No Longer Dry

I'm not quite sure how I want to use this blog...for now, I think it will just serve as a place to put my thoughts on my current Bible study.

I'm just coming off of a long spiritual dry period in my life. I want it to end. I want God's light to burn inside me again so brightly that others can see it again. I want my good works to be a response of gratitude instead of a resume or a job application applying for God's blessing on my life. I want to long for Him again in a way I haven't felt in a long time. I want to know Him and be unafraid to be known by Him.

I've been praying to "want to" for a long time. Today I want to again. Thank you, God.

It started two days again when I had to drive an hour and a half to a team meeting for work, and I listened to Christian radio all the way there and back. I heard Danny Gokey tell where he found his inspiration for the song "Rise." It was from Isaiah 60:1, and it sounded like a good verse for me to research and apply in my own life.

So today I read it. It seemed to stand alone, unrelated to anything around it, so I read ahead through the rest of the chapter. Still, I couldn't find context and application.

So I read the passage before it in Isaiah 59. The verse still felt isolated and unconnected.

Then I read chapter 58, and there it was:  a whole text of tangled ideas that left me more confused than enlightened, but that clearly applied to my initial text. My husband was in the same room reading his own devotional for the day, so I asked him to help me decipher the text, and he had good insights. Here are the questions and answers we discussed from this text:

Q:  In verses 1-2 I see that the people of Israel were seeking God daily, delighting to know His ways, asking for His righteous judgments, and delighting to draw near to Him. Why was he displeased with them? I couldn't figure it out.

A:  My husband's insight was good:  Verse 3 shines a light on the heart attitude of the people, which was more important to God than all the righteous activities and fasting. The people asked "Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?"  Telling words, aren't they? We DID this, we ACCOMPLISHED that... why aren't you impressed, God?

Q:  So what DID God want?

A:  He wanted righteous activity born from a pure heart, with no selfish motivation behind it. The activity was not the important part -- it was the heart attitude behind it. Verses 6-14 are full of these cause and effect kind of phrases:  "Is not ______ what I desire?"  "THEN shall ______ happen."  "IF you _______"  "THEN shall ______ happen."

God wants a pure heart, not a bunch of actions that spring from ulterior motives. He delights in the sweetness of the kindness we show to others, not because we want to be accepted by Him, but because we are so thankful we already ARE loved by Him, and we can't help but share.

This passage has a lot in it, and I'm planning to park here for a while to keep unpacking it, a little at a time.

God, apply these principless to my life. Let my activity come from my love for you, not my striving to be holy. Let my works be sweet, easy, natural, and irrepressible because I am so thankful to You for what you've done for me already.