“They
will dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls. They will
not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God’s
coming to you.” Luke 19.44
These harsh
words were spoken by Jesus over Jerusalem as He came within sight of it on
those fateful days leading to His death.
I see great
sadness attach to His talk here. I believe I have experienced evidence of this
sadness for, on a visit to Jerusalem some years ago, I had a distinct, and
deep, sense that God’s presence was not in His holy city. The feeling that I
got was that God had departed. What had His people done? They had failed to recognise Him when He
visited them in person.
Jerusalem has
suffered much through the ages and, I fear, there could be more to come. May
this result in not one stone being left upon another? I pray not.
The words
Jesus spoke over Jerusalem might well be applied to individuals. People receive
personal visitation from God. Indeed, I believe I have received several such
visits. Have I recognised these times? I hope so. And I need to keep myself
open and alert to further visitations. My God is a living God. I expect Him to
visit me. Indeed, my desire is to live the whole of my life in habitation with
Him. Let me be ever ready to receive Him, to hear His words to me and to heed
them, to commune with Him and allow Him to take me to ever increasing depths in
Him. O, dear God, may I never not recognise Your visitation to me!
Lord God, Holy Father,
I thank You for the reality of you in my life. Hear my
prayer of my desire to live in constant habitation with You. Draw me closer to
You, please. I love You. Amen.
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