“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. 7. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God for he still abundantly pardons.”
Isaiah 55 is a heartfelt cry of God through Isaiah to the wandering People of Judah. I want to share the invitation that Isaiah gave to them. He called upon them to “seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” The distance between the people and God was on their part not on God’s part. If we feel that God is not with us, or that He is not near us, we need to check our own lives. We are assured throughout the Bible that God is always ready to hear our prayer. God longs to be an integral part of our lives. Jesus certainly emphasized this in His ministry. He sent the Holy Spirit into our lives to guide us in our daily lives. We need to seek His guidance. Isaiah shared with them what they needed to do to seek the Lord. It is a timely lesson for us. It is a call to repent. First, he calls for people to forsake their wicked ways. This meant to stop worshiping other gods and to stop living any way that they wanted. We still need to heed the call to repent. Second, he calls for people to forsake their unrighteous thoughts. Isaiah realized, as should we, that our actions are guided by our thoughts. That is why we need to watch our thought lives. There is much to call our thoughts to unrighteousness. Actually, it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to have unrighteous thoughts today. There is often little left to the imagination. Third, he calls for them to return to the Lord. When wandering thoughts and actions call us away from sweet fellowship with God, we need to return to Him in a spirit of repentance. Isaiah shared with them what would happen when they returned to good fellowship with God. First, they would receive the mercy of God. No matter how far we have wandered, God will have mercy on us when we repent and return. He will give mercy, not because we deserve it, but because He loves us and will forgive us. Second, they would receive a pardon from God. We are guilty when we wander, but God will give us a pardon and set us free to live for Him. You can find God’s mercy and pardon now. Just repent and sincerely seek God’s forgiveness. What a great invitation this is. Accept God’s invitation to His mercy and pardon. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Kinda Brooks
7/1/2016 01:36:33 pm
Thank you SO much for ALL these messages.. I look forward to them everyday. Praying you are continuing to improve physically, and with the empty place in your heart. May GOD Bless you mightily !
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|