Without God my life is empty
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.” Jeremiah 17:5-6
Because God’s love is steadfast and because He loves me as His child, He cannot remain silent while I set my heart on other things besides Him. Cut off from the Source of life that flows from Him, I would wither, starve and perish. God chooses to shake my life in many different ways in order to wake me up and give me the chance to turn back and change my heart. He wants me to choose the steep and narrow path – the only path that leads to life. He waits for me to search for the imperishable home that Jesus prepares for those who love Him. He waits for me to get on my way back to the Father’s house.
Everything in God’s creation revolves around this journey to the Father, this return to the Source of life. For this reason, Jesus, the Light of the world, came into the bleakness and darkness to reveal the God who waits for us. He opened for us the way to the Father, through great humility and degradation, by taking our place and dying on the cross. This is the path of conversion, forgiveness and redemption. “The world is passing away” (1 John 2:17), along with it all its glory and life. God’s Word warns us in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” He who trusts in this life will reap the ruin and decay that comes with it. Only he who trusts and leans on God’s salvation will reap true life.
This devotional is taken from the book To See God by Marcel Rebiai. If you would like to order your own copy, please email us here, [email protected].
Marcel Rebiai is a board member of Revive Israel, and is inspiration for our community. Marcel was born in Algiers in 1953. He came to Switzerland as a war orphan and received faith in Jesus in his youth, which changed his life and made him a messenger of God’s love in Jesus. Since then, he has been faithfully working for the building of the community of Messiah. Marcel is the founder of the “Community of Reconciliation”, an organization that works for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs based on God’s forgiveness and love in Christ. Marcel teaches in various settings around the world about the love that God revealed to us in Jesus, a love that enables reconciliation. Marcel has been living in Jerusalem for the last 30 years, is married to Regula, and has four children and eleven grandchildren.
