Got Hosea?

Hosea 11:7
My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Me.

Rod Hembree makes the statement in today's Bible study that it is a dangerous delusion to believe that we are our own "gods". Or, we are the masters of our own soul. Evil will seize on this weak-mindedness.

This is the very heart of the trouble we experience in this life. Trouble that is brought on by our own selfish choices. All part of the sin nature we were born with. This incredible dumb idea that we can live independent from God. Outside His will, His influence, His protection, His purpose and on and on and on. A life totally driven and influenced by the devil. To put it bluntly...we become nothing more than a one-string banjo that he plays. How hard is it to play a one string banjo? Not hard at all. You just keep plinking that one string. He just keeps plinking our live over and over and over. Nothing changes, as we struggle to make sense of it all. We keep moving from one bad choice to another, all the while making excuses as to the reason our life has turned out like it has.

I talked with a young man recently and he shared the story of his life.
25 years old....
Living out of his car....
Family wants nothing to do with him because he has bled them dry of money and life because of his using.
Girlfriend has abandoned him because he got her hooked on drugs and now he can't provide the drugs she needs. She has taken up with another man who can.
Legal troubles times 10.....
As I talked with this young man, his whole take on life is that he is a victim.
It's everyone's fault but his. If he could just get a break, he knows he could make it.
I told him that if somehow he did get a break.........he would break it.
Why?
Because he is looking at his circumstances and situations as the reason for his using.
When, in fact, his using is the reason for his situations and circumstances.
Crazy isn't it.

I love the last part of the verse from Hosea.
Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him.
People in addiction are a praying people.
They pray when they get locked up.
They pray when no one will help them.
They pray....
But most never put God in the proper place or acknowledge Him as the true source of life and the power to escape this miserable existence they have created for themselves.
God has been reduced to a vending machine that will dispense the needed solution to whatever problem they have created.

Now, let's be real about this.
I have seen some who have gotten themselves into a jam and have turned to God in prayer for help. I have seen their prayers answered by God and be delivered from whatever situation they have gotten into. But this deliverance was the first step toward total healing through salvation. It did not become a means to escape so they could go right back into their old lifestyle of using.

It is a dangerous delusion to believe that the human heart can extinguish its own criminal activity and conspiracy.
Step # 2 says it the best. We come to believe in a POWER greater than ourselves who can restore us to sanity.
That POWER would be Jesus.
Are you plugged in today?

God on you...
mb