Isaiah 55 part 1

I'm reflecting on Isaiah 55 tonight as it's come up for me several times in the last few weeks.

I always thought verse 1 was talking to those who did not know the Lord. But I've been pondering that everyone is thirsty, no matter their spiritual state, that we might drink from the living water that Jesus talks about in John 4, and long for it as the deer pants for water. Jesus says in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." My goal is to always be hungry and thirsty for righteousness that I might always be eating and drinking of the Lord (in a figurative sense) to be filled!

How often I spend money on what is not bread and I labor on what does not satisfy! If I vow to live a life of righteousness, how I seek to live by that vow, even as God cuts to my heart in Ecclesiastes 5:4. I'm so glad for the second part of Isaiah 55:2, where it says, "then my soul will delight in the richest of fare." I've heard of people who have turned their back on God because they just feel guilty all the time and want to talk away from God so they can feel good. How I pity those people, because they think God looks at them constantly wagging his finger. I think these people confuse the wagging finger of "religious people" with the wagging finger of God. God absolutely seeks holiness ("Be perfect...as your heavenly Father is perfect" -Matthew 5:48, as well as dozens of other places) from those who would confess to know him. But mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). He will pour out his blessing in greater measure toward those who are holy and pure, but he will show mercy to all who call on his name (see Acts 16:31 but also 1 Corinthians 3:12-15). God loves to bless those who bless him, and I want to bless God, and if I do so with a heart of purity, my soul will delight in the richest of fare!

Holy smokes, that's quite a preachy first blog post. And I'm only through the first 2 verses of Isaiah 55. I'm new to this blogging thing so we'll see where it goes from here...

Peace!