The Hurt in His Eyes

November 2, 2012  **Friday. Starbucks. 9:06am**

Ezekiel 5:8-9

But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world.  Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me.  They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols.  Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins.

Ezekiel was a Hebrew prophet of God during the times of exile.  During the days of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian empire had exiled the people of Israel.  God had a message for the people who turned away from him and Ezekiel was the guy for the job.  In this passage God gives the reason for their destruction, the very reason for his wrath.  "[H]ow hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols."  At the core, God created people for relationships and from the beginning they have and continue to hurt God by their sins.

It's been a while since I've done my devotions in the morning because I've been going through a rough patch of time.  I stopped doing them daily because I had started to think and doubt that the reading of the bible daily, had become somewhat of a ritual and just something I did just because it's the "Christian thing to do".  In this time, I've gone back to certain bad habits and was in a "funk" and I know now it was because I started starving myself spiritually.  Neglecting the intimacy of any relationship creates a wedge and does damage to it.  Daily devotions are the intimacy in this bond between a person and God.  It's the daily hug or touch that slowly disappears and causes one another to feel like strangers. Danny, a friend of mine said this about daily devotions, "sometimes there are days when I feel good and don't feel the need to do my devotion that day; but I realized that although I feel full, I do them to feed someone else.  You never know when someone needs to hear what God said that day."  He went on to tell me a story about the devotion he did that day when he thought this and the next moment after he was done, a friend had called him and that devotion had been for her.  In application to this verse is very significant for me.  I've been seeking God in purity for myself, and as I failed this past few months, this verse shows me the hurt I've caused God.  Like a husband jealous for his wife, God has that same passion for us.  I am his, and when I stray and fall again and again, his wrath for me is great because of the hurt he has in his eyes.

Lord, I'm sorry I fail.  This is something that I continue to do, like the season of falling leaves; I fall when I walk away from you.  Help me though this and give me the strength to persevere. You are the reason I am here.

The hurt in your eyes are to great for me to bear, forgive me so eventually that hurt will evolve into love in your eyes again.

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