Reading this morning, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:8-9 KJV] Now that inspires me to get closer to the Lord, and learn His ways and His thoughts. But I thought how sad it is that many people use that verse to explain how God could do something really terrible. It’s kinda like they’re saying that God’s ways are dark, cruel, insidious, …really lower than their own ways.But, whenever a verse starts with “for”, “so”, “therefore”, etc., you gotta back up a little, because it’s linked to something previous. So, starting at vs. 7, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord…”. I see a word of reproof here, an admonition that our ways SHOULD be His ways, and our thoughts SHOULD be His thoughts. I hear disappointment in God’s voice in vs. 8. Not that we should be equal to God, but that whatever we think should match what He thinks. If your ways are different than His, …not like God (ungodly), not pure and right (unrighteous), then you need to forsake them, and take on the mind of Christ. If you don’t understand His ways, then you’re the one that needs to learn and change.
And since His ways are so much higher than ours, why wouldn’t we WANT to chose His ways and His thoughts over our own!
That doesn’t mean that our ways and thoughts will match God’s in height, depth, breadth, and scope. He is God, our creator. We are His workmanship. Everything about Him will always be higher than us, as the heaven is higher than the earth.
But He desires that all our thoughts and ways should be like His in pattern and fit, in His nature, in agreement with Him. That everything we do and think is just what He would do and think. I want to love what He loves, and hate what He hates. I want to feel what He feels toward everything and everybody. I want to be excited about what He is excited about, and be grieved by what He is grieved about. I don’t want to laugh at something He thinks is evil. I don’t want to be holding back, when He wants to move.
He’s disappointed, and so am I, if I settle for anything less.
But He desires that all our thoughts and ways should be like His in pattern and fit, in His nature, in agreement with Him. That everything we do and think is just what He would do and think. I want to love what He loves, and hate what He hates. I want to feel what He feels toward everything and everybody. I want to be excited about what He is excited about, and be grieved by what He is grieved about. I don’t want to laugh at something He thinks is evil. I don’t want to be holding back, when He wants to move.
He’s disappointed, and so am I, if I settle for anything less.
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