God's Quiet Work

"I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work." God's decree. For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don't go back until they've watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They'll do the work I sent them to do, they'll complete the assignment I gave them. So you'll go out in joy , you'll be led into a whole and complete life"....Isaiah 55:8-11 from The Message

Yesterday I visited with a young dad who was laid off for a second time. His heart was heavy. He hangs on to hope but like all of us, struggles to remain in God's peace. Straining to understand, questioning the next steps, wondering the hows and whys of it all, we prayed. It was all we could do.

There are days of forward movement in the faith journey. There are days of simply finding strength to stand. There are days when we fall face down to cling to the bedrock of our foundation. And yes there are days of the backward two step.

My heart aches for people. Much of what I sense, is a longing in my soul to tell everyone to hang on.... Help is on the way. God is at work even when it seems He is silent. We can be assured that God is anything but silent. The challenges and heart aches we face do not rock His world. He knows them. He understands them. He faithfully works through them even when we feel He is deafeningly silent.

I believe God isn't silent but instead we are deaf. He speaks everyday through His Word if we will pick it up. He speaks through life, if we will look for Him. He speaks through children, if we will stop to embrace their wonder. He speaks through the poor, if we linger to get to know them. He speaks through the rich if we leave behind our insecurity. He speaks through movies, when we stop judging. He speaks through music, friends, quiet, nature, spouses, the news.

God invites us.

"Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway-buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money-everything's free! Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well; Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David; sure, solid, enduring love." ....Isaiah 55:1-5 from The Message

Papa longs to give us His very best and finest blessing. It is blessing beyond absolutely anything this world will ever offer. The next promotion doesn't hold a thread of enticement compared to His joy and peace. The bigger house looks like a shack when in the light of His love which fills us to overflowing. The junk food worldly toys cannot begin to fill the ravenous hunger that lies deep within each of us. That hunger can only be filled with the Bread of Life and the Living Water of Jesus Christ. We will never thirst again when we drink from His fountain.

From the same passage in Isaiah, verse 6 says,

"Seek God while He's here to be found, pray to him while He's close at hand."

Pray for a soul hunger that will grab your preoccupied attention and draw you to Him. Pray for a hunger that will not leave you but will cause you to seek Him in your entire day. Ask, seek, knock.

He's as close as your soul.