It takes time

Amos 9:14 …I will bring my people Israel back from exile.  They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.  They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit…

This verse is my reminder that God carries no grudges!  When we are spiritually restored, whether initially in our salvation or in those times when we must be restored following our wandering or backsliding, our restoration can be “complete.”  It may take some time and effort to be fully restored but it can and will happen.  When God brought Israel back from exile, He did not perform a miracle to get the cities, houses, vineyards, or gardens back to their full potential.  The Israelites had to work hard to make that happen.  And it did not happen quickly.  All the restoration took time.  It will be that way in our lives as well.  There will be things that take time for full restoration even though the spiritual exile is over in an instant.

Just a routine?

Amos 4:4-6 Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years.  Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings – boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do.

Sarcastic would be the word I would use to describe what God is saying here through the prophet Amos!  The Israelites were following all the law as it had been ordained through Moses, yet the rest of their lives showed that it was just surface worship, just following a routine, not worship and obedience from the heart.  God knew their hearts, and He could see their insincerity.  In the rest of this chapter it is evident that they did not turn to, or return to, true faith no matter what God sent their way to try to get them to turn back to Him.  It is so easy to fall into that pattern of useless and unfocused religious activity.  May God be pleased to keep me from that.  I want to have a vibrant, living worship that makes a difference to me and a sincerely faith that affects those around me.