Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Isaiah 55:8-9

I read this and thought it was a great commentary on Isaiah 55:8-9

We ask for grace, only to find forgiveness offered. (How did you know I would sin?)
We ask for food, only to find provision already made. (How did you know I would be hungry?)
We ask for guidance, only to find answers in God’s ancient story. (How did you know I would ask?)
God dwells in a different realm. “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). He occupies another dimension. “My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not like your ways. Just as the heaven is higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Make special note of the word “like.” God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are they even like ours. We aren’t even in the same neighborhood. We are thinking, Preserve the body; he’s thinking Save the soul. We dream of a pay raise. He dreams of raising the dead. We avoid pain and seek peace. God uses pain to bring peace. “I’m going to live before I die,” we resolve. “Die, so you can live,” he instructs. We love what rusts. He loves what endures. We rejoice at our successes. He rejoices at our confession. We show our children the Mike star with the million-dollar smile and say, “Be like Mike.” God points to the crucified carpenter with bloody lips and a torn side and says, “Be like Christ.”
Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. Our ways are not like his ways. He has a different agenda. He dwells in a different dimension. He lives on another plane. And that plane is named in the first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer. “Our Father in Heaven.”
(from The Great House of God by Max Lucado)

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