ESOCS Devotional 4 December 2023 – Seeking the Lord
MEMORY VERSE: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:” Isaiah 55: 6 KJV
TEXT: ISAIAH 55:6-13 (KJV)
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
So our passage starts by instructing us to seek the Lord while He might be found. It is fair to say that there isn’t a person in this world that this command doesn’t relate to. There is no one that can say ‘I don’t think that I really need to seek the Lord’. This is a command from God that applies equally to the Christian and non-Christians alike.
You may never have been born again – this verse is telling you that you need to seek the Lord for your eternal life depends on it. You may have become a Christian but have worries & doubts and lack the assurance of salvation – you need to seek the Lord. You may be faced with problems, be they health, financial, or relationship issues, maybe you don’t know the way forward – you need to seek the Lord. You may be considering what direction to take in this life – you need to seek the Lord! Or maybe, just maybe, you aren’t asking for anything from the Lord but have a growing inward desire to know the Lord is a deeper way, seek the Lord.
So many in Western Society, as you well know, are only caught up in the here and now. Our whole financial mess has been driven by the greed of western society that must have things NOW! Who cares if we can’t afford it! I need it now! The excessive debt? Oh well, we’ll tackle that later – everyone is doing it! The same goes when it comes to spiritual matters. Who cares what happens down the road – I just want pleasure and enjoyment today. So, they give little thought to why they are here and what is the come. Sure… they may think they should look into God one day but not yet. Maybe once the ‘good years’ are passed and the thought of death becomes a little more real. In the mean time they much prefer to be lovers of pleasure than lovers of God as the Bible predicted.
But our text says – Seek the Lord ‘while He may be found’ – and nobody knows when that door will shut. People may think they’ll look into Jesus later, but nobody can guarantee that there is a ‘later’. Why should we seek the Lord? Because He is God Almighty, The creator of the universe. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. They are so much higher and so much deeper than our thoughts. Yet He asks us to come. He desires and asks us to seek Him that we would partake of that which is good and live.
Those who seek him shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace (vs. 12) and God is ready to make an everlasting covenant and the sure mercies of David with them (vs. 3). God wants you to forsake your wicked ways and thoughts and he will abundantly pardon your sins because he is full of mercy (vs. 7).
- Seek the Lord with all your mind, with all your strength and with all your soul. Come the way you are and he will abundantly pardon and make you his.
- Lord, I come to you just as I am with all my sins, forgive me and make me whole. Help me to seek you with everything inside of me, in Jesus name.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 28:14-22; John 1:29–37; Philippians 4:4–9
ESOCS Devotional 4 December 2023
