Yet You Have Not Returned to Me

An immature eagle on the river by our place

   As I have been reading the Bible lately I have been trying to do a much better job of really meditating on it and figuring out what lesson I can learn from it. I find this super easy in the New Testament but sometimes I have struggled in the Old Testament. I have certainly been guilty many times of just reading through chapters quickly and then going about my day and not even remembering what I read. I am trying to change this and I have been very blessed by that effort.

   In case this is something that you struggle with as well here is an idea that I have been using - After reading a chapter I take the time to look over it again and really think about what lesson I can take away from it or what verse particularly spoke to me. I then write it down in a little notebook. Taking the extra time to think and then to write seems to do a much better job of cementing it in my brain than just reading it.

   Anyway, I have been reading through the book of Amos and there is a lesson in there that brings me to tears and it is a lesson that we desperately need right now.

 Here are the verses that really made me think....

Amos 4:6-13

"I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town,

yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.
"I also withheld rain from  you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld if from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink,
yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

"Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, 

yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

"I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with  your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,

yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

"I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,

yet you have not returned to me," declares the Lord.

Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you. Prepare to meet your God, O Israel."

He who forms the mountains, creates the wind,

and reveals his thoughts to man,

He who turns dawn to darkness,

and treads the high places of the earth-

the Lord Almighty is his name."

Now I fully realize that this was God speaking through Amos to Israel after some very challenging times that they went through. I am not pretending that we can just substitute our name for Israel and stick in things like Corona Virus, Job loss, Economic downturn, etc in and say that here is a message God has given to us. I am not proposing either that God was the one who sent the Corona Virus down to earth to punish us. But I do believe that  it is in His control - he can allow it or stop it.

  So, why did I share this passage with you? Because I do very strongly believe that what God wanted when Israel went through trials is the very same thing that He wants when we go through trials - that we will return to Him! Have you fully surrendered your life to Him? Have you said "Not my will but yours be done"? Has our country and our world returned to Him? Have we pleaded with them to do so?

     The next chapter also has some thoughts that we can learn from:

Amos 5:4 "This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: Seek me and live:" 

He still promises that today. And though he doesn't promise that we will live forever physically (we could get CoronaVirus and die, or simply die in our sleep from old age) He does promise life eternal when we follow him.

Here is another neat passage from Amos 5:14-15:

  " Seek good, not evil,

that you may live.

Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,

just as you say he is.

Hate evil, love good;

maintain justice in the courts.

Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph."