“A voice says, ‘Cry out.’
“I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8 NIV).
Here we see God’s active involvement for our own good. Provoking us to see our true state, he blows like a hot summer wind on parched drought-dried grasses. This is us. We think we have the strength of immortal gods. We don’t see ourselves rightly. Our bodies are mortal. Our emotions are ragged. We fall apart. We scatter on the wind. God wants us to know our true condition. His poetic bluntness demonstrates his love for us.
This statement about our frail humanity comes after God instructed Isaiah to comfort his people, to speak tenderly to us, to cry out to the true Israel, to inform us that our warfare is ended and our iniquity is pardoned. It’s a message to all believers of all times to prepare the way for the Lord, to remove the impediments that bar us from embracing him.
Our hubris gets in the way. We don’t see our weakness clearly. Then God blows on us. He allows the suffering that will humble us, prompting us to see our need for him, so we can return to him. He loves us that much.
Being humbled, recognizing our desperate human condition, prepares our hearts for the Lord.
While we fade away, the word of God remains. Jesus Christ, the Logos, is the Word of God incarnate.
The compassion and glory of the Lord were revealed through his coming as Messiah, the forgiver and redeemer of our sins. This is love. At this Lenten season, we focus our attention on the model of his loving life, his redemption, his gruesome death, and his glorious rising. Though it should be our focus on all days, the yearly celebration of his resurrection aims our thoughts toward him.
This is why I write. I cry out! We are dust; we fade away. But God has done something about it. Bless his name!
Starting today I will be tweeting (Melinda V Inman@ShowKnowGrow) and posting from the Writing for the Soul conference. This week Christian writers gather to work on our craft of proclaiming his glory and to sharpen one another with encouragement, advice, and edification. We also present our writing to agents and editors, hoping to take our message of Christ’s love into wider markets.
This is why we write. We use the gifts he has given to proclaim his glory, his compassion, and his great mercy.
As we aim toward Easter, let’s pause to consider our human condition and to evaluate our lives in light of what he’s done for us. Let our love for him prompt us to use our gifts as our act of worship and praise. Let’s make it a daily practice.
How did he cause you to see your need for him? How are you using your gifts to praise him for it?
Top and bottom images: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
He caused me to see my need for Him when my kids did not become the people I had worked hard to form – I wanted them to know Christ and live a vibrant life for Him. One is growing in this finally and the other is in their process with knowing whether God is who He says He is and whether they are willing to submit to that. I am am not God and I can not change people’s heart or minds. I can only present truth and love them through their doubts and pains and sufferings and joys, encouraging them to look to Him. This is how I use my gifts to praise Him – I listen to the heart and try to apply Christ to the wounds and holes, doubts and fears, of people’s hearts and minds as I talk with them one-on-one or in intimate settings. There is just something in their stories that draws me to show them what He has shown me in my valleys and what He wants to do in their’s too. That He is good and true and faithful and we are precious to Him because of and through His Son. I just love to share His heart with them and say, “Look how beautiful He is and all He has done to show you His love – run to Him….please run to Him.”
Thank you for sharing that, Kripsie Anne! Motherhood is a crucible. As we struggle to meet the high standards we’ve set for ourselves, we discover that perfection cannot be maintained for our children’s lifetimes. We fail. We repent. We ask forgiveness. We also learn that the spiritual goals we set are entirely in God’s hands, not ours. We let go. We hand them to God. We stay out of the Holy Spirit’s way. Such a learning process! He blew on me, too, letting me see that I am weak and need his abundance of grace for mothering.