Every Alternative Savior Takes Early Retirement 1-5-26

Oh Lord, You are so good to us! You truly put eternity in our hearts! Thank You for being so insistent and patient and continuing to draw us to Yourself, with both blessings and holy discontent with the things we keep putting in front of You!! I woke up this morning in the middle of a conversation reminding me that the same things we get frustrated with others for doing, we do ourselves. I am grateful God doesn’t let us point fingers at others without interjecting His own convictions to get US back on the narrow path with Him!

I heard Beth Moore say that we are so prone to put everything else in front of God in a way that stuck with me: The anagram for the word Easter – that day of redemption, resurrection, the reason Jesus came to earth and the only reason we have any hope of eternal life – Every Alternative Savior Takes Early Retirement! I thought about it then and it’s the top thing in my thoughts this morning. All the ways we find to put other things in front of God in our hearts from social media scrolling and TV and video games sucking up precious time when we know He told us that the days are evil and we need to redeem the time, to distractions of go here, go there, compulsive shopping, excessive eating, obsessing over hobbies, sports, clothes, our bodies... and the list goes on because we are SO creative (as His children!) in finding new ways to prodigal our way into pig pens away from His presence!

The song “Abide” drifts through my mind, “For my waking breath, for my daily bread, I depend on You, I depend on You, for the sun to rise, for my sleep at night, I depend on You, yes I depend on You. You’re the Way the Truth and the Life, You’re the Well that never runs dry, I’m the branch and You are the Vine, draw me close and teach me to Abide!…” I heard this song for the first time last week and it has been drawing me back to the “One thing” that I’m supposed to be focused on, that I can’t do without, that makes everything else pale in comparison – but then I’m not, I can and I don’t.

The thing I LOVE – one of them! Because there’s a LOT – about our God, Our heavenly Father, our Redeemer, is He is so persistent and loving! He will let us “run off on horses” (Isaiah 30:15-18) of our own making, but He is also pursuing us, wooing us back to Himself, with gentle reminders of His glory and majesty in an amazingly GORGEOUS sunrise or sunset, the crashing of ocean waves against the shore, the glory of a mountain partially covered in mist in the morning, snow covered trees after a storm, the warm sun on warm sand near the dunes, a baby’s laughter, your own beating heart – and all the while waiting for us to recognize His fingerprints all around us so we will turn away from the pig pens - and from self-righteous “older brother” sulking (Luke 15:28-32)! - and turn back to Him! He’s RIGHT there hugging us, putting His robes and rings and sandals and glory on us, covering our shame and regrets in His love! How can we keep trying to put ANYTHING in front of Him, our time with Him, learning from Him, BEING with Him, breathing Him in like the air we breathe and the water we need to survive!

But we do. I do. The song goes on… “Where the Spirit leads, as I’m following, I depend on You, yes I depend on You. For the victories still in front of me, I depend on You….be my strength my song in the night, be my all, my treasure, my prize! I am yours, forever you’re mine, draw me close and teach me to abide!”

That line, “For the victories still ahead of me…I depend on You” that reverberates hope and purpose like nothing else in me! Do we get that? God help us! God keeps making promises to us – just like He did to the Israelites in Egypt – to bring us out of the wilderness “into a spacious land flowing with milk and honey”, but only 2 made it! Joshua and Caleb. Out of over 2 million. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2 shows us why – and we need to see this! It’s not that there was no power in the promise. God’s promises “are always yes and amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20)! It’s that they heard the word, they didn’t mix it with their faith! Caleb said “We are well able” to take the land (Numbers 13:30) and as the rest of the multitude succumbed to the fears of the other 10 spies, Joshua and Caleb pleaded with them to respond in faith: “If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey, only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them” (Numbers 14:7-9). Sounds like David telling Saul’s army not to be afraid of Goliath!

The basis of their certain victory was their faith in the One Who promised. But they made the fear they were facing bigger than the One Who brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground! God’s promises and good will for us have to be mixed with faith for us to see the fulfillment of those promises! How is it possible for God to promise us something and us not get what He promised – does He change His mind? – no! We miss out because we put fear (or something else) on the throne of our hearts. Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” and Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Faith. Mix God’s promises with your Faith. Displace fear with the intensity of Joshua and Caleb’s pleas. Understand that God and you are an unstoppable team – because He delights in our faith! Read Hebrews chapter 11 – it’s stunning! “By faith”… this happened. “By faith”… this person did this. “By faith”. Because nothing is impossible with God! We can’t do anything without Him! Jesus said so!

 We don’t need to wait till we die to be in His presence. We don’t need to white-knuckle our way through each day, trying somehow to muster up the energy to not screw things up so bad that we’re sitting in our own swill and regretting where we are and what we’ve done! We’re also not supposed to be putting on the masks and trappings of “I’ve got it all together” comparing ourselves with each other and thinking we’re better than that guy so we’re doing pretty good. We don’t realize we’re blindly racking up points on a non-existent scoreboard that means nothing when things start falling apart!

Not when we have so loving a Savior that left heaven to become Emmanuel God With Us, live on this dusty, beautiful, tumultuous rock hurling through space in His perfect precision and control – Jesus, with us for 33 years, and then willingly submitting to the Father, putting all on our sin on Him as our substitute, in one last gasp, forgiving us, releasing His hold on the torture-shredded flesh He dwelt in. The Father tore the veil separating us from the Holy of Holies from top to bottom so we could have continual access to Him that we lost connection with in the garden with Adam!

What else could possibly compare to that!? What else is worth our devotion, our love, our focus, our everything? God gave us our lives, our families, our blessings, our bodies, our abilities, relationships. They’re amazing and beautiful! But they’re supposed to point our hearts to Him, not replace Him.

Lord, as we begin this year, help us see - truly understand! - that every alternative savior, every substitute pursuit, MUST take early retirement, WILL disappoint us, HAS TO be second to You, because You’re the One and Only, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Everything else will eventually wear out, disappoint, fail, or leave! Only You are the Eternal One Who sacrificed Himself to save us. Lord, teach me to abide. Be my strength, my treasure, my prize. Help me give You my heart! Help me BE in You, with You, recreated as the person You made me to BE, first. And then do the “works you predestined for me to do” – in You, in Your timing, in Your Will, by Your Grace, through Faith. Nothing is impossible for You! Without You nothing else matters. Help us gather one another to You! You are truly loving, Sovereign Lord! And You gave up to much for me for me to ever believe otherwise! <3 Teach me to abide in You!