September 8 - An Intolerant God
God is the King, He is sitting on the throne. All the nations must fear His name and revere His glory. He builds up Zion for His rule and for His glory to be revealed to the world. God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to Judah and Jerusalem, challenging their rebellion and sinfulness. Despising the Holy One of Israel was totally unacceptable. Even as His people offered prayers and sacrifices to Him, God would not listen to them because of their sins. Those religious acts became abomination to Him. He could not endure them and hated what they did. Sin is totally unacceptable and intolerable in the sight of God.
The only advice from the Lord was for them to wash themselves, to make themselves clean, to remove their evil deeds from His presence and cease to do evil. Then they needed to do the opposite: to learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless and plead the cause of the widows. God is not only an intolerant God, He is also a reasonable God. He called His people together and reason: though their sins were like scarlet, they should be as white as snow; though they were red like crimson, they should become like wool.
Eliminating sin from our lives and living a life of complete obedience to God is the key to God’s acceptance. This is what spiritual warfare is all about, defeating the tempter through obedience to God. When Paul is talking about strongholds in our lives, he points to the areas of disobedience in the lives of believers. Many of us know what is right and wrong but sometimes we harbor sins in our lives out of disobedience. Willful sins become strongholds because we allow them. The goal of Christian life is to become sinless by removing everything that is intolerant to God. In so doing, we defeat the devil and gain a spiritual victory.
When you read the prophesies of Isaiah, how did you respond to the challenges of God? Are you rebelling against Him, do you know His heart? Search your heart now and see if there is anything that God is not pleased with. Cleanse yourself by going before the Lord and confess all your willful sins. After your confession, command those strongholds to be broken. If you are unacceptable to God, all the religious activities may become an abomination to Him for He is an intolerant God.
Are you as intolerant as God towards sin and unrighteousness? Today, the world is requiring tolerance towards other cultures, nations, practices, lifestyles, ethnicity and beliefs. Because of the general sentiment about tolerance, many ungodly philosophies, practices and beliefs have become acceptable to Christians. Civil right has expanded into the arena of gay rights and many Christians are “tolerant” of what others believe. Have you taken on some of the values of the world?
Ps 102:12-17 Isa 1:1-2:22 2 Cor 10:1-18 Prov 22:26-27