No More StumblingSpeaker: Dr. D.G.S. Dhinakaran Gist: When you go closer to Jesus, He will remove your old heart and will grant you a new heart. He will not allow you to stumble in any way. "These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding, and those who complained will learn doctrine." (Isaiah 29:24)
Israelites were under the iron hands of the Egyptians as slaves. God liberated the six lakhs Israelites and their families from their bondage under the leadership of Prophet Moses. Dividing the water of the Red Sea and guiding them towards promised land of Canaan, the 'land flowing with milk and honey' for forty years. He saw that they 'lacked nothing' (Deuteronomy 2:7). Frolicking with songs and dances, they passed through the Red Sea. But suddenly, they could not get water for three days, as they came to a place called 'Marah'.The water that they found in that place was bitter and impossible to drink. Forgetting all the miracles and the good things that they had received from God, they developed a stumbling heart and murmured against Moses, "What shall we drink now?" God had to comment bitterly with pain, "For forty years I was grieved with that generation, it is a people who go astray in their hearts" (Psalm 95:10; Hebrews 3:15). The Bible says, in Acts 7:39, "Our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt."
Friend, exactly like the people of Israel, we are also trapped into circumstances when we stray away from the faith (1 Timothy 6:10,21). In the concourse of these baffling situations, our gracious Lord Jesus is always there to save us.
"It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). In complete accordance with what St. Paul has stated, the day we acknowledge Jesus in our heart, He lives in us. He gives 'a new heart' and puts 'a new spirit' within us (Ezekiel 36:26). The new Spirit induces us to focus our eyes only on God and not on the world.
"O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water." (Psalm 63:1)
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalm 42:1,2)
Friend, just like the Psalmist sought God's presence, we should also learn to seek Him early in the morning yearning, 'When will I see Him?'
I have known a man of God for the past 38 years. Once he shared his amazing experience with me as follows: After accepting Lord Jesus in his heart, he spent all his days in prayer. One day, he had a vision in which he found himself standing on the peak of a mountain. Jesus was standing beside him. His presence enveloped him. At that time, he felt a sensation as if he was rolling down the hill. Immediately looking upto Jesus, he cried out, "Lord, I am hurtling down the mountain. Please save me." Jesus replied, "Son, the one who is falling down is not you, but your old self with a stumbling heart. Now, I have given you a new heart yearning to seek Me."
Dear friend, when you go closer to Jesus, He puts away our old heart and grants us a new heart. This new heart of ours pants and thirsts for constant relationship with God and declares, "It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me." Giving such a new heart, He saves us until the end and will not allow us to stumble.
Prayer:
Loving Heavenly Father,
When various trials and tribulations arise in my life, I easily stumble and fall. Remove the stumbling heart and graciously grant me a new heart. Help me to seek You early in the morning without fail. Fill me with your Spirit. Grant me Your grace that I will not turn my heart to my old ways again. In Jesus' matchless name, I pray.
Amen. |