One of my absolute favorite passages in the Bible is one that I recently discovered we haven't spent a whole lot of time talking about: Isaiah 40. So with summer officially here I thought that it would be a good opportunity to dedicate the next 6 weeks to exploring this fascinating chapter. Today we begin with Isaiah 40:1-5:
""Comfort, comfort my people," says your God. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over for all her sins." Listen! It's the voice of someone shouting, "Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!""
If I'm honest I could probably write a bunch of posts on just these 5 verses because there are so many interesting tidbits of wisdom packed in and it's just such a captivating way to start a chapter. So today I want to focus on what the overarching focus of these verses is: make way for God. What does this mean? It means exactly what it sounds like: clear space in your life for God to exist. It's that simple and that complicated. It's complicated because for most of us that means as much work as the passage makes it sound. Because while we do make room in our lives for God, whether that be a devotional or Bible reading each day (or each week), going to church weekly (or at least listening to one online), participating in a Bible study, or always having worship music on in your car, if we're really making way for God we'll probably be giving Him more than 10 minutes a day.
But this should not be a stressor to us, in fact, we should be encouraged that not only does God want to be part of our lives in such a big way, but He wants us to be part of the impact He makes on our world. Another big relief is found in the second verse where God shares that He has pardoned the sins of His people. While being forgiven of sins is an ongoing thing as long as we're in this lifetime, this passage really speaks to the fact that God doesn't believe in punishing people forever, and that once we've been forgiven we need to bring our focus back to helping clear a way for God to shine more in the lives of people in this world. And how do we do that? We do it with as much creativity as this passage suggests. We do it by building homes, teaching Sunday School, doing camps for kids, being there for people, praying with people, choosing love and patience over anger and gossip, supporting Bible translation organizations and missionaries, sharing blog posts and sermons with friends, retweeting Bible verses and spiritual wisdom on Twitter, holding bake sales and yard sales at churches, and hundreds of other big and little things that can not only introduce people to God but share what it means to truly be a person who has made room for God in their life.
Why? Because the ultimate goal is, as it says in verse 5, for God's glory to be revealed and everyone to see it together. We don't do a whole lot together these days, the pandemic being one of the most recent things that has brought us together as a world. Is seeing God's glory together worth the effort? I know it will be amazing even if only some of us get to see it, but how much more awesome will it be when many more people see it because we've helped to make even more pathways for God in this world? Feeling overwhelmed or not sure where to start? Start with making room in your life for God: to listen to Him and let Him lead you and show to you how He wants you to help make a way in this world.
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