Thursday: Substitutes
As we saw yesterday, submission to God’s will can be undermined as we rely on our own strength. It also is possible to rely on other substitutes for God. When some people feel depressed, they go shopping for something to make them happy. When some feel inadequate, they pursue fame. When others have difficulties with their spouse, they look for someone else to give them intimacy and excitement.
Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com
Many of the things we use can relieve the pressure, but they do not necessarily solve the problem nor teach us how to handle the situation better the next time. Only supernatural help from God can do that. The problem is that many times we depend on substitutes for God rather than on God Himself.
Here are three substitutes that we may use instead of God:
- Using human logic or past experience when we need fresh divine revelation.
- Blocking problems from our minds when we need divine solutions.
- Escaping reality and avoiding God when we need communion with God for divine power.
Zechariah helps us to focus on what really matters when we are tempted to use substitutes. After many years away, the exiles had finally returned from Babylon and immediately began to rebuild the temple. But there is an incredible amount of opposition to this (some background can be found in Ezra 4:1-6.22). So Zechariah came with this message of encouragement to Zerubbabel, who was leading the work.
Read this message in Zechariah chapter 4. What does God mean in Zechariah 4:6? How could the completion of a building project be affected by the Holy Spirit? What does this teach us about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the practical things that we do?
God did not prevent the opposition to the temple nor spare Zerubbabel from the stress of dealing with it. And God will not always protect us from opposition. But when opposition comes, God may use it as a crucible to teach us to depend on Him.
| When stress comes, what’s your first reaction? Food? Television? Prayer? Submission to God? What does your answer tell you about yourself and the things you need to learn or to change? |
This week the lessons seem like a personal letter to me – “pay attention”
Lord help us to understand and remember
I have found that substitutes don’t bring peace and confidence in Christ. As the word in Zechariah says, by the Holy Spirit. To me that is saying, the subsitutes don’t have the power to give us peace that comes by keeping our mind on God. Isaiah 26:3.
May God continue to make use your knowledge as you are impacting a lot of us in His Word.
I’m blessed following up with you.