Judges & Ruth
I hope everyone's summers are going well! I've been getting a little busier as the days have passed and haven't read as much as I was supposed to :/ Playing catch-up this week! But anywho...
Judges. Another book with a lot of long (really hard to pronounce) names of people and cities. I've been enjoying learning the history of the world before what we are "allowed to be taught" in school. Judges (and the rest of the Old Testament) have really sparked some imaginative journeys back to that time and thinking about what it would've been like back then!
The time of Judges was a viscous cycle for Israel. The Israelites would do things that were evil in the sight of the Lord, then God would let Israel be conquered by a neighboring city, Israel would call out to God, and then He would send a judge (hence the name Judges :P) to deliver them. But throughout this all, they only called on God when they needed help. After God helped them, He was no longer important to them. They would even serve other gods at times when they weren't in need. When I was reading this, it reminded me a lot of my life up until a few months ago. While I was growing up, God was nothing more to me than someone I'd go to when I did something wrong or when I needed help (just like Israel in Judges). The people of Israel would rejoice and thank other gods for the good stuff in their life but would go to God when they needed help. He was their foul-weather friend. And after reading this, I realized just how much I don't want that to be me. I knew that I wanted to go to God in good times and in bad but now, I want to even more so! We don't want God to just be the shoulder we turn to cry on when times get tough or if we need comfort. Should we go to Him in those times? Absolutely! But we also need to thank Him for what He has provided for us and for what He has shown us. He should be our best friend! Know everything about us, someone we share everything with, someone we go to in good times and in bad! I know I'm striving to be God's BFF now!
One repeating theme of Judges brought me back to Junior High. From 7th-9th grade, my best friend and I read an awesome book series (little did we know at the time that it was Christian Literature for teen girls) called The Christy Miller Series. There are 12 books in the series and we fell in love with them! We must have read the whole series 5 or more times throughout high school. One part of the 2nd book has forever stayed with me and it's based upon 1 Corinthians 15:33 (Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”) In the book, a female student (nicknamed Katie Christian) is told to stand on a chair in the Sunday school class. Another student, (nicknamed Peter Pagan) is told to stand by the chair that Katie Christian is standing on but to stay on the ground. Katie is asked to try and pull Peter up to stand with her on the chair (get him to come to Christ) but she has no success. Then, Peter is asked to try and pull Katie down to his level (get her to fall away from Christ) and he succeeds. It's much easier to be brought down to someone who doesn't know Christ's level than it is to bring them to the same level as you in Christ. This is something I'm really really struggling with this summer and it was something Israel was struggling with in Judges. They were brought down to the level of those around them instead of them pulling those around them to Christ. So this idea has been ever present in my mind these past few days. It's really caused me to look at my relationships and ask myself... Who do you spend your time with? Are they a good influence on you? Has your relationship with God changed because you've hung out with them? If so, has it been a good change or a bad change? Definitely need to choose my company wisely and not let them pull me down! I need to stand strong, put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6), and live in the battlefield that is my life!
Ruth. Loyalty at its finest! Shows how sticking with someone till the end can pay off! Application? Stick with God till the end and he will reward us with an eternity in heaven! :) (I look forward to spending it with you all!)
I pray that God becomes your best friend and that you choose your company wisely! Don't let them bring you down! Their opinion doesn't matter anyway... God's is the only one that matters!
Thanks for reading! God Bless!
<3 Danielle
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