Life Verse: Isaiah 55:8-9 - Beyond Anything You Can Imagine

“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

As sinful, imperfect humans, we often try to take God's job away from him. We use our own methods of logic, applying what we can see now and what has happened in past experiences to determine how we think God should work. We direct our prayers simply to get one result - whatever it is that we want or need at the time. This isn't necessarily bad. God wants us to call on Him in the places of our deepest needs, interceding on behalf of those we love and pleading for aid in our own problems.

Sometimes, instead of submitting to God's will in prayer, however, we attempt to force God's hand in a situation. We try to manipulate Him or others so that we get our desired result, much in the same way that Sarah tried to give Abraham a child through her servant girl, Hagar, thus "helping" God in his promise to provide Abraham with a son. We often act on opportunities we see as good while forgetting that God knows what's best and that we need only to wait on Him.

God's way is not the easiest way. It requires patience and faith. The daily lifting of one's eyes to the heavens to see what type of deliverance God is going to provide for that day. Sometimes it's a miracle that blows our minds, but often it's just strength to take another step in the direction He is leading us. Following Him takes discipline, denying ourselves of what we want most in order to receive what he has for us, which is far better.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

It's courage to submit to His will even when we believe there is no way His plans for us could outweigh the beauty of our own dreams and our own aspirations for ourselves. We may have awesome dreams, but unless we are dreaming with the Father's heart and will in mind, we are settling for less than God intended. As the old saying goes, "God saves His best for those who leave the choice up to Him."

If we have the ability to dream good dreams, how much better dreams for us can God have? As I used to say in college all the time, God wants to knock our socks off. We just have to be patient and let Him do it.

This reminds me of a favorite poem (actually a hymn):

He leads us on by paths we did not know.
Upward He leads us, tho' our steps be slow;
Tho' oft we faint and falter on the way,
Tho' storms and darkness oft obscure the day,
Yet, when the clouds are gone,
We know He leads us on.

He leads us on thro' all the' un-quiet years;
Past all our dream-land hopes, and doubts, and fears
He guides our steps; thro' all the tangled maze
Of losses, sorrows, and o'er-clouded days
We know His will is done,
And still He leads us on.

And soon or late the rugged field of strife
Shall catch the sunlight that transfigures life;
The heart shall win the discipline of pain,
And know the struggle has not been in vain;
Its doubts and fears shall cease,
And Christ will bring it peace.

-Hiram O. Wiley