Wednesday, June 4, 2008

40 years in the wilderness of murmuring and complaining

Much of our lives we are tempted to take on the burden of others. This is one of the things that cause us to murmur and complain. God has not called us to carry the weight of someone else's burden but only to pray for them. Our prayer causes God to send divine intervention to ease their load of those offended.

The Bible say "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I recalled Paul's admonishing the Corinthian church leaders to put away an individual who had openly sinned (worst behavior than most prebelivers - incest) and how this person had then after a season repented and turned back to God. Paul in his next letter to the Corinthian church requested that this person be brought back into fellowship because satan will hold us guilt of the sin of not being in fellowship with a repented brother or sister.

I believe that all the prayers of the saints (even when they were not in fellowship with the disciplined person) may have caused the divine intervention of God to stir the heart of this Christian to repent and return back to God's grace and forgiveness. The saints did not murmur or complain but just obediently followed Paul's Godly instruction and prayed for the change to take place in this person's behavior.

Our God is a God of second chances (many second chances) and He came through for this brother that sinned when he repented and He will come through for us too. The most important issue is to recognize that we are living in that state of sinfulness and repent of the sin and turn away from doing it again and again. This is a very specific case and so it can't be generalized into every of our situation!

Therefore let us not be like the Israelites, who complained and murmured for 40 years, going around in circles in the wilderness and where most of them even died but let us find rest in Jesus Christ - our Rock. Let us take on His yoke which is easy and His burden which is light (whatever He wants us to do because He will do it for us!). We are instructed to take His yoke and learn to be meek and lowly in heart and we shall find rest in our souls.

Today let us hand our burdens, especially other people's offenses, to the Lord Jesus Christ and in its place take on His yoke and be yoke to Him for He is well able to carry us through this journey called life! Remember to pray for all that are offended, as His Body must be healed and be united again, so that He can return for His Bride, the church.

2 comments:

Blurry D said...

A very timely message for me..

Chandran said...

Praise God!