Bondage?

From the book of Nahum:

What the Lord does to His enemies:

• avenge
• His fury will be poured out like fire
• He will throw rocks down on them
• darkness will pursue them
• He will put and end to conspiracies
• It only takes one time for the Lord to fully tear it away.

Who are the LORD's enemies?

"The LORD has given a command concerning you:

Your name shall be perpetuated no longer.

Out of the house of your gods

I will cut off the carved image and the molded image.

I will dig your grave,

For you are vile." Nahum 1:14

The Lord wants to set us free from our enemies. The enemies of the Lord are those things that place His people in bondage. I will remind you here: you are a child of God. A father will NOT stand by and watch His child suffer. He cannot sit and see His child hurt. He WILL rescue them! YOUR enemies are the Lord's enemies and if those enemies are holding you in bondage (as many enemies of Israel did), you can be assured that the Lord wants to rescue you from them!

What is keeping you...putting you...in bondage?

Bondage ensnares and entraps us. It keeps us from the freedom we have in Christ. Let me challenge you to do something. Take a minute, pray that the Lord gives you complete honestly, then open your eyes and honestly write down your answers to these questions.

• What causes me to groan? (Exodus 2:23)
• What am i fearful of? (Romans 8:15)
• What tries to subject me? (Galatians 2:4)
• What are doctrines of false brothers that i believe? (Galatians 2:4)
• What is the opposite of liberty? (Galatians 2:4)
• What is born of the flesh? (Galatians 4:24)
• What yoke is entangling me? (Galatians 5:1)
• What subjects me by a fear of death? (Hebrews 2:15)
• What is overcoming me? (2 Peter 2:19)
• What is deceiving me? (2 Peter 2:19)
  

Now look at this list. These things are holding you in bondage. These things...people...feelings...thoughts...actions...reactions...are the bondage that is keeping you from experiencing the pure freedom in Christ.

Reading through Nahum and recognizing that God's enemies are those things that keep His people in bondage...lets go a step further. Those things you wrote down? Those are God's enemies. Those things are the direct antithesis of who are Beloved is and where our Beloved wants us.

*BUT REMEMBER* read the beginning of this devotion. What does the Lord do to His enemies?

*NOW* read Nahum 1:1-6. Find comfort that that is what our Father wants to do with your bondage. Read the next verse. (Verse 7). Here is the challenge: do you trust the Lord?

Find comfort in these words. Know that the Lord wants to utterly destroy your enemies. your bondage. Read a step further.

Nahum 1:15 "Behold, on the mountains

The feet of him who brings good tidings,

Who proclaims peace!

O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,

Perform your vows.

For the wicked one shall no more pass through you;

He is utterly cut off."

Know this. If you go away from this remembering one thing. remember this: God wants to fight your battles for you! He commands His people, Judah, to keep their appointed feasts...to perform their vows. He doesn't need our help fighting our bondage. He will do it. All we have to do is sit and obey. Rest in the commandments the Lord has given us. Find comfort that the LORD GOD is in your midst...

The Mighty One, will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing." (Zeph 3:17)

To ACT OUT Psalm 37:3-7....(read below)

It is well with my soul...

"Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.

He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him..."

Psalm 37

more later...

7/29/08 (i think)

I decided not to expound on this verse. It is merely a verse that the Lord has been using in my life and one that He has called me to live out. To me, this scripture doesn't need any explanation. It speaks volumes to my heart and to add any more would take away from the glorious way the Lord is speaking to me.

Trust, do good, dwell, feed, delight, commit, trust, rest, wait patiently...

May the words of my mouth...

"I hate, I despise your feast days. And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." Amos 5:21-24

Have you ever just gone through the motions? Stood up in church, sang to songs, sat down, bowed your head in prayer, opened your eyes, opened your bibles...said amen? Trust me...I know we all have. This scripture stood out to me in my quiet time because I thought about the many feast days, sacred assemblies, offerings, and songs that I have attempted to bring to the Lord. How many have been despised? How many were offered without a pure heart?

Oh LORD, what is a pure heart? Father, how may I know what you hate and what you love? When I offer things to you, are they accepted?

"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my Strength and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:12-14

Only the Lord can cleanse us to purity. Only He can overwhelm our souls to the place of Godly sacrifice. Only our Savior is big enough to make us blameless of our great transgression. Only He knows our hearts...why not ask Him to dig into the depths of it and pull out what is in there, that he may refine it and make it His?

"Search me, o God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139: 23-24

God, search me! Search out my wicked ways and lead me away from them! What of my offerings to you are not done with a broken and contrite heart? What of my actions, my 'rituals' are not done of a pure conscience? Reveal to me those ways of the flesh and restore a righteous, repentant, clean, acceptable attitude of giving, praise, and thanksgiving.

What does the Lord want from us? What causes His heart to rejoice? What of our sacrifices please Him? Are they found in our actions? Or is it something deeper?

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart - these, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1