“’In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it…’ Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you… Blessed are all who wait for him!” Isa. 30:15-18
Heavenly Father, what a shocking contrast. You long to be gracious to your people. Yet we often prefer submitting to fear, unbelief, and the illusion of control. This was true in Isaiah’s day. It’s just as true in ours.
The call to “repentance and rest,” and “quietness and trust,” meets us every day in the Gospel. Thank you for your unrelenting, pursuing, generous heart. Even when you let us taste the consequences of our heart drift and foolish choices, it is a kindness-kiss.
We aren’t facing the enemies Israel confronted in Isaiah’s day. The Assyrian and Babylonian armies aren’t on the horizon of our neighborhoods. But “the roaring lion is prowling” (1 Peter 5:8), “fear-mongering” is swelling, and empty-promises are abounding.
However, our own “unguarded heart” presents the biggest challenge in life (Proverbs 4:23). Father, we know this to be true, yet we too easily dismiss it. If we’re not “setting set our minds, hearts, and affection on things above” (Colossians 3:1-4), they will be captured by things below, narratives around us, and the restlessness inside us.
Unrushed fellowship with you, feeding on the riches of grace, and heart-connection with fellow believers must be a priority, and current. If not, the outcome is predictable, lamentable, and entirely avoidable. Father, thank you for warning, wooing, and winning our hearts, time and again. So Very Amen.