“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”-Isaiah 55:6-11 CSB
When I read this passage of scripture there are a couple things that stand out to me. One being, when we pray the word of God, it will not return empty and will achieve it’s purpose. With that being said, we should not only be mediating on the Word of God, we should be speaking it aloud in our prayer life as well. When I started doing this, my whole life changed. I saw how truly ALIVE & WELL the Word of God really is. The bible is a book of promises that he wants you to ask him for through prayer with an expecting heart.
The other part that really stood out to me was the “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are higher than your ways”, when just above in verse 6-7 the passage talks about the sinner and his thoughts. What I gather from this is that when we don’t renew our minds each day and do not meditate on the word to not only memorize but put into practice, our thoughts won’t be godly. Our thought pattern will gradually shift to our old ways before we asked Jesus to be the Lord of our life. It actually talks about this in Colossians
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.“-Colossians 3:1-10
How do we get to know our creator and become like him? Spending time with him! We are told to line up our thoughts and live with the way Jesus lived. Jesus was God in flesh who didn’t sin even though he was tempted just like us. Holy Spirit is inside of you, waiting to show you the next step in your walk. How to obey his word and to be obedient and see miracles and heavenly things before your eyes. Yes, the word of God talks a lot about “putting to death” our old ways. When being obedient to God’s word I have never regretted putting into practice what it says. Was it easy all the time? Of course not! Even so, when I started implementing the scripture I meditated and memorized, the load became a lot lighter.
If you are stressed about reading your bible? Can I just shout from the roof top that is the devil himself trying to stop you from having freedom…THAT GUY…*rolls eyes* If you are having a problem finding a place to start, pray and ask Holy Spirit to guide you. I often flip open to a page and it is exactly what I needed at that moment. If you don’t understand Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and understanding of what you are reading. Even if you think you understand what you are reading, ask Holy Spirit for a deeper, more heavenly perspective. That is how this article came about! If you get distracted when you begin to read your word and pray…there’s that devil again…you are not alone. When I first got Kylie I was struggling to dedicate as much time to God as I normally did before. This girl used to go pee every 20 minutes!! My husband and I began to pray that she would be convicted to not pee on the floor. It probably sounds silly, but it worked for a while and her bladder became stronger as she got older! Pray about the distractions! If you are easily distracted like me, a tool that helped me was putting on Christian music in the background so no matter if I traveled to the background, focus on God was there. If you are worried…let me just drop this little truth piece below:
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”-Philippians 4:6-8
There is nothing God wants more than to spend time with you and for you to have the supernatural peace, freedom, and pure love he has to offer. When we start to take those thoughts captive and line them up with biblical truth, our thoughts patterns change. When our thoughts change, our hearts change. When our hearts change to be more godly and holy, our whole entire life changes. You have the tools and the truth to fight off whatever the enemy decides to throw at you. We are in a spiritual war we need to be equipped for. Being Christ-like is the goal. The only way to get there is to get to know who he is.
