Isaiah 1-Stop Sacrificing
This morning I began reading the book of Isaiah. The book was not the best beginning, Judah is getting hounded because they have turned from the Lord and are being very disobedient. The part that really stuck out to me was, in a time where sacrifices and burnt offerings were still required (because Christ had not yet come), God tells them,
"What are all your sacrifices to Me?...I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I I ahve no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats...Stop bringing useless offerings...I am tired of putting up with them." (1:11,13a, 14b).
He's is tired of their "going through the motions" but they are unrepentant; their hearts are just not in it. Here they are, God's chosen people and yet, their hearts are not in it? That seems so crazy! Or is it?
In Romans 8:29 we see that those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ are "predestined to be conformed to the image of [God's] Son."
The first thing that comes to my mind when I read that is how many of us actually grab hold of the fact that we are "predestined to become like Christ"!? That is our predestination people? This amazing. No where in His word does he say, you are predestined to do this job, or marry this person, or go to this location. No, we were predestined to be like Christ! That is the main thing. There is no denying. Going all the way back to Genesis. God create man and woman in their likeness (Gen 1:27). I do think that God loves and has a plan for us; He does care about what we want to do for a career, who we should marry, and where we should live and serve Him, but those are not the main thing.
I think that if we (Christians) would really grab ahold of our reality of being predestined to be like Him and focused on this fact, everyday, we would have a real different view of why things are being allowed in our life. Then all the verses concerning suffering, trials, tibulations would make a lot more sense. Sure we create some of the heartache in our own lives, but He also allows many of those things because we are predestined to be like Him and He knows the very best way to make that happen.
The next thing that we have to grasp is HOW we become more like Him. Much of the "sanctification" (a fancy word for becoming more like Christ) is His doing, but we also have responsibility in that process. It requires us to know Him. We cannot be like Him if we are not in constant communication with Him. I think that many of us get frustrated because we "want" to be more like Him, but we can't figure out why nothing is happening. We want the changes, but don't want to do anything about it. Most of us would laugh at someone who told us that all we need to do to lose weight is to "want" it bad enough. We know that is rediculous; you can't lose weight by wanting to lose weight, you have to go do something about it. Yet, we often can find ourselves living our spiritual life this way.
We MUST spend quality AND quantity time with HIM. We have all seen it happen, we tend to take on some of the traits and habbits of those with whom we spend most of our time, bad and good I might add? Well the same takes place the more we "hang out" with our God, the more we are "in the vine", the more "fruit" (Christ-like characteristics) we will have like His.
John 15:4-5 says, "Remain in Me [God], and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me."
Therefore, my prayer for me...
Lord I pray that you will help me seriously grasp the understanding and fact that you have predestined me to be like YOU! You want this for me more than anything else. I pray that you will help me live my life in light of this fact, knowing that when I truly grasp this, I will want to spend time with you, I will want to be in constant communication with you, I will want to live my life to glorify you, and I will have a much clearer understanding of the suffering, pain, hurt, and joy that are a part of my life. Thank you for loving me enough that you sent your son to be the payment for my sin. Thank yo for not giving up on me, but rather, having a plan for my life. I love you. Amen.
