AMOS 4:6-12 – “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
THEME OF THE DAY: PREPARE TO MEET GOD. Today’s scripture is hard-hitting reading. Just like all the prophetic books of the Old Testament. They reveal God judging a wayward people, and in many cases bringing severe judgement upon them. The prophet Amos tells us how patient and good God was. He blessed them and they ignored Him. So, He brought the rod of correction upon them that was not a light touch but a heavy hand of pain. Now don’t think God wasn’t loving them. He was. Correction, albeit painful, is always out of love. But in every incident, the repeated words “yet you did not return to me declares the Lord” appears. God displays tremendous patience toward them, but it ran out. He basically says, “Okay. You don’t want what is best for you. You don’t want to follow under my authority so I am going to call you to account for refusing my grace.” In the last words of today’s scripture, the Lord says, “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”
Though Amos isn’t writing to us directly and from history, nor is the situation the same, but the principle applies for everyday Christian living – Prepare to meet Your God. It is the wise Christian who orients his or her life around the fast-approaching eternity and individually having to give a detailed account before the Lord. And how do we do that? Two ways.
First, seek the Lord to help us use our time wisely – Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil (Ephesian 5:15-16). Make it a daily prayer, “Lord, help me use my time today for things that matter most.” Apart from salvation, the most precious gift God gives us is time. Oh, how foolish to waste it on this fleeting world and not toward preparing to meet God.
Another way we may prepare to meet God is live each day as if we would meet Jesus during that day and do so in order to hear from Him, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). That will only happen if our lives are rooted in heaven not the earth (Colossians 3:1-3).
So, the words of the prophet Amos are hard-hitting, but they are also a good reminder of what life is all about – preparing to meet God. May we believe AND live that truth.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to live each day preparing for that inevitable day I come face to face with Your Son.”
QUOTE: “Prepare to meet your God is a wise way to live each day.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim