HIS ways are higher

Do you pray like JESUS? “Not MY will but YOURS be done.”

Stop for a moment and consider, when you pray do you ever tell the LORD, who created heaven and earth, what to do and then get upset or frustrated if HE doesn’t do it your way?  I must admit that I have.

“My thoughts are completely different from yours, says the LORD. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT).

I have no real concept of how high the heavens are above us. But to get an inkling of how unfathomable higher GOD’s thoughts are than ours, I did some research. Here are a few facts. Draw 2 circles, one large and one small with their centers just 9 inches apart. If each inch represented 10 million miles (10,000,000) that picture would show the distance between our earth and our sun. When I took a moment and drew it, I got a better idea.

Now if you want to draw another circle to show how far the nearest star would be the star would be 40 miles from the sun you drew on your paper.  So, you really can’t do that. The nearest star is Alpha Centauri and is 24 thousand million miles away (24,000,000,000,000). 

That distance is hard to imagine so suppose you started out the moment you were born and ran a mile every 4 minutes without stopping. You would be 700 years old when you reached our sun and 182 million years old before you reached the nearest star. And that is just the beginning… it is the closest star in our universe of millions of stars and beyond are galaxies  upon galaxies upon galaxies all filled with stars and quasars and whatever else is out there.

Those numbers blow me away. I have no concept of the distance. But consider what the GOD who flung them all into space says. “for just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

The Psalmist said, “Who is man that YOU are mindful of him?” Yet, we know from HIS word that GOD is very mindful of us. Before man was ever formed, the eternal Triune GODHEAD devised a plan and preset the small details of times and places for each one ever to be born (Acts 17:26).  In forming us HE determined our DNA (Psalm 139). And knowing our choices before we made them, HE knew that we would need a Savior and that was planned too. 

JESUS, who flung those stars into space and made everything that was made, would not grasp HIS equality in the GODHEAD but took on the form of a servant/ the body of a man and become obedient to the plan and carry the all sin of the world, past present and future on HIMSELF on the cross (Philippians 2:5-8) so we could be forgiven and reconciled if only we would believe. JESUS’s body was then risen from the dead guaranteeing our resurrection from the dead.

Yes, GOD’s thoughts are completely different than our thoughts, HIS ways are far beyond anything we could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are HIS ways higher than our ways and HIS thoughts higher than our thoughts. No wonder we need the Holy SPIRIT to interpret what GOD says to us (1 Corinthians 2:10-12). Yet, in arrogance we try to tell HIM what to do and get mad if HE doesn’t do it our way on our time schedule. I would say LOL but it isn’t a laughing matter.

Instead of holding on to the way I thought GOD should act and try to push and shove for HIM to do it my way I’m learning to ask the Eternal I AM to show me more of what HE is doing.  Instead of disputing according to my limited understanding, I ask the SPIRIT of truth (John 16:13) with whom I am sealed until the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30) to open my understanding to the next thing GOD wants me to see (1 Corinthians 2:10-12) and place in me what HE wants me to do (Philippians 2:13).

If both JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT while dealing with men on earth only speak the words that THEY are given (John 14:10, 16:13-14, Romans 8:26-27) how much more should we acknowledge GOD in all things and let HIM direct our words and actions? (Proverbs 3:5-7).

Hugs

Sharon

How come?

Why can’t I understand the things GOD does or allows?

MY thoughts are completely different from yours, says the LORD.  And MY ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts higher than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8,9 NLT

We really have no real concept of how high the heavens are above us. But to give us an inkling of how unfathomable higher GOD’s thoughts are than ours, here are a few facts. Suppose you drew 2 circles, one large and one small with their centers just 9 inches apart.  If each inch represented 10 million miles (10,000,000) that picture would show the distance between our earth and our sun.

Now if you want to draw another circle to show how far the nearest star would be the star would be 40 miles from the sun you drew on your paper.  The nearest star is Alpha Centauri & is 24 thousand million miles away. (24,000,000,000,000)

That distance is hard to imagine so suppose you started out the moment you were born and ran a mile every 4 minutes without stopping.  You would be 700 years old when you reached our sun and 182 million years old before you reached the nearest star.  And that is just the beginning… it is the closest star in our universe of millions of stars and beyond are universes upon universes upon universes all filled with stars and quasars and whatever else is out there.

Those numbers blow us away.  We have no concept of the distance.  Now consider what the GOD who flung them all into space says.  “for just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts higher than your thoughts.” 

The Psalmist said, “Who is man that YOU are mindful of him?”   Yet, we know from HIS word that GOD is very mindful of us.  Before man was ever formed, the eternal Triune GODHEAD devised a plan for each and every individual ever to be born; a plan taking in the small details of times and places Acts 17:26 and our DNA Psalm 139. 

By knowing our choices before we made them HE knew what would happen in the garden and that we would need a Savior.  So, before GOD made the world the plan of salvation for the substitutionary death of GOD the SON (JESUS) who by the way flung the stars into space and made everything that was made (John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1:1-3). JESUS, the eternal GOD the Son did not grasp HIS equality in the GODHEAD but take on the form of a servant/ the body of a man and become obedient to the plan and carry all the sin of the world, past present and future on HIMSELF on the cross.  HE rose from the dead guaranteeing believer’s resurrection from the dead (Philippians 2:5-11).

Yes, HIS thoughts are completely different from our thoughts.  And HIS ways are far beyond anything we could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are HIS ways higher than our ways and HIS thoughts higher than our thoughts.  No wonder we need the HOLY SPIRIT to interpret what GOD says to us (1 Corinthians 2:10).  Yet, we try to tell GOD what to do and how to do it, then get mad if HE doesn’t do it our way, on our time schedule.  I would say LOL but it isn’t a laughing matter.

If both JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT only speak the words that THEY are given from GOD the FATHER how much more so should we.  So, let’s stop and listen to that inward knowing and obey those nudges.

Hugs

Sharon

Higher

We who are GOD’s children through believing in JESUS CHRIST HIS Son (John 1:12) and believe HIS word the Bible will quote Isaiah 55:8-9 “For MY thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways MY ways, saith the LORD, For as the heavens are higher than the earth (its 10 million miles just to our sun and then beyond) so (vastly above yours) are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts than your thoughts.”

But do we really believe it?

It is true we do know a lot more than the ones who don’t believe in JESUS. For bless GOD’s holy name, that through the Holy SPIRIT line upon line we are being changed into JESUS likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18) and we can grow in our knowledge of GOD our FATHER and our LORD JESUS CHRIST (2 Peter 1:1-4) as the Holy SPIRIT opens up our understanding (1 Corinthians 2:10-12).  But we don’t really know all about GOD or even what it means to be HIS child and won’t until we see JESUS face to face (I John 3:1-2).

But to be honest with you, even though the Bible clearly states this we still think we know what GOD will do.  There are many things in GOD’s word that don’t make a bit of sense to the human way of thinking, but let’s not dismiss them for if the Bible says it, it must be so.  For GOD’s word is truth (John 17:17).

I came across two such disputable matters as I read this morning.  Instead of holding on to the way I thought GOD should act and try to push and shove what is said into what I think it should say, I’ve asked HIM to show me more of HIMSELF.

Instead of disputing with each other according to our limited understanding, let us ask the SPIRIT of truth (John 16:13) with whom we were sealed when we believed (Ephesians 1:13-14) to open our understanding to the next thing we are ready to learn (1 Corinthians 2:10-12).

Looking unto JESUS through whom GOD poured out HIS HOLY SPIRIT on believers. (John 14:16-17, 16:7, Acts 2:17).

Hugs

Sharon