Leave by a Different Gate

Ezekiel 46:9b No one is to return through the gate by which they entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate.

This was my last morning of reading the book of Ezekiel, and it has ended with a powerful lesson for me.

This verse is talking about the people who come to the temple in Jerusalem to participate in worship. They were not to leave the temple the same way they came in.

Although here Ezekiel was talking about the Jews coming for their regular worship and doing so in an orderly manner, I see something there for myself as well.

My encounters with God in worship should have me leaving by a different “gate.”   

I need to be different in some way whenever I leave God’s presence.  

If I am always coming and going the same way, if I am no different from my encounter with God in worship, that means I am stale.

If my life does not change after being in God's presence, I have missed the point of worship.

If my view of God, myself and/or the world around me does not change after worship, I have not listened carefully to God's voice.

If I am not more conscious than ever of God's power and authority over my life, I have not heard His message to me.

All through the book of Ezekiel, he, as God's prophet, was reminded that all God does has God's one goal in mind: "That they may know that I am the Lord."

If I do not go away from every encounter with God in worship knowing that He is the Lord of the universe, I will be leaving by the same gate I entered.

If I am leaving out from the “opposite gate,” the implication is “change.”  That is what God wants for me.