“See, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God.” ~Isaiah 59:1-2b (NRSV).
This is not telling us anything we do not already know. Already we have an understanding of what’s required to please God—faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This, at its most basic, is abiding to the truth in and of life.
And still, there are the naysayers who want us to feel abjectly castigated for the garrulously graceless approach of Isaiah in this section of the Book of Comfort. They latch onto the flimsiest of parcels to discourage.
Instead, a Message of Encouragement
This section is instead read with encouragement.
Its message is no different than the forerunners; the Mosaic, the historical landscape, the deuteronomic theology of retribution woven through the entire Old Testament. There is blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience.
But, we are the ones in control of our own destinies! That should be of enormous encouragement to us.
God’s Promises – Ours for the Obtaining
Faith is taking God at his Word, and the Bible is littered with choruses of God’s wonderful, wild and wincing promises.
The truth is we’re already obtaining the payment for these promises. It’s been like this all our lives if we reflect. We should be able to read the Bible and understand this. The Bible is, therefore, giving us important cues and clues on how to engage with life. Blessing and cursing are both choices, ultimately.
There is little wonder that this “Word of Truth” is considered so powerful.
A Message for Our Prayer Life
If our prayers aren’t uttered most certainly by our actions then we cannot be praying very well.
Think about it. We are caricatures of our thoughts and our feelings. Whatever we think on, dwelling over, we’ll become. This is our prayer life, despite what even our words sound like as we ‘pray’ to God.
Let us live today, just today, our prayer life. Our God will hear!
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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