It’s Not What You Think

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

Have you ever tried to understand the Lord?  Wondered why He lets certain things happen? Wondered why He doesn’t give you everything you want? Ever tried to comprehend the vastness of the stars and that we are but one planet in a galaxy among billions of galaxies (at least the ones we know of)? God is not bound by space or time. Neither is He limited to our finite minds. How might this change your view of Him and His ways?

It’s too easy to confine the Lord’s abilities and his infinite ways to our finite minds. We project our earthly father’s love, or lack thereof, onto our Heavenly Father. We limit what we believe God can do to what we can see with our eyes or what we have experienced in life.

The fact is that God is wholly other than we are. That should cause both fear and awe on one hand and give you great comfort in another.

For us, as believers in Christ, sons and daughters of the living God, we should be experiencing things that we can’t explain. The God of the universe lives in you, and so life shouldn’t be normal anymore. You should be experiencing a peace “that surpasses all understanding.” You should be “filled with and inexpressible and glorious joy.”

The problem is that we are too stuck on what we know and what we have experienced. Most of us really don’t expect much of God. Instead, we try to fit God into our mold, making His ways and purposes conform to ours. I suppose this is why Jesus always told us to die to ourselves. We need to work towards conforming to His ways and purposes, letting Him mold us into the person He created us to be. But in order to do that we’ve got to get out of the way and out of our heads.

Spend some time confessing to the Lord how you have confined Him in your mind. Remember Jesus’ words, “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up His cross and follow me.” Ask Him to open you up to His ways. Now go forth and expect the One who is wholly other to do things in you and around you that are just that.