Give Credit where Credit is Due: Ezekiel 36

Today I was sitting in the Tent of Meeting (a week long event at NWC where there is a tent set up and people go in and read out loud through the Bible in order) and I was in there during Ezekiel chapter 36, and it was a great reminder of God's initiative regarding our sanctification and righteousness. There is no way I am going to be able to do this passage justice in a simple blog post, but it was good for me to hear today, and I want to share that with you all.

if you don't have a Bible handy, here is a link to the passage.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2036:22-38&version=ESV

This passage is filled with God saying "I will... I will... I will...", and that is what hit me today. It seems like we are always striving to do better. When we are not falling into sin, we are trying to be righteous and trying to love God, but often times I believe we overlook something that God is clearly presenting here. That would be that we are unable to make ourselves repentant, and righteous. Especially verses 26 and 27 God is stating that unless He enables and empowers us, our heart will remain hard and we will not be caused to walk in His statutes.

Often times we take responsibility for our own maturity and spiritual devotion, but this passage makes me ask if we have any right to claim such a task and minimize God's grace. Now, I am not saying that it doesn't take effort and we don't have to work for it*. I am saying though that we need to give credit where credit is due. We should be grateful to God for any growth we ever see in ourselves because it is only by His replacing "stone hearts" with ones of "flesh" that we can come to see truth and be obedient to Him which will bring blessing**.

This doesn't mean we don't work and strive to aim towards growth(1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Cor 3:7), but it does mean that we are not responsible for any growth that we are given. This is why the Ezekiel passage stuck out to me today. In my dealing with transition, future and growth it is easy for the perspective to come into my head that "I'm glad I have worked to become who I am, and I better keep working hard for my improvement." This is a horribly arrogant thing to do, and it robs God of great praise that is to Him alone due. It is a great pitfall for pride and sin and must cautiously be avoided. That is what Ezekiel reminded me of, that any good in me is due only to God's grace, and any future growth I will have has the same source. So I encourage you all whenever you see anything good or righteous in your live, that you do not fail to note that it has come only as a blessing from God, "for the sake of [His] holy name."

"Then they will know that I am the LORD." ~ Ezekiel 36:38

5/1/10

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

*Consider Joshua 1:3 in comparison with Joshua 1:6 and the seeming contrast of "I have given to you" and "you will cause this people to inherit." If I ever get around to writing about the name of the blog (Joshua's Promise) this will be one of the entries in that post series.

**Consider Joshua 1:8 and see previous comment about explaining the blog's name.