Return to the Lord
Ezra 1:5 Just as God brought the people of Judah back to Him, He is waiting and brings us back into His fold.
6/30/20261 min read
Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:5 (NKJV)
Through the proclamation made by Cyrus, king of Persia, foretold by Isaiah the prophet one hundred and forty years earlier, the exiled people of Judah were returned to Jerusalem. God also put it in the hearts of the people of Judah, by His Spirit the willingness to make the move to their former country. The assembly of over forty-two thousand people led by Ezra, consisted of priests and Levites, lay people, and temple servants that made the decision to journey over nine hundred miles to a land in ruin and rebuild the temple, renewing the covenant with God.
Like the Jewish people, we can get separated from God, exiling ourselves from His good promises, resulting in spiritual disconnection and causing our hearts, minds, and lives drift away from God’s truth and authority. Unlike the Jewish people, we do it to ourselves by separating God from the 'things' in our lives. We get busy with work, vacation, finances, family, school, and so on, keeping them separate from Him and in their own box. These things start to take more importance than Him, allowing culture, compromise, or personal drift to replace His truth and presence. To keep us from the spiritual exile, we need to remember that God made all and include Him in every aspect of our lives. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through Him and for Him.”
Choose to protect yourself from spiritual exile and include God in every aspect of your life. Do a daily inventory as see what you are putting before the Lord and make the conscious decision to give it to Him. Choose a life of prayer and scripture reading, focusing on daily loyalty, obedience, repentance, and fellowship, keeping our hearts tuned to Him even when the world tells us differently. Remember that even if we find ourselves in spiritual exile, it's not too late, and we can return to the Lord.