April 25, 2024

Devotional for April 25, 2024

Scripture: Isaiah 55:8-9

“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.”

What it means

Another sneak-peak at what we’ll be discussing on Sunday morning – primarily, learning how to cope when life throws something at us that doesn’t make sense.  If you live this life long enough, you will have something occur in your life that is unpleasant, and completely out of left field…you just weren’t expecting it to happen.  Much of the time, our first thought is “God, exactly where were you when this tragedy occurred in my life? And…what were you thinking when you stood by and did nothing to prevent it from happening?” That sounds a little harsh, but not far from the truth…it absolutely doesn’t make sense to us, and we are disappointed at best and greatly angered at most.  It’s human nature to want to make everything make sense in our minds – we’re wired that way, but unfortunately, there is much that happens that we’re simply not going to get.

What it means to me

I guess the great takeaway in all of this is that…there’s nothing wrong with trying to figure it all out, but at the end of the day, we’re really not expected to get it all, so don’t knock yourself out trying to do so.  You see, God operates at a much higher level than you or I will ever attain to, so “my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”  It’s not cocky on the part of God, that’s just the reality of it.  So when something tragic occurs in your life that you can’t put your finger on what it accomplished – just do your best to accept its occurrence and ask God to carry you through to the other side.  I’m not trying to be flippant about this – that’s just our best, and possibly only, response sometimes in the moment.  Is it easy to do so? Absolutely not – but God is faithful, and loves us more than we will ever comprehend, and will do whatever it takes to keep us afloat amidst the storm.  So allow yourself to grieve, and even question God…and then simply let it go into His hands and live your life.  He will meet us where we are, and guide us every step of the way.

Love you guys, see you Sunday!

In Christ,

Brian