Daily D – Isaiah 55:8-9

by | Sep 22, 2020 | Daily D | 0 comments

“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 55:8-9 (NLT)

_____________________________________________________________________________

“Welcome to the New Normal.” 

I cringe every time I hear this phrase. Can you imagine having to wear a mask for the rest of your life? Wouldn’t it be nice to see people smile again? Does it make you uncomfortable to see television footage of people a few months ago packed tightly in venues of all sorts without physical distance among them?

Last week, one person made the news by saying China has fifty more pandemic-causing viruses ready to unleash upon the world. Thriller novels routinely follow plots along these lines. Welcome to the New Normal!

When we fail to learn the lessons of history, we fail to see how things do not have to be this way always and forever. Epidemics, pandemics, political turmoil, and rivalry among people groups have always been part of the human story. For those who listen and obey, our Father in heaven has always made a way through and out of times like these into better ones. 

You have heard people of a certain age remember aloud, “When I was a child, we didn’t have to lock our doors.” This sounds fantastical, I know. It is, however, quite true. It can be that way again. However, it will not get that way again with the same kind of thinking we are using now. 

There is always the temptation to give up on God and to forge our own path. That was the situation of Israel in exile. They had been there so long, so far removed from the Promised Land, they felt like they would never return home. Our Father in heaven, however, had a different plan. What he spoke through Jeremiah years before (Jeremiah 29), he would bring about sooner than they thought possible. 

God called his people to shift their thinking. They were to break out of the Doom Loop inside their heads and think his thoughts after him. They were to stop looking around at their circumstances and to start looking down from his perspective. They were to align their thoughts and attune their hearts to his. 

There was a better New Normal coming. 

Our Father in heaven never makes promises he cannot or will not keep. He kept his promise to restore his people. 

God’s thoughts for us are better by far than any political party or any splinter faction or any countercultural extremist group. Everything in political advertising and everything reported on the news is intended to cause fear and despair. Everything from God’s heart is intended to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). 

Space and time limitations prevent further exploration of this idea right now. However, an immediate and life-changing step each of us can take is to ask our Father in heaven to fill our minds with his thoughts. Invite him into every consideration today. Seek his perspective in all things. 

Remember and live out Isaiah 30:21: “Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, ‘This is the way you should go,’ whether to the right or to the left.” 

The best way to align and attune your thoughts and your feelings with God is to spend time with him day by day reading, pondering, and praying his words of truth and life in the Bible. Those words are much sweeter and purer than anything on television news, radio talk shows, or social media.

_____________________________________________________________________________

I will think God’s thoughts after him.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Our Father, fill my mind with your thoughts. Give me your perspective on how things are and how they can be by your grace and in your mercy. Give us a new normal of your making, a new normal better than anything we can imagine or hope for. We are ready for a positive, life-affirming change that is good for all people everywhere. Amen. 

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

CONNECT WITH ME!

Interested in learning more about Church Unique or Life Younique? Send a note through the Get In Touch box or Message me through the Facebook link above.

          Church Unique Logo          Auxano Logo

GET IN TOUCH!

READ MY BLOG!

Daily D – Leviticus 20:25-26

Leviticus 20:25, 26 “You must therefore make a distinction between ceremonially clean and unclean animals, and between clean and unclean birds. You must not defile yourselves by eating any unclean animal or bird or creature that scurries along the ground. I have identified them as being unclean for you. You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own.”

Daily D – Leviticus 18:1-5

Leviticus 18:1-5 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. I am the LORD your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the LORD your God. If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the LORD.”

Daily D – John 15:4

John 15:4 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”

Daily D – Leviticus 8:22-24

Leviticus 8:22-24 Then Moses presented the other ram, which was the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the ram’s head, and Moses slaughtered it. Then Moses took some of its blood and applied it to the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. Next Moses presented Aaron’s sons and applied some of the blood to the lobes of their right ears, the thumbs of their right hands, and the big toes of their right feet. He then splattered the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar.

Daily D – Psalm 40:1-3

Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the Lord.