Friday, October 10, 2014

Isaiah 59:1-2 -- On Removing the Barrier of Sin

"Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
Isaiah 59:1-2


We sometimes wonder why our prayers aren't getting through, and part of it could be this.  We need to be sensitive to what God is asking us to do.  It's kind of like sitting in the living room learning to tune dad out when he asks us to clean our room... and then wondering why he isn't responding when we ask where our LEGOs are.  If we get up and clean our rooms, we'll also get our desire.  Our LEGOs are in there.  :)  We actively block out the Lord about some things that we don't want to hear, and then we wonder why he isn't guiding us in our lives.  He totally has been.  But we need to start listening to his advice in general before we are going to be ready to get answers to specific questions in other areas.
Is this just?  Is this loving and merciful?  Shouldn't God listen to us and answer us all the time, whenever we need him?  As to just, absolutely.  Shouldn't we listen to God, even when we don't have an emergency that makes us desperate for his help?  Will we learn anything if we get divine help when doing evil just the same as when we do good?  As to loving and merciful, it is loving to teach us right from wrong.  It is loving to still try to get through even when we are rebelling against him.  Merciful to allow us time and space to repent, even when we stand guilty.  Kind of like going before a judge and saying, yes, I know that I broke those three laws, but I'm obeying most of them, and I'll work on this other one.  Can't I please go free anyway?  I'm not sure if we take our sin seriously enough.  Christ offers us a chance to repent and somehow we think, oh, well, it doesn't matter then.  But it does.  Sin, by its nature, restricts us from God's presence.  It makes us incompatible with a celestial, heavenly society.  And in the middle of it we ask God to help us with something else.  It's like coming home after you hit someone with your car and asking your dad to help you with your math homework.  It's mind-boggling.  There are other, bigger, things that need to be addressed, and math is certainly not one of them.
Today, let's clear up the communication problems between ourselves and God through repenting and changing.  Let's do as he asks, and allow him to show us the answers within the gospel, rather than expecting them to come to us outside of it.  Let's be clean, and get that essential connection back in our lives.

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