24 May 2005 Devotion for Today "Rebuilding Faith" Ezekiel 1:1-3

24 May 2005   Devotion for Today  “Rebuilding Faith”  Ezekiel 1:1-3

            Ravi Zacharias tells the story of a young Christian in Vietnam. He writes, “I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971 and one of my interpreters, a young Christian, translated for me to the American forces. We became very close as we traveled the countryside. Then I was to return home we never knew if our pass would ever cross again.” Seventeen years later Zacharias received a telephone call from his interpreter. He tells the story. “Shortly after Vietnam fail I was imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans. My jailer told me my Christianity was stupid and I was restricted to hearing communist propaganda in France and Vietnamese. After weeks of that, I began to have doubts about my faith. Maybe I had been lied to. Maybe God doesn’t exist. So I determined that when I awoke the next day, I would not pray anymore or think of my faith.”

            “The next morning I was assigned the chore of cleaning the prison bathroom. As I was doing so, my eye caught what seemed to be English print on a piece of paper. I picked it up, claimed it off and that night when all of the prisoners had gone to bed I begin to read it. It read, and we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God. For I am convinced that nothing shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. After reading that, I repented asked God to forgive me and this was the first night I had determined not pray.”

            Indeed here was a man who needed to have his faith rebuilt.

            Today I undertake to write a series of devotionals on Ezekiel.  I have put off Ezekiel for the same reason I have put off doing devotionals on Revelation and other apocalyptic themes.  There is such a tendency to get lost in the interpretation of the symbolism that I lose focus on the message.  Indeed there is a message in the symbolism. There is a message for the future.  But there is also a message for the present, because without understanding what God wants us to do in the present, the future is irrelevant.  We have no way to shape the future if we are not heeding to God in obedience now.

In Ezekiel 1:1-3 we read:  “Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile, the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the LORD came upon him.)” 

Ezekiel’s circumstances were beyond desperate.  He may have resigned himself to his fate in the hands of his Babylonian captors.  Nevertheless, Ezekiel’s heart is still inclined to the Lord God, and not only does Ezekiel determine to submit to the Babylonians, but he also submits himself first to God.  One of the first things that God does in Ezekiel’s life is to rebuild his faith.  Ezekiel never lost his faith or hope in God, but it needed to be renovated, restored, and rebuilt.  Sometimes God has to tear down our old visions- especially when they are visions of what we want God to do, or when those visions contain too much of ourselves and not enough of God.  Once God rebuilt Ezekiel’s faith, He was then to impart new and fresh visions to Ezekiel which in turn were to be shared with his fellow captors.

Has it been a long time since you sensed God’s work in your heart?  Perhaps your faith needs to be rebuilt also.  Submit your plans to God and allow Him to run them through the “shredder”.  Then you will receive the vision God wants you to have which will be so much better than the old ones.  Have a blessed day.

 

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@earthlink.net

 

website:   http://25621.lifewaylink.com
http://jeffrussellsblog.blogspot.com
http://devotionfortoday.blogspot.com/