rebuilding His temple, we must first inquire of ourselves our own loyalty to Him. For when the trumpet sounds and its our time to return home will we have upheld our end here on earth as well?

Run to win,
Den

Dennis Miranda is a stumbling soul saved by grace, married to his best friend, daddy of three, blogger, and retired Marine. Blog: www.runningtowin-pgh.com/write

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