58:1 - This is a great verse for worship. A heart of confession should be in place in the midst of every worship service. Worship is crying out to God...refusing to hold back because of what people around you will think - you don't care about that...you cry out, pouring out your failure and sinfulness to God and He pours out His love and forgiveness in return. Is this a part of worship for you? It should be.
58:5ff - Isaiah calls out the people because they are fasting for all the wrong reasons. They were fasting as a means of getting God to give them what they wanted...that is not what fasting is all about. Isaiah explains to us the purpose of fasting. It is about humbling yourself before God and understanding your absolute reliance on Him. Fasting is about connecting with God and being driven to serve those who are around you in need. The core of fasting is about God and others, not about ourselves.
58:10-11 - When you make it your business to put others before yourself...when you look around the world with the eyes of God see the hunger, pain, brokenness around you and try to do something about it...you will find out what true fulfillment feels like. As you give more and more of yourself away, you are filled with more and more of God and you will blossom like a watered garden.
58:13-14 - The Sabbath is a day of rest, but it is actually a day of resting in God. A Sabbath day is not about having a day to do whatever you want to do to serve yourself, it is about connecting with God...it is about relying on God...understanding that you can take a day off from "to do" lists and work, and the whole world will not fall apart because God is in control and God desires to be with you. Isaiah tells us that if we take our Sabbath rest in God we will delight in Him and we will ride on the heights of the earth. I think so few Christians experience that kind of delight and joy in a relationship with God because so few Christians actually take the time to rest in Him.
59:9-10 - So many times we say we want the light...we say we want to walk in God's path...to have a relationships with Him...to sit in His presence, but we refuse to get out of the darkness. We go to church and we say we want God...we say we want change, but we walk right back into the dark places of this world searching for answers and searching for our worth. We are stumbling around blind looking for answers is achievement, money, entertainment, pleasure and anything else we can find...when the answer has been right there with us to the whole time. Stop stumbling and step into the light...step into the forgiveness of God...step into His purpose for your life.
59:17 - Wow - that is vivid and powerful imagery right there...that verse gives me chills. Isaiah paints for us a picture of God as He faces off against the unrighteousness and evil of this world. I read those words and I definitely want to be on His side! How terrible and wonderful is the righteousness of God!? He is motivated by pure righteousness and He goes to war against evil with the purpose of bringing about salvation, but He is also zealous that justice will be measured out to those who have rejected the purpose for which they were created. Do I live my life as a reflection of God's nature described here? Do I work each day to bring justice and righteousness to the world and to fight against evil and oppression? I should.
60:1-2 - This is a cal to all Christians...a call to all God-fearers! Arise...arise and shine the glory of God into this world. Rise up! Shine! Walk through this world as the sons and daughters of the Most High God...live each day as a person who is doing their best to display the image of God we were created to carry. When we as Christian do this, the world will see God through our lives. This is a call to missional living...each and every day no matter where you are, you are called to the be the missionary people of God...to go into the world and make His name great through the lives you live.
60:9 - Why will the people of this world be drawn to the lives of Christians who are living out their faith on a daily basis? Why - because God has made us beautiful. We do not draw people to God because we are physically attractive or because we have magnetic personalities, but because of the grace and mercy of God that hangs around our lives like a cloak.
60:14 and 19 - I read these verses and see them as heavenly images. In God's time, all the proud and arrogant people of the world who used their time on this earth to mock and abuse those weaker than them will be brought low themselves. In the end they will understand where true strength lies and they will be humbled before their God. In eternity we will have no need of the light of the sun and moon because we will be basking in the perfect light of God...God will be our glory and we will shine!
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