Going our Own Way

"This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says:
In repentance and rest is your salvation,
          in quietness and trust is your strength,
          but you would have none of it.
You said: No, we will flee on horses.
          Therefore, you will flee!
You said: We will ride off on swift horses.
          Therefore, your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee
          at the threat of one;
at the threat of five,
          you will all flee away,
till you are left
          like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
          like a banner on a hill.
Yet, the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
          therefore, He will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
          Blessed are all who wait for Him!"
                                                   -Isaiah 30:15-18

God told Israel what to do - how to live their lives under His blessing. They chose to do something else. God was laying out for them the consequences of their behaviour. But, even then, God hasn't given up on them.

As I read these verses, I'm struck by how much this same scenario can play out in my own life. I think it's common in the lives of many - sometimes in big ways, but more often in little ways.

God tells us what He has for us to do in this time. He gives us the way to find the salvation and strength for everyday life that we are looking for. We might have even asked Him for it. But, we don't want it that way, so we refuse. We rebel and choose disobedience to God.

Our rebellion and disobedience has consequences in our lives. God doesn't just let it slide. He will let us live with the consequences of our choices.

But, there is still good news for us. Even when we refuse to obey and our dealing with the consequences of our sine, God still longs to show us compassion. If we turn back to Him and His ways, He will be gracious and we will experience His compassion.

Is there an area in your life where God has shown you what to do and you've decided to go you own way instead?

Are you living in the consequences of your disobedience?

Will you confess it to God and turn from it?

Once we have done that, we are able to walk forward in the life God has planned for us.

Refusing to Listen to Truth

I've been studying the prophet Isaiah recently and I've been struck by some thing in Isaiah 30. The words in this chapter relate quite well to our lives as Christians today.

Isaiah 30 is titled "Woe to the Obstinate Nation" in my Bible. And it's a chapter detailing some hard lessons Israel would learn for their turning away from God.

As I've read and studied this chapter, I've realized there are some important lessons we can learn through it.

 Isaiah 30:10-11 says,

"They say to the seers,
          'See no more visions!'
and to the prophets,
          'Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things
          prophesy illusions.
Leave this way,
          get off this path,
and stop confronting us
          with the Holy One of Israel'."

                                   
How often do we say these things?

How often do we refuse to really hear the truth because it's not what we want to hear?

I think we do this more often that we would admit. If not with our words, than with our actions. If it's hard or unpleasant, we want nothing to do with it. We push it away - often at great personal cost, because it's what we really do need to hear.

It is the truth that comes from God that is the only thing that can set us free. Sometimes the truth will be hard to hear or it won't be what we wish it was. But, even then, maybe especially then, we need to listen to the truth being spoken and work through it to see how it needs to change us.

We don't want to get to the point Israel had in this chapter of Isaiah. They were trying to silence those who spoke the truth because they didn't like the message. We don't want to become so opposed to the truth that we try to silence those who are speaking the truth.

Is there some truth God has been trying to tell you that you don't want to hear?

Are you willing to listen - even if it's hard?

When you hear a hard truth, take the time to ask God about it. Ask Him to help you understand it. Talk to another mature believer about it. Don't assume just because it's hard, it must be from God.

But, let's not be people who run from the truth when it is hard.

Where is Your Refuge?

"You boast: We have entered into a covenant with death,
          with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement.
When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
          it cannot touch us,
for we have made a lie our refuge
          and falsehood our hiding place."
                                              -Isaiah 28:15

A covenant with death?
An agreement with the realm of the dead?
A lie our refuge?
Falsehood our hiding place?

Those words seem ridiculous to read. It doesn't seem like something most people do and then boast about.

Except, I think we do exactly this all the time. We build what we think is a safe place for ourselves on a lie we're believing about God, or ourselves, or our world.

We don't always know that's what we're doing at the start. But that doesn't change how ridiculous what we've done is.

The good news is, we don't have to stay in this place. We can get free from our covenant with death, our refuge in a lie, and our hiding place in falsehood.

"So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
          a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
          will never be stricken with panic.
I will make justice the measuring line
          and righteousness the plumb line;
hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,
          and water will overflow your hiding place.
Your covenant with death will be annulled;
          your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand."
                                                                    -Isaiah 28:16-18

Building our lives on lies and falsehood will always bring destruction for us. They won't stand.

But, God has provided us a place we can build a refuge and hiding place that will stand no matter what. We can build our lives on the foundation that is Him and then it won't matter what comes our way. We will never be "stricken with panic," because we'll know we can continue to stand on our sure foundation.

A life built on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, will stand in the middle of storms. When our lives are built on Christ, we experience a peace that comes from Him - a peace that we can't explain any other way.