Seek God

Seek the Lord while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.
Let the wicked change their ways
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)

We’re always guilty of something. Every inclination of human beings is evil all the time and was God’s primary motivation for destroying the human race in the flood. The Psalmist agrees that all human beings have become corrupt and there is no one who does good, not even one. If you’re human, you fall into but one category: sinner.

The comfort for we sinful humans is that God’s thoughts, his ways are nothing like ours. We love those who love us. It is easy for us to be nice to those nice to us. But how many people are nice to those who repay evil for good, who cause them pain, who harm them? How easy is it for us to forgive? But God’s ways and his thoughts are not ours. While we were still sinners, still his enemies and still actively working against him, at that very moment, at our very worst, that’s when Jesus died for us, demonstrating just how much he loves us, and just how different God’s thoughts are from ours. Altruism is rare. Generally we love only those who love us back. We get something out of our relationships or we wouldn’t maintain them. That’s how we think. It isn’t how God thinks. He loves regardless of the reaction; he isn’t in it for what he can get out of it. Instead, he is concerned only with what is best for us: what we can get out of it. We are guilty, but Jesus took our guilt and applied it to himself. So we don’t have to feel guilty any more. Instead, we can feel relieved and grateful. God wants to make our thoughts like his.

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About R.P. Nettelhorst

I'm married with three daughters. I live in southern California and I'm the interim pastor at Quartz Hill Community Church. I have written several books. I spent a couple of summers while I was in college working on a kibbutz in Israel. In 2004, I was a volunteer with the Ansari X-Prize at the winning launches of SpaceShipOne. Member of Society of Biblical Literature, American Academy of Religion, and The Authors Guild
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