Maturity Is Not Independence From God

 

 

Ezekiel 16:59-60  -  " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.  Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

 

Ezekiel was given another message about their sins.  It was a long message….written in the form of a love letter to the people God had chosen.  He said they had not kept their promise to him. They had grown up and left him to prostitute themselves to other gods….and peoples.

 

God was going to punish them for the sins they had committed…but he was not going to break his promise to them. He wanted them to remember the promise they made in their youth...and return to serve him with their whole heart.

 

Growing up means growing closer to God …not further away.  Maturity is defined by how much we let God’s love move us…not how independent we become. Sins have to be identified and removed from our lives if we are to have a deeper relationship with God. …if we are to keep our side of the promise we made to follow him.

 

The world doesn’t make it easy on us.  We live in a land that has made religious freedom the standard…and that means we have to respect the ones who believe in other things. It is that respect that gives us the freedom to worship God. It is that respect that gives us the strength to walk in love among so many different beliefs and not be swayed.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that I need to strive for maturity….not independence.  Draw me closer to you and help me walk completely in love when I am confronted with different beliefs.  Forgive me for demanding my own way too much…and letting my brain be tricked into thinking that independence is the same thing.  Show me how to be strong and love others.   Help me keep the promise I made to you when I was 14…to love and follow you …no matter what.  Amen.