A Sloppy Mess

God is good. That is something that is so easy to forget. It is something that sometimes we want to forget. God does not lie, and He is not mocked. It is His consistency that can sometimes cause us to become frustrated with us. When He says He wants our good, and moreover than that, He works all things together for our good.

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. " (1)

We want God to forsake us sometimes. It would be easier if He would, we reason to ourselves. Then I would not have to keep trying. Then I would be free, we lie to ourselves. It is easy to forget the heavy weight we once bore in bondage to our sin. Israel, en route to the promised land, groaned for the bondage of Egypt. It is easy, knowing the end of the story, to judge Israel. Because we can look down the corridor of time and see the faithfulness and abundant grace God did show Israel through the centuries.

We who know the truth of God's grace can look at the believers at Galatia in amazement. They were fooled to see the gospel as only fulfilled in Christ's blood plus works. To think of adding something to Christ's work on that mount in order to justify us is repugnant, in the least.

And yet, there can come a point in our life that we see nothing other than our own whims. We can only see our Lord resigning us to a life of mediocre worship and fruitless pursuits of doing what is right. We believe that He has seen the folly of His ways and has finally stopped working on us, because of course He is not strong enough to change us.

Let us awaken.

Beware, unless your silence makes you dull of hearing.

"'Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.' But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers." (2)


Beware, unless your deafness make your healing a distant trek.

"He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing. " (3)

Take heed today. Listen as God calls you back to His heart. Remember the stones He has placed behind you: the healed wounds, the shackles of sin that were shattered, the situations that inclined you to sin removed. How quickly are we to ignore the wisdom of ages and incline our ways and our hearts to the evil way again!

Return as the prodigal son and see the blessings of our Father's court. Remember the zeal of fire placed in your heart when your sin was juxtaposed to His holiness and His holiness became your justification. Just as the prodigal son returned covered in the filth of animals, poor, bruised in body and ego, so let us return a sloppy mess to our Savior. Let us not see the faults rightly seen, but let grace's song lure us back to the Throne. Just as sporatic and wavering as the thoughts in this essay, let us rush through any door we closed and every path we took away from the feet of our Dear One. Forget all decorum. Forget all ritual. Forget all but our need for the loving embrace of He who chose us.


1) Romans 8:26-28
2) Jer 7:23-26
3) Proverbs 29:1