Don’t Close your Eyes

Do you remember when I talked about being so low because of my own choices,

and I had this thought: ‘if I am ever going to be happy I know it will have to be

with God’? Well today I am reading in Isaiah, and I can completely relate to what

the prophet is talking about, so maybe you will too. I should also mention this:

reading through the Bible can seem like a daunting ‘task’. But God gave me a

couple of thoughts as I was starting to read. He helped me to pray this prayer:

‘Lord, open my eyes! Help me to read your word through the lens of your love. I

already know that you love people, so help me to read it from that approach.

Also, help me not to get offended by anything I read in your word that I do not

understand. Help me to read with humility, remembering that you are the Potter,

and I am the clay.’

Something like that. Almost every day, I would have this

thought in the back of my mind. And when you really desire to know God, He will

open your eyes to understand more and more of His word. It is an adventure and

I almost missed it completely!!

Today I am reading in Isaiah 28 and this is what I read:

‘For it is do and do, do and rule on rule, rule on rule, a little here, a little there. Very well then, with

foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people to whom he said,

“This is the resting place, let the weary rest.’ And ‘This is the place of repose’-

but they would not listen. So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:

Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there, so

that they will go and fall backwards, be injured and snared and captured.’’

(Isaiah 28:10-13)

. When I first read that, I realized: that was me. When I was

walking away from God because of the circumstances in my marriage and my

husband’s addiction struggle, coupled with my ignorance of God and the power

that was available to me, I made some bad choices. I believed that God was

against me, and so I acted on that. It seemed to me that the things God was

asking me to do were too much. And if I just did a little bit for God, honor Him a

little, and then ignore Him the rest of the week, that it would be ok. And that is

exactly how the Israelites were: they felt that what God was asking was just too

much. That He was against them. Many of them never got to a place where they

trusted Him! And that was almost true of me. I did not trust God, so I went my

own way until I was so low that I decided to check out what God had to say. It did

not happen instantly, but one day I was in my kitchen, and I started to see the

world and my life with new eyes! God’s eyes. I started to have a desire to read

my Bible. I would wake up in the morning and my first thought was: ‘where’s my

Bible?’ I keep it with me now… I practically never leave the house without it. I

know everyone has the Bible app on their phones, I do too, but there is nothing

like a hard copy for finding the verse you need for the moment and making notes!

Did you see what God said: He tried to tell them, that He was for them! That they

could trust Him! He would be their hiding place, but they would not listen. Their eyes were closed to truth.

I hope that maybe your life is making you as miserable as mine was making me!

I know that may sound harsh, but it may be the thing that finally causes you to turn to Him.

That is a gift from God, encouraging you to seek Him! There will come a time

when it will be too late, but if you are reading this, it is not too late yet!

The enemy of your soul is complacency: a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction

with oneself or one’s achievements. Pride. Just thinking that you can manage fine

by yourself. That is a lie, and if you could be honest with yourself you know that

you are not happy either. See, when you live for the pleasures that this world has

to offer, you stuff away the nagging thought that someday you are going to die,

and then what? Nothing, you hope. But hoping that does not make it true. This is

what Isaiah also says about the person who rejects God, the person who is not

completely in love with Him:

‘You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with

death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming

scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and

falsehood our hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:15).

It is complacency or pride that lulls a

person into believing a lie. It is like the lobster who does not notice that the cold

water is getting hotter until it is too late. This is a dangerous spot, one that I

found myself in, because giving Satan a little room in your life is not enough for

him. His goal is your destruction! We would do well to remember that. But even

so, God is for you. Still. You just need to humble yourself, admit that your pride

and self-sufficiency are wrong, and they are not working. God will listen to

anyone who repents. But do not wait too long…there will come a time if we

refuse Him over and over when He will stop trying to reach us. Proverbs 29:1

says:

‘He who is often rebuked and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed

and that without remedy.’

But this is the gift that is offered to us today: ‘So this is what the sovereign Lord

says:

‘Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakeable.’(Isaiah 28:16).

Jesus is the cornerstone we can trust in: He is the One who died for the forgiveness of my

sins. The motivation to turn to Jesus was not my fear of death and judgment

though, it was His kindness. Fear is not a good motivator, but love is! When I

started seeking God like I never had before, He showed me the good things He

has already done for me. And along with that a conviction of my sin… not a

condemnation, just an awareness that leads to repentance. And the more I get to

know Him, the less I want to hurt Him. He is filling me with contentment

with the things He has given me, and joy in being in His presence.