Isaiah 48:17-19
Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you for your own good,
who leads you in the way you should go.
O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
and your success like the waves of the sea;
your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.
• When I think about things that are “for my own good,” I quickly get reduced to silence. The things I would choose have more to do with comfort and diversionary pleasures. While I live as if I know what things are for my own good, in my sober moments I realize that the most transformative things in my life have always been outside what I would have considered “for my own good.” Though I don’t always see immediately what is “for my own good,” I trust that somehow there is Wisdom beyond my own, always teaching me.
• How about you? Can you think of one or two instances when you were taught something “for your own good” that you would not have chosen for yourself? What have you learned through those experiences? How did those life-experiences shift your understanding of God’s work in your life?
• In the same way, Isaiah says, we don’t get to self-determine our path in life. The spiritual life is going to take you to a place you could not have imagined, by means of a road you would not have chosen. God not only teaches us what is for our own good . . . God also leads us in a way we should go.
• Reflect on your experience of God leading you where you should go. How has that happened in the past for you? How has your past experience of God leading you shaped the way you step into the days ahead?
No comments:
Post a Comment