A Year Through God's Eyes

O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.-v.7

I feel like this is where we are as a society today. There are so many people in our culture that have either decided that God isn't worth their time, that His standards are too high, that His people aren't perfect, or that they just don't care. There are other people (both in the church and outside of it) that are crying out to God, and stumbling forward in His ways, honestly seeking His will for their lives that are crying out to Him to be saved. I feel like these people are the remnant of Israel that God is speaking to here. Just in case you were thinking that there's no way that God could ever accept you, look at two places, #1 the words in verse 3, and two the words in verse 8 that list out a few people who God is accepting:

...among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together; A GREAT COMPANY, they shall return here.-v.8

If we were to pick a list of people for God to come and carry away into His glorious presence, we would probably select people like Billy Graham, the Pope, Oprah (she gave people cars!), Michael W Smith, or the guy that bends his knee after every touchdown. Now I'm not saying those people won't go to be with God in all His glory, but these aren't the prototypical people that will make up heaven. Most of them will be the least likely for you and me to select. We would probably wonder (on this side of death, of course) "How did he/she get in here?

Both God the Father and Jesus spoke against this type of thinking at two different parts of the Bible. God when he was selecting David to be the next king of Israel (I Sam. 16:7), and Jesus when He is speaking of prayer (Luke 18:9-14). We have to get two things through our thick skulls: 1) there is nothing we can do to earn God's approval. We fail miserably every time we try; and 2) Jesus doesn't want those of us who have it all together, for an additional two reasons 1) those people are lying to themselves, and 2) He can't show His great strength in our puny strength!

The Scripture here clearly calls those of us that society would cast out and says, if you earnestly seek after me and give me your heart, You will find me and find that I am sufficient for all your needs.

v.9-With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back...

Kevin and I were talking about this in Sunday School this past week. The idea is that when God calls us back to Him, more often than not it's through some situation or circumstance that is painful for us to endure or it's something we don't want God involved in in our lives. That would be the weeping part.

Sometimes our natural response to difficult situations is to question why God is allowing something to happen to us, when He will end His period of judgement over us, or just a general crying out to Him to grant us mercy.

What we fail to realize during these times is that God is using it to shout His mercy over us by being a loving enough God to say to us that we've crossed over the line, or gone as far as He's willing for us to go away from Him, and will discipline us to call us back to Him. We shouldn't always look at the hardships in our lives as something to endure, but rather something that God grants us to show us His character and His love for us.