Bear it all...
Ezekiel is told to take some extreme actions to reveal to Jerusalem the consequences of their sin. Prophet after prophet, sign after sign, had been given, yet the majority continued in their own ways instead of returning to the Lord. One of the most graphic signs was this:
"And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight."... Then He said to me, "See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it."" Ezekiel 4:12, 15
After a back-and-forth, the Lord allows Ezekiel to use cow dung instead of human waste to cook his food. Pretty extreme, right? Lying on his sides for hundreds of days, cooking over dung, and soon shaving his head and beard. Ezekiel was called not only to proclaim Jerusalem's judgment but to symbolically bear the weight of its consequences.
Isn't that true of many of the Lord's messengers? We see it throughout the prophets. There's a message to share, but there's also a burden to bear. Jerusalem continued rejecting the warnings, but it wasn't for lack of faithfulness from the Lord or Ezekiel.
There's a truth we can forget: People often won't hear what we have to say if they don't know that we care. Sometimes there's a burden to bear alongside the message we share.
That doesn't mean living in doom and gloom. It means we genuinely care about the message we carry AND the people we're called to reach. Truth and love were never meant to be separated.
Do people see your heart toward them? Are you loving others or simply trying to speak truth? Are you willing to bear with people even when they won't listen?
Jesus ultimately demonstrated this. He didn't merely proclaim truth; He bore our sins on the cross. His love was demonstrated, not merely declared.
Let's faithfully carry the message, but let's also lovingly bear with one another as we do!
-To Know Jesus. To Live on Mission.