Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Pam Reed, Registrar and Student Support Tutor, for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Isaiah 55:1-9 (NRSV)
55 Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says 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.
Devotional
Come! Listen! Live!
When thinking of invitations to follow God, my mind tends to go to the New Testament. Yet here, in the writings of the prophet Isaiah, we find a tender invitation by God to a rebellious people – an invitation to renew their relationship with the God who loves them deeply.
The NRSV titles this passage: “An Invitation to Abundant Life” – a far more encompassing title than in the NIV (“Invitation to the Thirsty”). God’s invitation is for everyone – even those who do not know that they are thirsty or hungry. It’s for those who are poor in spirit, and for those who are willing to humble themselves before God.
All this invitation requires of is to COME (v.1) and to LISTEN (v.2-3), so that they (and we) might LIVE abundantly, in harmony with God (v.3). This abundant life is linked to listening to God but is not dependent on the faithfulness of the people. Rather, because God is faithful, the everlasting covenant will stand (v.3). Even when God’s people are unfaithful, God is faithful. That’s true today also – our God remains faithful to the covenant he has made with all of his people.
WHY is God faithful in the face of continued unfaithfulness? This is what verses 8 & 9 attempt to explain – that God’s ways and thoughts are not the same as ours and cannot fully be understood by us. The love of our God for us is not limited by our inability to love God and others fully. Yet there’s also the reminder that the invitation will not be available forever (v.6-7).
Prayer
O God of infinite love and care, thank you that your ways and your thoughts are higher than ours. Thank you for your amazing love, care and forgiveness. Help us not to take you, or your invitation, for granted. May we continually seek to come to you, to listen to your voice, and to live in your love. Amen.
Song
There’s a beautiful song based on these words from Isaiah 55, written by Frank Andersen. It starts:
Come to the Water!
You who are thirsty!
Though you have nothing,
I bid you come!
I learnt this song in a Catholic Church, and I think it should be better known in Protestant Churches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2RlnZGfiv0
Blessings,
Rev. Pam Reed
Registrar and Student Support Tutor