Sunday, July 24, 2022

today's meditation (Is.55) Seeking What We Need

(Dear Lord Jesus, guide me and give me insight as I read and study Your word, and let it be the meditation of my heart...)

(Isaiah 55:1-13) 
1   “You there! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
     And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
     Come, buy wine and milk 
     Without money and without cost.
2   Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
     And your wages for what does not satisfy?
     Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
     And delight yourself in abundance.
3   Incline your ear and come to Me.
     Listen, that you may live;
     And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
     According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
4   Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
     A leader and commander for the peoples.
5   Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
     And a nation which does not know you will run to you,
     Because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel;
     For He has glorified you.”

6   Seek the Lord while He may be found;
     Call upon Him while He is near.
7   Let the wicked abandon his way,
     And the unrighteous person his thoughts;
     And let him return to the Lord,
     And He will have compassion on him,
     And to our God,
     For He will abundantly pardon.
8   “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
     Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9   “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
     So are My ways higher than your ways 
     And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
     And do not return there without watering the earth 
     And making it produce and sprout,
     And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 So will My word be which goes out of My mouth;
     It will not return to Me empty,
     Without accomplishing what I desire,
     And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it.
12 For you will go out with joy 
     And be led in peace;
     The mountains and the hills will break into shouts of joy before you,
     And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn bush, the juniper will come up,
     And instead of the stinging nettle, the myrtle will come up;
     And it will be a memorial to the Lord,
     An everlasting sign which will not be eliminated.”

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:
How do we think ourselves so clever?  Why would we ever think we know better than the Lord?  It would be because we usually love ourselves more than anything, and we are only thinking of ourselves.  Yet the Lord created us with a purpose to have a personal relationship with Him, because He loves us... MORE than we could ever love ourselves!  And He knows us better than we know ourselves.
It really comes down to seeking out what we NEED and not what we WANT or THINK we need.  And what we need is way beyond anything we could ever do for ourselves.  It is something only God can do and provide for us.  It is when we see that our way is nothing compared to God's way, and we choose to do things His way, that we will be fulfilled and flourish in His strength and guidance!

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