Luke 4:16
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
Custom is an interesting word. "as His custom was" We like things we are accustomed to. We generally don't like change even within our hearts. When we grow familiar with things being one way or the other, we are comfortable. Even a wife of an alcoholic grows accustomed to her husbands behavior, to the strange extreme as enabling his sickness. If he changes she is thrown off balance and has a hard time relating, even though she hated the alcoholic behavior. R.A.Torrey in his book How to Pray, states that a woman may pray for her husband to be saved but in reality she does not want him saved because she is not prepared for the changes in him which will be totally foreign to what she has known as his custom.
Moving about this morning I thought about my customs. Get up, turn coffee pot on, find my books, find a spot to be alone, and for me it's to walk out on the porch and look at the black sky with it's multitude of stars, think about Jesus, talk to Him, get destracted, jerk my thoughts back to Him,....It's not like that every single day, there are times when I over sleep,or have something else to do that is pressing for this customary time with the Lord....what would my husband say was my custom? What are my customs? What do I want them to be for this new year? Jesus custom was to go to the Temple.
The other thought becomes; Do people know my customs? Do people look at me and say: She has the custom of: praying about everything, going to church on a regular basis, welcoming guests, never saying anything negative about others, chores, her children, grandchildren; or life in general. Will others say about us when we are no longer here: I remember her/him and it was always their custom to worship God, or shout Halleluia, or give to the poor, or (you can fill in the blank====what would you like people to remember about you and your customs)?
A dear friend of mine, who has gone on to be with the Lord, had customs that I admired. He had a smile on his face all the time, laughed easily. I remember one time in particular and have thought about it over the years since the experience. We were together in the car, his wife, daughter and I, on our way to the airport. He was going on a missions trip to Africa, I was invited to be a travel companion for his wife after we dropped him off. His daughter, about 12 or 13 said she was hungry. Time did not permit stopping so he said with a chuckle, "You can fast Becka....did you ever hear of fasting?" I thought that was an interesting answer to a child's request. He always brought everyone back to thinking about the Lord, it was his custom. He also had the custom of dancing before the Lord. If someone looked from a flesh point of view, it was a funny dance, usually out of rhythm, but it was a heart filled dance and he didn't care who was watching, he only cared that the Lord saw his dance. It was his custom.
So, here we are in a new year and I'm wondering what are my customs that will make a differences in others liives? How am I positioned to develop spiritually, physically, mentally, ministerially this year. so that relationship with the Lord will be seen in all I do. Jesus was known to go to the Temple. What am I known for based on what people see me do daily and what do I want to be known for after I leave the earth? The beginning of a new year is prime time to decide. What is our custom?
Carolyn
