I started reading Ezekiel 7 today, but have not finished. However, I did find something interesting. The calling is a two part process – God calling and His people (you and me answering). Ezekiel answered his call. The children of Israel through they heard Ezekiel tell of the destruction of the nation, they chose not to listen and repent from their heart deep sins – chasing after and worshiping idols before God.
I started thinking, why are they not listening? Their sin is driving them to destruction, but they simply did not want to repent and answer God’s call for their lives.
But, we do the same thing. We are stubborn and rebellious and accept what strangers have to offer (idols) rather than turn our rebellious natures and broken hearts to God.
Below is a post from a series I wrote a couple of years ago titled, “You Gotta Do The Work”. In summary, you need to start to discover, acknowledge your past hurts and ask God to heal you. For me, once I opened my mind to the idea that I was mourning my past, God healed me, the Holy Spirit gave me revelation and direction and Jesus as the model of love taught me.
Day 1: Love.
I believe that all roads lead to love. We all want it, crave it and obsess over it. When we don’t get the measure of love we believe we should have gotten – that’s when trouble begins. For the majority of us, that expectation of love started when we were children. If you feel you were not loved, those emotions don’t go away, they linger in your childhood and manifest in your adult life. Doesn’t matter is you are 21, 54 or 106, your feelings, those expectations never leave until they are fully addressed.
Those unaddressed expectations of love soon manifest into new emotions you never considered – Anger, Insecurity, Bitterness, Jealousy , Envy, and even Fear. Those emotions linger and manifest in how you feel about yourself, how you speak and how you treat others and how you allow others to treat you. It doesn’t matter if you read every self-help book there is, go to every empowerment and prosperity conference, run to any and everybody for advice, earn the highest educational degree, be at the top of your career, get married, have kids, get divorced, or jump and shout at church.
You will never be at peace until you confront yourself and ask yourself some questions like – Why do I act like I do? What do I feel like I am missing? What happened to me as a child that has made me like this? What do I feel was taken from me? Then think backwards. Your now may have been manifested out of something your parents, relative, teacher or stranger said, didn’t say, did or didn’t do. Those moments in time hurt us and bind us. For some of us, those moments are still fresh and constantly on our minds. But God. God can heal and unbind you from your past. And, He does it with Love. But here is the hard part – you have to believe and accept the love given. Then you must apply God’s love to your life and then give love to others.
Have a great day! Changing your perception can change your life.