Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The Lord is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, November 29, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
God doesn’t punish us when we mess up. God doesn’t need to. There are plenty of natural consequences to rebelling against God. For me it was a slow descent into spiritual estrangement as I tried to run the universe on my own and wound up causing myself so much pain I started self-medicating with compulsive eating. I couldn’t see how my total lack of trust that God could and would take care of my and the people in my life had led me to live as if there was no God whatsoever, even as my lips professed what my childhood faith and intellect had told me—that God loved me and desired my good.
I lamented my “fallen city”, my completely unmanageable life, deep unhappiness, and misery with my body, without realizing I was in a state of rebellion. It was only when I found recovery for my food addiction that I discovered how I was the cause of my own misery. Not that the challenges I was facing weren’t real and truly difficult, but the way I was reacting to them wasn’t productive in the least, and actually made things quite a bit worse, at least for myself.
In the end, I found healing and wholeness, and while I can still be a rebel, the daily disciplines of recovery help keep front and center the truth that I’m not the one calling the shots. I’m woefully underqualified to run the universe, and when I let God be God, I no longer need to lament.
When have I made my own misery worse by rebelling against God?
![1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24], God’s Care for the Widow](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/bf37035e-33d5-439f-a0d6-a68b02d0f1bc/24-11-03.jpg)
