The Lord Be With You Today!
Isaiah 63:17
Why, Lord, do You make us wander from Your ways
and harden our hearts so we do not revere You?
(As he voices his lament, Isaiah is plaintively asking the Lord in complete wonder
why He has given us the freedom of choice and free will
when He knows how often we turn away from Him,
when He knows how willfully disobedient we often are.
Isaiah knows that, given even the slightest chance,
we wander from God's ways, we harden our hearts toward Him,
and we do not revere Him.
Isaiah knows that at some point, our of His great love for us,
the Lord will allow us to experience the consequences of our choices,
will allow us to harden our hearts toward Him,
will allow us to be separated from Him,
not because of His will for us, but because of our own choices.)
Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes that are Your inheritance.
(Yet, Isaiah knows the heart of God, that when Isaiah on behalf of his people,
cries out to the Lord in repentance for forgiveness
that the Lord will grant mercy and pardon.
We, too, are being given this example from Isaiah
that even though we willfully stray away from the Lord and His ways,
we have been given the high privilege by our Creator God
to call on Him and to open ourselves to His Presence
which is what He has always desired for us.
We, too, like the Israelites, are God's chosen inheritance.
Although the Lord could have chosen anyone or anything
on which to lavish Himself and His love, He has chosen us today.
No matter where our choices have led us,
no matter where we find ourselves today,
He chooses to return His love and His Presence to us still this very day.)
May the Lord richly bless you this day!
In Christ's love,
Blessings!
Sally
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