Sticking with God

“All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.” (Ps 44:17 AV)

David is speaking of all the chastisement or trials of faith that have come his way.  He has testified of Israel here as well.  In general, this is true.  Israel has not completely forgotten God.  They may have rejected Jesus the first time.  When He returns, however, they will not.  There will be a remnant from every tribe that will accept their Messiah and enters into the millennial reign with Christ.  This covenant, on both parts, will not fail.  God will honor His promise to the seed of Abraham.  He will not cancel His agreement with Israel.  No matter what they have done or failed to do, Israel will still be reckoned as God’s chosen people.  Conversely, there is hope for Israel.  They show maturity here in that even though God has dealt harshly with them, they have not lost their faith in Him.  They have not turned a corner of absolute rebellion.  There is still a glimmer of the faith Abraham exercised.  So much so that when the time comes, they will also honor the covenant God made with them.  What we want to consider this morning is the maturity it takes to remain faithful to God even though He must sometimes deal harshly with us.

Remember those days when you resented those authority figures who had to deal with your behavior?  A parent; a teacher; a pastor; even the law?  This immaturity does not end once we turn 18.  Depending on the infraction, we can resent authority if we are caught in our faults.  A child may turn the shoulder when punished by his parent.  The student might gossip or post a comment regarding how unfair a teacher or principal was.  Even adults, who should know better, will explode their social media account when they are cited for some infraction of the law which they deem to be unfair or unreasonable.  Before you ardently disagree, there are times to exercise civil disobedience.  We are not talking about reasoned or faith-motivated non-compliance.  There are times when we must do so because our conscience demands it.  To what we are referring is loyalty to an authority figure when they do not perform as we wish they would.  A great deal can be determined by someone’s reaction to the exercise of authority.  Maturity does not lie.  One can observe the lack of it when a regulation is passed down and we are unwilling to comply.  If they exercise judgment regardless of our motive for non-compliance, it shows a great deal of the depth of our maturity.

When it comes to God, I have seen many wilt away with the heavy hand of God actively on them.  They give up on God because they believe God to be too harsh on them.  They do not like being told no.  They do not like correction.  They do not like the depth of the trial of faith and seek a means out of this relationship that causes them so much trouble.  David, and the nation of Israel at the time, stuck with God.  They did not allow the circumstances of life to dissuade them from faithfully following God.  They did not wilt under the pressures of life and give up on the only One who could help them through it.  They stuck with God.  No matter what.  If they had to go through deep waters, so be it.  If they had to face Goliath, bring it on.  If they had to battle the Philistines for decades and often lose a bit of ground, it is what it is.  They did not quit on God.  This shows a great level of spiritual maturity.  Job comes to mind.  No matter how hard life got, he would not sin with his lips.  He stuck with God in good times and in bad.  He stuck with God even though it hurt to do so.  This is the mark of a grown-up saint!