The Darker Side of God's Mission

It's clear that God uses His people who He has redeemed as instruments in His hands to accomplish His mission. Whew! That was a mouthful...but what happens when His people turn from Him and replace Him with "other gods" like money, fame, astrology, materialism, or fusing Christianity with other religions or philosophies? God disciplines them.

We see this time and again throughout the Old Testament as the Israelites turn from God then return to Him over and over again. We have to always keep in mind that God's plans will never be thwarted. He will not be denied regardless of the way His people act. He simply makes life incredibly hard on them as Jeremiah proclaims in Jeremiah 5 as He marches on to accomplish His mission.

The Jews at the time were callused toward God. They forsook Him and worshiped other gods; they were unjust and did not care for the poor, widows, or orphans; nor did they seek truth and refused to take correction; their priests followed their own direction not God's and the prophets falsely prophesied. They had stubborn and rebellious hearts.

Yet God in His infinite love and mercy did not kill them, rather He sent them away into captivity until they repented.

So what does this have to do with God's mission and us?

We may ask ourselves from time to time, why isn't God doing more in my city? It seems as if He isn't present. Well God is present, but His people may have fallen out of love with Him and gone their own way much like the Jews during Jeremiah's time. From false teachings to not caring about what God cares about and everything in between, God will not work through those who rebel against Him, regardless if they have confessed in Him.

So God may be working on those rebellious hearts and turning their hardness into softness and this takes time. Then He can do remarkable things through them. May we pray that our hearts would never turn hard toward Him, but remain sensitive to His calling on our lives. May we also pray for those who know Him yet have rebelled against Him that they too would return to Him so that He can do incredible things through them.