ISAIAH 55:7 - "For Such A Time As This"

"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." There is nothing, absolutely nothing that we can do to earn God's love, forgiveness or His favor. I need to establish that right off the bat; for it is a fact: It is Truth! Please try and remember that, and that it is what I believe; because as we go forward, you might get the impression that I am saying that we are justified by our works; but in reality it is really quite the opposite: It is works that are brought on by the fact that we are already justified. In 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul declares a little simple Truth: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." He says this little, (BIG), truth within a section of the Holy Scriptures, where he is speaking about giving of your resources to God; but this simple little/big truth can apply to anything which is done for God, including just cleaning toilets. In verse 7, he makes the following statement: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." I think it is rather interesting that immediately after he completes sharing on this subject, he moves into spiritual warfare, and one of my favorite verses for taking control of our thoughts: "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ: And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." (2 Cor 10:5 & 6) You see, when Paul says, "His Grace is sufficient for me", he can make that claim because of the fact of the simple Truth in 9:8: God having provided to us the ultimate measure of His Grace, in that we are already glorified in Him, makes us become sufficient in all things; and because we are in need of nothing else to complete our position in Him, we can then work in the power of God's Grace. Okay, so you might be scratching your head; but it really just comes down to the fact that God is doing the work; we are just vessels that He uses to work through; and because He is working through us, we are made to be filled the more with His Grace; and as a result of this experience, we are very cheerful, (joy abounds). Still scratching? When Paul is speaking about every man give as he purposeth in his heart, he is trying to make a point; that when we feel lead to give, or do something for God, we must never feel that we have to do anything; or that we are now obligated, so now we must do it. The bottom line of what Paul is saying here is that we serve and give to God because in doing so God is able to demonstrate His Grace in us; that we will be able to experience fulfillment in God by doing His will; and because of that simple little fact, we do so with an expectant heart, because we know just how big our God is; Bigger than we can imagine! There are so many things that are based on what is in our hearts, on the thoughts which are manifested within our minds, and the things which we will allow ourselves to dwell upon; the Truth is, that what is inside us, is who we really are, so we must be very mindful of that which is inside us, and be really truthful with ourselves before God. Now, what does all this have to do with Isaiah 55:7? Well, as we shall see, and as I have said before, there is not only the act of committing a sin, but there is also the sin of commitment; in other words: It is a sin unto us not to do for God, especially those of us who feel called by God to do something, and then not to do it. Whether or not you believe that God will punish us for not doing something, He will allow us to be punished; in other words, we will punish ourselves, we will loose out on a rich blessing, we will be less useful in serving God; the list really could go on and on; but the one thing that really, really matters the most, is that not doing that little thing that God has called you to do, actually quenches God's Spirit in our life; and then once we quench the Spirit of God in one area, we are more likely to do the same in others; which can lead to some really Big Sin...Father, please help me to not hold back anything that you put upon my heart to share. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, and cause our Ears to be opened, and the Eyes of our hearts to be able to not only see your Truth, but to receive it. In the Name of Jesus; Amen.