Corona Devo 1518

My brother-in-law used to tell the story of being put in a clothes dryer when he was a kid and someone turning it on when he was in there.

What's the worst thing that we have had to endure? 

What's the most horrible fear that we can think of occurring?

Bankruptcy?

Dementia?

Loss of abilities or faculties?

Terminal illness?

Losing a loved one's life?  

Losing our life?

~~~

Scripture gave me a new "worst-fear" today: the idea (and reality) of God turning away from us and giving us over to our sins (Isaiah 64:7).

Can we truly think of anything more disturbing?  

Because, if you ask me, 

We can handle anything (and some of us have)...,

We can handle the worst things (and some of us have)...

            AS LONG AS God is with us.  

But what if He is not?  I cannot think of a worse thing to endure.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God speaks to the people and He is blatant with them in acknowledging their sin against Him.  The people don't care about God, and they have made that very clear in their lives and to God the Father, and so God turns away and gives them over to their sins.

I cannot think of a worse thing to endure.

Read these verses and rend thy hearts.  They are ancient words describing the pride and waywardness of the people in Isaiah's day...and today.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God speaks today TO US!  He is blatant with us in acknowledging our individual/National/world sin against Him.  Many people don't care about God today, and they have made that very clear in their lives and to God the Father...and so God will turn away and give them over to their sins.

I cannot think of a worse thing to endure.

~~~

Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!  How the mountains would quake in your presence!  For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!  (5) You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways.  

But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly.  We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved?  (6) We are all infected and impure with sin.  When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.  Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. 

(7) Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.  Therefore, you have turned away from us and given us over to our sins.  

(8) And yet, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, and you are the potter.  We all are formed by your hand.  (9)Don’t be so angry with us, Lord.  Please don’t remember our sins forever.  Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people...  ~Isaiah 64:4-8-10  

The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.  I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.  I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’  to a nation that did not call on my name. 

(2) All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people.  But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.  (3) All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols...

(5) Yet they say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me!  I am holier than you!’  

These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.  

(8) “But I will not destroy them all,” says the Lord.  “For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones (and someone will say, ‘Don’t throw them all away—some of those grapes are good!’), so I will not destroy all Israel.  For I still have true servants there.  

(9) I will preserve a remnant of the people of Israel and of Judah to possess my land.  Those I choose will inherit it, and my servants will live there... ~Isaiah 65:1-3, 5, 8-9

~~~

Can we think of a worse thing to endure than life (and death) with God turned away from us and giving us over to our sins?

I can't.  

Everything else (and this goes for us today, no matter what we are facing)...is able to be endured because God is with us and He has not turned away from us or given us over to our sins.

If we are wayward from our Lord today, see His strong arms opened to us all day long...and come home to Him.  

I can't think of a worse thing to endure than not doing so.  

God very much wants us to do so.  And He knows there are a few of us that will.   

Life is too hard to endure without Him, and death is impossible to endure without Him.  But He works for those who wait for Him, and He welcomes those who gladly do good and follow godly ways.

Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!  How the mountains would quake in your presence!  For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!  (5) You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways.  ~Isaiah 64:4-5

Don't endure another moment or thought without Him,  Let Him come down from the heavens and into our hearts today.  

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com