Today's Devotional Thought
November 18, 2010 by Rachel Piferi
It Just Takes Time
I just love it when I am led to a less familiar book in the Bible and am taught a huge lesson! Yesterday, I was reading Karen Kingsbury’s posts on Facebook and she cited a verse from the book of Ezra. I was intrigued by the context of the verse, so I went and studied Ezra. And, I was reminded again how there really aren’t any new human experiences, emotions, or lessons to be learned. The lessons of Ezra 10 can be plopped right into 21st century living and be just as powerful.
If you read through the book of Ezra, you will see that it is the record of a truly great man who knew God’s word, believed it deeply, and obeyed it. He is called upon to do a mighty thing for the Israelites in leading God’s people back to Jerusalem and helping them restore their behaviors after it is revealed that they have sinned by intermarrying and worshipping idols with their pagan neighbors.
In chapters 9 and 10, we read of Ezra’s deep grief over the behaviors of Israel. After he hears of their sin, Ezra falls to his knees weeping and praying. He publically expressed shame for their sin and displays an earnest desire that the people would also repent and turn from their sinful ways.
And what happens is remarkable: revival emerges in the people. In Ezra 10:1, we read that his public weeping and praying causes a crowd to gather and they also start weeping. And as the crowd weeps together, they decide to renew their faithfulness to God by turning from their sinful practice of marrying foreign women. Following Ezra’s sincere prayer, the people repent and ask for guidance on how to renew their relationship with God. And that begins a systematic plan to examine the great sin the people have committed. In verses 12 through 15, we read the description of how the assembly planned to address each case and as it says in these verses, it took some time to go through all of the people who had committed this sin.
When I read this chapter, do you know what struck me? What I was struck by is that sometimes, it just takes time to correct our mistakes or make a change of course. In verses 16 and 17, we see that they expressed their desire to change on the 20th day of the ninth month, they began their plan on the first day of the tenth month, and that they finished dealing with all the men who had committed this sin by the first day of the first month. It wasn’t a quick process. But, once they acknowledged their sin and repented, they steadily and faithfully worked to correct their mistake until finally they were done.
I find such hope in Ezra 10. For those of you out there who are impatient like me, I know that you sometimes want change to happen quickly. We want to lose weight quickly, mend relationships quickly, pay off our debt quickly, among a number of others things we try to change. But what we see in Ezra is that change takes time. The Israelites recognized the change that needed to be made, wholeheartedly accepted it, and then steadily worked towards completing it. It wasn’t a mistake that could be fixed easily, but it was one that could be fixed with some work. Isn’t it amazing that we serve a God who lets us do that? That even in our impatience, He is patient and faithful to see us through to completion when we are earnest in our desire to change?
If you have something in your life that you are trying to change, please be patient and recognize that some things just take time to correct. Like the sins described in the book of Ezra, sometimes we just have to work steadily to our goal. But God is patient and extends to us all the grace we need to make the changes in our selves that we need to make to be more faithful and dedicated children of His.
Just remember…..it is time to “rise up, this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it!???
December