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?
Showing posts with label walk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walk. Show all posts
Friday, December 13, 2019
Saturday, December 7, 2019
First Saturday of Advent - December 7, 2019
Isaiah 30:19-25
Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, “Away with you!”
He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
• Who among us does not know the experience of “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction”? Remember a time in your life when it seemed as if day after day, all you experienced was adversity and affliction. During that season of your life, what was your experience of God? Who or what was your “Teacher” during those days?
• When we come to a crossroads in life, silence and solitude are essential partners. It is difficult to make significant, life-altering decisions when we are in a hurry or surrounded by confusion. But regular periods of silence and solitude, if we are willing to listen and not take control of the situation, have the impact of giving us eyes to see and ears to listen.
• Have you ever had the experience of coming to a crossroads – a significant life-decision in which the way forward was not immediately clear – and hearing a voice: “This is the way . . . walk in it”? Take a few moments to reflect on that experience.
• The phrase, “This is the way, walk in it,” does not merely provide a direction to go; rather, it also provides a way or manner of going. We walk with openness. We walk with open hands. We walk alert to that which would teach us. We walk in humility. We walk in mercy. How do these ways of walking speak to any decisions or situations in which you now find yourself?
Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, “Away with you!”
He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
• Who among us does not know the experience of “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction”? Remember a time in your life when it seemed as if day after day, all you experienced was adversity and affliction. During that season of your life, what was your experience of God? Who or what was your “Teacher” during those days?
• When we come to a crossroads in life, silence and solitude are essential partners. It is difficult to make significant, life-altering decisions when we are in a hurry or surrounded by confusion. But regular periods of silence and solitude, if we are willing to listen and not take control of the situation, have the impact of giving us eyes to see and ears to listen.
• Have you ever had the experience of coming to a crossroads – a significant life-decision in which the way forward was not immediately clear – and hearing a voice: “This is the way . . . walk in it”? Take a few moments to reflect on that experience.
• The phrase, “This is the way, walk in it,” does not merely provide a direction to go; rather, it also provides a way or manner of going. We walk with openness. We walk with open hands. We walk alert to that which would teach us. We walk in humility. We walk in mercy. How do these ways of walking speak to any decisions or situations in which you now find yourself?
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