Diagnosis

For 50 years I cram my face full of red meat, bacon, potatoes, buttered bread; laced with salt and drowned in an endless cup of caffine.  I have a remote for everything so that once I sit down in my recliner for the evening of "no thought" (a (no) muse (think) ment), and I never walk when I can drive.  Then, with chest pains and a host of gastric issues I say to my physician, "Doc, can't you DO something?"  Of course, what I'm really asking is, "Can't you UNdo something?"  

For months I drive my automobile without checking the oil, or the pressure on the tires - I never check the fluid levels or the condition of all those belt "thingies" under the hood. I won't get a tune up until the car will barely start or clatter down the road. Then I show up at the garage and plead with the mechanic, "Can you DO something, without it costing me a lot?"  Again, what I am asking is, "Can't you undo the months of neglect and abuse I have subjected this automobile to and make it like new again?"

Now to my point.  We spend our spiritual lives essentially ignoring God's Word and thumbing our nose at His commandments.  "Why don't you know, I live under grace and not LAW!"  We look like the world, we talk like the world, we think like the world......we LIVE like the world. We turn to God only on Sunday mornings or in times of great stress - but otherwise can't be bothered with such things as 'holiness' or 'righteous living '.   We know what God's Word says, but...............ah yes, there is always a "but" involved.  Our households are a wreck, our marriages are coming apart at the seams, and our children are in rebellion and we come to God in a panic and say, "Father, don't you love me, DO something!"

"If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer." Exodus 15:26

"But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Deuteronomy 28:15

If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well.  I Samuel 12:14

My heart grieves for those I encounter every day who are desperate for God to DO something about their situation - not realizing that what they are really asking is for God to UNDO years of disobedience and careless spirituality.  We do not remember that sin has immutable consequences and in order to avoid the consequences we must shun the sin.   

God will forgive us of our sin, and we must carefully give Him praise for that wonderful fact - however the JOY He intends for our lives is often stolen by a thief who delights in stripping God's people of the joy and abundance of life that Jesus promised.   We must not only repent of our sins, but we must repent of the careless and insulting life style we have lived before the Lord and before the world.  When we do, we will discover that God has already DONE something, and we can walk with joy in the work that He has already accomplished.  You may not need for God to do anything at all, it may be that YOU need to DO something.  Its called repentance.