Tonight is Rosh HaShanah and this period is usually referred to as the "Days of Awe", during which a person looks at his life and inspects it. Which got me to thinking about a question....Are you still being a testimony in your life or are you being a byword in your life?
When the Lord was instructing the people just before they went into the land to possess it, He gave them a strong warning that they were to be a different type of people to be a testimony of who God was and how He wanted them to live. He also warned them about what would happen if they didn't and in Deuteronomy 28:27, He told them the following: "And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you."
I had wondered why "byword" meant, so I looked it up in the Strong's concordance and it mentioned "'something sharp' like a jibe, taunt". Then I looked up "taunt" and it came up with: a sarcastic challenge or insult....in other words, the Lord was saying that if the people didn't follow His laws, they would end up being to other people an insult of God, which they could be sarcastic toward.
Now I think about it in my own life, I know that in 2008, I was a testimony of God's power and His saving grace, but after I left the hospital, I started slipping a bit (see the "Fat Man" blog posts) and started going down the path of living a life that was an insult to God rather than a cause for praise. And that is something that scares me...Now think about your life, are you being a praise to God by following His commands in your life or are you being an insult to Him by living your own life? What do others say when they see you, by the way that you live...does it attract them to God or does it make them be sarcastic toward God?
Look at your life now and see where you stand...it doesn't have to take a "high holy day" to do so, but look at yourself to make sure where you stand...are you on firm ground being a testimony or on shaky ground by being a byword?
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