THE CIRCLE GAME

Jeremiah 4:19-6:15; Colossians 1:18-2:7; Psalm 77:1-20; Proverbs 24:23-25

“Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.  But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned away and abandoned me. They do not say from the heart, ‘Let us live in awe of the Lord our God, for he gives us rain each spring and fall, assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’ Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things.”

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News."

“I cry out to God; yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me! When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help.”

Scripture is clear we are blessed. God gives us rain. He sets the boundaries for the oceans. He brings us harvests. He made peace with everything on earth and in heaven by sending His Son to pay the price of death for our sins. But most of us do not feel blessed, and those who do usually only feel it periodically.

Scripture is equally clear as to why we don’t feel as blessed as we are. We separate ourselves from the blessings of the Father because we choose to do what we want to do. Some of that bears repeating. We separate ourselves from the blessings of the Father. We need to stop doing that.

We all have heard the story of the guy who goes to the doctor with a hurt shoulder. “Doc,” he said. “It hurts when I do this.” “Then, don’t do that,” comes the logical response. We hear, and we laugh, or moan. Then, we go right out again into our own lives and continue to be our own worst enemies by doing precisely that which separates us from the Source of all blessings. Who would knowingly disconnect themselves from the opportunity to be blessed? Well, we do. It is seldom a matter of ignorance. We know when we turn our back on the Spirit’s guidance. We just don’t take the consequences seriously enough.

For years – like about 52 of them – I have played a quaint game of hide and seek with God. It’s almost like the game we all know… only different. I like to think I’m hiding from the Lord when doing something apart from His will. Then, when it blows up or I just find myself alone, I cry out to Him, ask Him to show His face, and seek to get back in relationship with Him. It is a largely unproductive cycle, inasmuch as the start and finish are usually pretty much in the same place. Moving in circles does not leave much chance for growth or development.

So, I have concluded it’s time to start getting serious about growing in a straight line. No more circles; no more returning to the errors of the past. Move forward. It’s time to affirmatively and intentionally choose a different path, a path of growth, a straight and narrow course. Christ loves each of us, just as we are, but He also loves us too much to let us stay that way. If we do nothing but circle back to the people we were before Christ, we are just limiting ourselves. This is not how God created us to live. There is a literal eternity of blessings ready and available to us for the simple asking. But we will never be in position to accept the gift as long as we are chasing our own tails. Let's get positioned to move ahead in a personal relationship with Jesus.