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Isaiah 55:8-9

“For My counsels are not as your counsels, neither are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “But as heaven is distant from earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My mind.”

Personal Challenge

Oh, how often we try to do something with good intentions to please our Lord, just to find out that we have failed miserably. Why is that? The intentions were good. When I have taken the time to dig into these events to find out what went wrong, the answer is usually that I tried to do these things my way, on my own power. This passage reminds us that God’s ways are much more different than mine. Does this mean that I just stop trying? Heaven forbid! It means that I need to stay focused on God, exercising my faith in Him, and seeking His way of doing His work. This means letting go of my preferences and yielding to Him. Glory be to God!

Galatians 1:10

For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

PERSONAL CHALLENGE

We are bondservants of Christ. Even though He has set us free from the grip of sin and death, we have chosen to become His servants, bound to Him eternally. If we have truly done this, then we will stop trying to please our fellow human beings and focus our energies on pleasing God. This will cause us to be rejected by those who choose not to follow God, but that is better than being rejected by God. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

2 Corinthians 9:7-8

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Personal Challenge

God desires the best for us. He desires that we receive His love and mercy in the abundance that He is willing to give it to us. He also desires that we be willing to give from that abundance to those in our lives who have a need. However, He wants us to give cheerfully and not grudgingly. If we desire what we have too much to give it away freely then He would rather that we not give at all. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Isaiah 55:1-2

“You who are thirsty, go to the water, and all who have no money, go and buy wine and fat, and eat and drink without money and price. Why do you value at the price of money, and give your toil for what does not satisfy? Listen to Me and eat good things, and your soul will delight in good things.”

Encouraging Words

When the Messiah comes and sets up His kingdom there will be no need for money, for our Lord will meet our every need. He will feed us what is good for us and satisfies completely. In Orthodoxy we believe that Jesus established His kingdom when He became incarnate. We also believe that every time that we partake of the eucharist, that we are partaking of the flesh and blood of our Lord, and that our every need will be met by Him. Glory be to God!

A prayer from the Didache, a first-century writing of the church.

And after you have been filled, give thanks as follows:We thank you, Holy Father, for your holy Namewhich you have made to dwell in our heartsand for the knowledge and faith and immortalitywhich you have made known to us through Jesus your Servant.Glory to you forever!You, Almighty Master, created everything for Your Name’s sake;You have given food and drink to men for their pleasure,so that they might give you thanks.and to us you have graciously given spiritual food and drinkand life eternal through Jesus your Servant.Most of all, we thank you because you are mighty.Glory to you forever!

2 Corinthians 9:6

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Personal Challenge

God has blessed us with so much. He has given us our health, our wealth, our time, and our abilities. Everything that we have comes from Him. His desire for us is that we use these blessings to build His kingdom. Whether we sow these seeds of our time, of our money, or of ourselves, the more that we sow, the more blessings that our God will bestow upon us so that we can sow even more. This is not some kind of prosperity gospel, it is the gospel of giving away what we have so that we can have more to give away. Glory be to God!

Isaiah 45:25

All the seed of the children of Israel shall be made righteous by the Lord, and glorified in God.

Encouraging Words

The children of Israel were those who had descended from Israel, the bloodline of the Jewish nation. The seed of these children were the apostles and the church that sprang up from Jesus Christ. We are the seed of the children of Israel and we have been made righteous through our Lord Jesus Christ and given the task of glorifying our God. Glory be to Him!

2 Corinthians 8:9

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Encouraging Words

We often speak of grace as a gift given to someone who does not deserve it. This is indeed a true aspect of grace, especially God’s grace given to us while we were yet sinners. This verse speaks of another aspect of grace. Through the process of giving a gift, the giver is passing on to the recipient something that is theirs and of importance to them. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that is bestowed upon us comes at a price to Him, the giver. He was rich. He was in the presence of His Father in heaven. He relinquished His position on His throne so that He could become one of us, His creation by His own hands. He became poor so that we might become rich through His grace, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and a recipient of your blessed grace!

Isaiah 43:18

“Do not remember the former things, nor reason about the things of old.”

Encouraging Words

In this part of Isaiah the people of Israel are being told of the coming Messiah and how He will restore them to the glory that He had in store for them. As part of this encouragement, He is telling them that they will be able to walk away from their years of captivity and exile and look forward to their future with the King, the Messiah. He tells them to forget their hard times and to remember them no more. This is a message that could also apply to us today. Our Messiah has come, He has set us free from our exile on this sinful world. We can look to Him, and our future with Him, and not remember former, sinful lives, for He has forgiven us and made us new. Glory be to God!