"For a majority of the people...had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed.
For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, "May the good LORD pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness."
And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people." (2 Chronicles 30:18-20 ESV)
How can this be? A nation comes before God and violates his holy directions and God rewards this with a healing?
We see some beautiful dynamics here; Hezekiah in a sense is
We see some beautiful dynamics here; Hezekiah in a sense is
praying for God to overlook sin. But what ministered to me was that Hezekiah interceded out of love for the people of God who were coming back to right relationship with their spiritual Father. Hezekiah was praying the heart of God because the people had turned their hearts toward the direction of the heart of God.
That's all any of us can do. We can only turn the best we can in His direction - then the God of grace and mercy heals us and bring us closer and closer.
Even in the old testament, we see such love, grace and forgiveness to any who would turn their heart to Him. That's the true requirement. The rules were a measurement to show us that we need to turn to Him. It was only a tool.
May we never rely on how spiritually mature we have become but on how surrendered and dependent on Him we have learned to embrace.
Any other attitude only proves that we aren't so spiritually mature. Spiritual maturity is those who know and rely on this truth:
That's all any of us can do. We can only turn the best we can in His direction - then the God of grace and mercy heals us and bring us closer and closer.
Even in the old testament, we see such love, grace and forgiveness to any who would turn their heart to Him. That's the true requirement. The rules were a measurement to show us that we need to turn to Him. It was only a tool.
May we never rely on how spiritually mature we have become but on how surrendered and dependent on Him we have learned to embrace.
Any other attitude only proves that we aren't so spiritually mature. Spiritual maturity is those who know and rely on this truth:
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 ESV)