Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Isaiah 1:16&17
Jim actually had verse 18 as today’s verse, but he referenced the whole passage, verses 10-20, which I loved poring over. This is SO GOOD. Go read Jim’s devotion.
So, God is speaking to the people of Sodom and Gamorrah here, but He could very well be speaking to us today as well. The people referenced here were seemingly doing all the right things – giving offerings, praying, having celebrations and feasts – God says they are vain offerings, a burden to Him. These people were living in sin and only doing these things to keep up appearances. Jim called it “playing church” and we’ve got to be careful not to fall into the same thing. We have to constantly check our motivation.
Verses 16 & 17 really spoke to me, though. For one, God doesn’t just tell them that they are doomed; in fact, He offers them a way out; he offers them salvation. Our town, our nation, our world is a scary place to be a lot of the time. Sometimes, it can feel like everybody has gone completely mad. Our little town has been overtaken by drugs. Over the last week or so there have been FOUR mass shootings in the United States. FOUR. It’s hard for me to fathom how someone can be so hopeless that they feel that kind of thing is the answer. God tells us that it’s not hopeless, and I’m so very thankful that it’s true and that I believe it.
I don’t think anything around here is going to change, however, if we don’t listen to what God says to do about it. If we’re only focused on ourselves, we’re doing it wrong. If we play at worship just to make ourselves look better, we’re doing it wrong. If we’re so focused on rules and traditions that we don’t see or do anything about the need around us, we’re doing it wrong. We need to learn to do good.
coffeemamabogie 