Natural Consequences

"Listen, all the earth!

I will bring disaster on my people.

It is the fruit of their own schemes,

because they refuse to listen to me.

They have rejected my word."

Jeremiah 6:19 NLT

As I read through the Old-Testament prophecies, I keep noticing a reoccurring theme:  God holds His people accountable for their faithlessness, their hypocrisy, their hard-heartedness.   He disciplines those He loves in order to bring them back to Him. Just because they were chosen by God to be His own precious possession does not exempt them from experiencing the consequences of their wayward actions.  And I have to wonder, how did their ungodly behavior, attitudes and beliefs influence the surrounding nations, the climate of the times, the culture as a whole?  And how did their destructive sway incite God's holy anger for the sake of His hallowed name?

Is it any different today?  Yes, those who have turned from sin and committed their lives to Jesus by faith fall under God's grace and are protected from the wrath of God's judgement for the sin that comes so naturally (Romans 5:9).  Yet I am called to holiness as His child (1 Peter 1:15-16).  I am to be a positive influence as the salt of the earth.  I am to shine the light of righteousness into the dark world (Matthew 5:13-16).  But I look at the culture around me and see my country falling apart.  We are in a bad way.  It's easy for me to blame the lost for the moral decline, for God taking His hand of blessing off our land.  Maybe I should instead be looking in the mirror to find who is to be held accountable for such deterioration.

Fruit.  I expect good things to flow into my life.  After all, I've given my life to Jesus, identifying myself as a Christian.  Doesn't that mean God's favor falls upon me, that my life will be filled with blessing as I align myself with the source of all beneficial and perfect gifts (James 1:17)?  Or does my habit of doing what comes naturally, of letting my own selfish desires serve as my greatest influence, of sowing seeds of my own sin nature that produces fruit of the flesh that is contrary to God's best block His flow of blessing(Galatians 6:7, 5:16-17)?

It's easy to blame God or others when my life is filled with prickly brambles instead of luscious bounty.  I may be constantly plagued by lust, drawn into confrontations with others, seem to be a magnet for trouble, envious of the lives of others that seem so much better, driven my a passion to make my mark in the world.  Instead of peace in my heart there's dissension, irritation replaces joy, coldness is in place of God's love, and harshness substitutes for gentleness.  Is this the life Jesus died to deliver (John 10:10)?  But it's not Jesus that's the problem, it's me.  I'm only getting what's coming to me as I neglect holiness, purity, humility, and a Kingdom-focus in order to cultivate my own sin-nature. And my country suffers as I fail to live as salt and light so others can see what He's doing in my life and give praise to Him (Matthew 5:16).

When I fail to walk by the Spirit, I negatively influence the world around me with the fruit of my own flesh (Galatians 5:19-20).

Stubbornness.  I want God's blessing more than anything.  I many times profess that His blessing is on me, that God is in control so I don't have to worry about a thing, that He's got my back.  Yet I willfully refuse to listen to what He's speaking to my heart, the bad habits He gently asks me to give up, the wrong attitudes of which He convicts me, the past I cling to like a snugly blanket. As a result, I don't live out my faith.  It doesn't reach any further than my lips, becoming only empty words I say but refuse to live out.

Instead, what if I lived my faith out loud?  What if I submitted to God, taking His messages to heart, refusing to defend myself or give excuses for why I won't let go of what is harmful?  What if I let down the walls I've erected to protect my own fleshly identity and allow God to give me a new one that is based on His love for me?  What if I let Him change the way I think (Romans 12:2)?  What a wonderful world that would be!

When I fail to listen to what God speaks to me, I negatively influence the world around me by sticking to my own stubborn ways.

Defiance.  I look for a better way, a path that won't offend others so much, one that is easier and will make me popular, that doesn't require me to change.  I spend a lot of time listening to sermons, reading God's Word and talking to other believers about deep topics, but I think I'm okay the way I am, or I'm afraid to go under the scalpel of the Great Physician, or I've talked myself into believing I'm not ready to endure the hand of the Master Potter.  Maybe tomorrow, I think.  Meanwhile, I continue to live as I've always lived, content in my wayward ways.

As a disciple of Jesus I'm meant to undergo transformation as my thoughts, attitudes and perspective are replaced with His.  If I choose to stick to my own, rejecting the truth of God's Word as irrelevant as justification to feel comfortable in my old skin, I'm not really His disciple.  Instead, I'm a rebel who is trampling on God's own Son, making a mockery of the sacrifice He made in coming to earth as a man and dying on the cross (Hebrews 10:29).  And how does my refusal to take up my own cross, my burden of suffering that is bound to come from following Him, negatively influence the world around me?  If I won't even deny my own self-interests in order to see the lost through my Father's eyes, how can I expect to be His ambassador(Matthew 16:24, 2 Corinthians 5:20)?  And how many people who need Jesus will not be introduced to Him because I'm so intent on living my own way?

When I fail to let God change me from the inside out, I negatively influence the world around me by robbing it of a much-needed representative of Christ.

I look around me at the moral decline and the climate of negativity and divisiveness and I want to blame others.  I think the decisions made by the powers to be are bringing God's righteous wrath upon the nation as a whole.  Yet I fail to see how my own lifestyle is dragging His holy name through the mud.  I am reaping fruit of the flesh, stubbornly refusing to listen to His offensive-to-my-flesh Word, and defiantly choosing my way over His.  In all these ways I'm the one responsible for the mess around me.  If I lived as I was called to live, God could use me to influence things for the better.  May I take the time to repent of my wayward ways and realize what I'm seeing around me is a natural consequence for the actions of God's people.  The future is in our hands so lets not waste any time.  Today is the day to repent and start living for Christ!

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can realize I don't live in a vacuum, that my actions affect the culture in which I live.

How do I fail to see the part I'm playing in bringing this country down?

How would it change everything if every professing Christian served as His ambassador, appealing to the world to come back to God?