Does My Inner Match My Outer?

Astonish yourselves and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not with wine;
stagger, but not with strong drink! Isaiah 29:9

The verse for today may just describe 2020 all too well. Rather than grieve you with all of the ways it works by reviewing the events we have endured and that continue to test our steadfast faith, we'll just leave it at that. I'm quite sure there will be a news item or two in the media that reminds all of us of the testing of this past year in any case. 

In the years before Christ came to Earth, we had a time foretold in Isaiah when people would act strangely and without the usual explanations for this general insanity. Drunkenness has an easy explanation when the empty wine bottle is close at hand, but the Lord told of a time when the staggering drunks would be doing their thing with no apparent reason. As we read further into the story though, we find that the people of the Lord gave Him lip service but their hearts were far away from Him. In our various ways, we have likely attempted to live this way at some point in life only to find that it cannot be done. For most of us, the method we choose is likely that righteous front. We present that front to the world as the way our life is lived in the innermost thoughts of the heart and we know that it is not true. 

Aha! A new year resolution opportunity! Post the Law of Moses on the refrigerator and think only on that all the year long. Probably it will work about as well and as long as most new year's diets. Confess those evil inner thoughts to the Lord - He knows them already - and wait on His cleansing Spirit. We will find life in His righteousness. 

Great is the Spirit of our Lord God!

Bucky