TWO ESSENTIALS IN STAYING FAITHFUL TO GOD
Are you compromising? Are you discarding God's way to follow the way the culture around you lives life?In Psalm 106, God's people find themselves again in a situation like I mentioned above. While they had once follow God, obey him, and experience the blessing and favor of God; they now are in extreme disobedience to Him and are follow, serving and embracing other false gods around them.Now before we all go judging the Israelites for turning their backs on God and acting like we would never do that, let's look at some of the things that caused them to get off track. Let's use them as an example to help us avoid the same mistakes. We'll draw a few thoughts from a couple of verses:
When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea. (Psalm 106:7 NIV)They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. (Psalm 106:34-36, NIV)
How to stay faithful to God and Avoid Compromise:
1. Remember the Kindness of God
You see in verse 7 that they "Gave NO thought" to God, they "didn't remember his kindness", which ultimately led to rebellion against God. One of the main things that the devil will attempt to get us to do is to forget the goodness and kindness of God. To get us to second guess his character and his goodness towards us. If he get's us to question the heart of God towards us then our hearts begin to drift from him. That's why we must be intentional to REMEMBER THE GOODNESS of God. To not get too far from remembering the kindness and mercy of God.This is one of the primary reasons why Jesus set in motion that we should regularly take Communion. Eating the bread and drinking the wine/juice, cause us to reflect and remember the great love and sacrifice of our God for us. Jesus instructs us to "Do this in remembrance of Me."
When's the last time you spent time thanking God for his goodness and remembering his kindness towards you?
2. Don't Adapt Cultural Norms
The second thing we notice that always tripped up God's people and still trips us up to this day is this, "Mingling with Nations" issue. God blesses his people, gives them new land and expands the influence and favor of his people. But instead of fully getting rid of the traditions and beliefs of the culture he sends them into, they allow some of it to survive. They allow the local world view to stay around, and before you know it, they've adapted some of those local beliefs to their own and are far away from God and his favor. It seems like this would be easy to avoid, but consider your own friends and people in your world? Are you allowing their influence to override what God says you should do? Are you following God's word and His ways or are you allowing what our current culture says to dictate the way you live.
If you have questioned the truth of God's word because it contradicts the current view of culture than you are already on that edge of compromise.
We don't adjust God's word based on how we feel from generation to generation. We must faithfully serve and follow Jesus and His word in every generation regardless if our culture disagrees or not. But even being willing to disobey God usually begins by forgetting the goodness of God.Today, no matter where you find yourself on this scale of faithful or unfaithful to God, you can begin to renew your love and commitment to God by taking the time to remember the goodness of our great and loving father who created us and gave everything to save and redeem us through the cross — Jesus loves you.
Remember, even if you're attention has been distracted away from Him — God's love and attention has never once left you.
