So how high is that?

Ever tried to tell the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY the ONE who knows all things, how to fix one of your problems?  I know I have.

Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that as high as the heavens are above the earth, so much higher are GOD’s thoughts and ways than our thoughts and ways ().

So how high is that?

Since the distance is so vast it is much too difficult to measure the distances to stars in miles, scientists use a different measure, called a light year.  Light travels at 186,000 miles a second. That means light could speed around our planet 7 ½ times each second.  Scientists use the speed that light travels in a year (a light year) to measure how far stars are from us. 

Using that measure our sun is only about 8 light minutes away from us.  But how far away (high above us) is the farthest object in the universe we know about?  One of the farthest from us is a quasar named OQ172 and it is calculated to be some 17,000 million light years away!  Now that is high in the sky!  And there may be things much higher than that.

GOD begins Isaiah 55 with an offer to come to HIM and a promise to satisfy our hunger and thirst.  HE then calls people to turn away from their own ways and their own thoughts and instead look to HIM for direction.  Why do you think HE does that?

I think GOD is saying our ways and thoughts are not going to satisfy our hunger and thirst. 

Have you ever craved a piece of candy, but eating it only made you want more?  It is a proven fact that sugar, bad carbs and salt, although they are not very nutritious, tickle the appetite so we want more and more of them. 

2 Kings 17:15  “chasing after emptiness they emptied themselves out…”

Now our own ways can be just like sweets… a chasing after emptiness

I once asked a friend, who drank to excess, if she needed more and more to satisfy her.  She responded that the hole got bigger and bigger, she always needed just a little bit more. Looking for fulfillment in the wrong places/ by chasing after emptiness she had emptied herself out.

We are tagged/labeled by our actions.  Proverbs 23:7 “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  Therefore, if GOD says we are wicked then our actions/ ways are wicked.  If we are not right (righteous), that means doing it right 100% every time, then our thoughts are not right.  It is simply a given. 

1.      In comparison with GOD’s, our own ways are wicked (the Hebrew here can mean ungodly).  Ungodliness is an attitude that leaves GOD out of the equation. Whereas the godly person places GOD as the center focal point of his life.

Psalm 10:4 “The wicked, through the pride..  will not seek after GOD: GOD is not in all his thoughts.” He wants to do things his own way.  That independent spirit, demonstrated by Eve in the garden, began 1st with the devil and is the world’s operandi and it’s especially true of our culture here in the USA.  How much do you or I do without considering GOD’s (our MASTER) wishes?

2.      In comparison with GOD’s, our own thoughts are not right (unrighteous)

Romans 8:26 tells us that we don’t even know how we should pray or what to ask GOD for.

3.      Therefore, GOD tells us to forsake both our own ways and our own thoughts and turn to HIM for GOD’s ways and thoughts are above ours, as high above as the heavens are above the earth (and we caught a mere glimpse of the exceedingly, incomprehensible distance above us when we spoke of light years)

GOD knows all things.  Past, present and future.  HIS’s thoughts prompt HIS words.  HE sends out HIS word and it works and achieves everything HE wants done (Isaiah 55:11).

GOD calls us to turn from our own ways and thoughts because they will not satisfy us.  In fact the opposite will happen, they will empty us out.

Neither will our own ways and our own thoughts or even our own words achieve what GOD wants done. 

So come to GOD, be still and know that HE is GOD, Listen to the thoughts that come into your mind as you speak to  HIM, read HIS word and pray. It is there seeking HIS Presence that you will be fed and filled to overflowing with joy and peace.. 

Then when HE prompts you with HIS word (either that knowing nudging from within or the compelling that comes when a verse jumps off the page as you read /Philippians 2:13, Proverbs 3:5-7). Take that word HE gives you and give it out for it will do whatever it is that GOD wants done.  I guarantee it. 

For GOD said so. “HE is not a man that HE should lie, nor the son of man that HE will change HIS mind. “ Numbers 23:19

Hugs

Sharon