March 16, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant— My loving devotion promised to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the nations, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, has bestowed glory on you.” (Isaiah 55.3-5)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

From the beginning, all God has ever asked of us is to have faith that He is God. Having faith that He is God, then the life of believing in His Word is what follows which is filled with promise and provision. Reading Isaiah 55.1-2 speaks to that very provision of “buying” with without money food and drink. If one has no money, then how can one buy anything. Isn’t this the burden of capitalism? That burden speaks of having to labor for all we have and to designate value based on human standards which then must be administered. Even that very definition flies in the face of what God said, has said and continues to say. We need only to follow the very teaching of Jesus on this point and see where the true value comes from. I am speaking, of course of Matthew 6.33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all that is needed will be provided.” We can see the alignment of that instruction with that which was given through Solomon in Proverbs 3.5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean no on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” Straight where? David gave that information in his psalm of trust (Psalm 23) where we can read verse 6 “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.” Such trust (reliance), faith (believing without seeing) and obedience (faith in action) is intended to be our true vocation and our true legacy. Jesus said it this way to His disciples in John 14 [I wonder why we have to be reminded of it so much], “You know the way where I am going. In My Father’s House are many rooms, if it were not so then why would I tell You. I am going there now to prepare a place for you so that when I return it will be to take you to be with Me forever.” And how do we get to that place? It surely isn’t buying a ticket, saving money for an influential alliance and it isn’t playing our cards right. The price has already been paid by the legally demanded sacrifice. Yes, the Law demanded that there be a sacrifice, a price paid, for our salvation. It was expected because in the beginning God could do all things but make human beings accept His word “as Law” and that trusting in Him was all they ever needed. That one simple act of trust, faith and obedience to God’s Word would have set the Enemy at bay beyond the circle of light called “faith, hope and love.” He would prowl in the darkness. He would howl and growl in the desire to consume because he hungered for what God had and he had refused to accept. In all His efforts the Enemy would never be able to influence anyone else to join with him in the desire to destroy the Kingdom of God and overcome the loving authority of Almighty God. In all of creation, however, “that” choice had to be made. It was and is and will always be “the way” of love.

Can you imagine today that if the world stopped pursuing “the love of money” as supplying the identity and the provision of fulfilling that identity what this world would look like and be like? It would be Heaven. Why would there need to be buyers and sellers? Why would there need to be caste systems and divisions to support economic and sociological stratifications? Why would there need to be “them and us”? What if we simply trusted in God’s provision which is overflowing to meet the needs of everyone? What if our purpose in life was to be equal before God instead of attempting to be equal with God? No, we chose what was worse. What was worse? We chose to believe that not being God made us unworthy. We accepted worldliness to be our godliness and created systems that are ungodly to support our “flawed” identity which was then foisted upon God. We engaged ourselves in an economy of destitution and retribution. It is an economy where peace does not exist and unrest is glorified. It is an economy based on a lie that we can be masters of our own ships, lords of our own manors and gods of our own kingdoms. It is the economy of sin and the love of money is the root of it. And it is not money as we think of it today in our commercialized barter system. It is the money of a spiritual definition by worldly values not by kingdom understanding. I am sure that we cannot get to that place without the assistance of God. He has made it possible through Jesus Christ. Accepting Him as our Lord and Savior, aligning ourselves with Him before God, trusting in His word and example prepares us to receive what we cannot manufacture or gain on our own. He is coming to “give” it to us. How will we receive it because the defining moment of our lives. What are we doing to be able to receive it is how we should be defining and refining our lives today. The answer seems clear but dare we see it clearly is the pivotal question.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.